After a delicious thunderstorm in the summer of 1991, I stood among the flowers at the Royal Botanical Gardens and had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Leslie Laking talk about the beauty of iris.

Ten years had passed since Laking retired as Director of the RBG. He held that job from 1954 to 1981 — golden years for the giant botanical garden that frames Hamilton, Dundas, and Burlington with its lovely embrace of green.

Les Laking died on April 16, at the age of 95. Until the very end he remained devoted to the RBG, and was a thoughtful and stately presence at RBG events, including the annual plant sale, where he helped new gardeners find the perfect plants for their yards.

I met him when I was just starting a garden show on television, and he seemed thrilled to share his quiet, but deep love of plants.

We were in the beautiful Laking Garden — named after Les and his wife Barbara, also a trained horticulturist. We marveled at the rainbow colours of iris, the homespun sneezeweed, and the sweet charms of phlox. His answers were carefully considered, and delivered at the sort of languid pace reserved for play by play baseball announcers at a twilight doubleheader.

Laking was a modest man, but he directed the RBG through an impressive period of growth. The lilac dell at the Arboretum, the Rose Garden at Hendrie Park, the Headquarters Building on Plains road, the tea house at the Rock Garden, the herbarium, library, and geology exhibit at Rock Chapel were all completed during his years as director.

In a way he rode on a tailwind created by T.B. McQuesten and the Board of Parks Management in Hamilton. McQuesten, particularly, was driven to create a park system, and in the early ‘20’s began acquiring the land — Cootes Paradise and the Westdale ravine lands that would form the backbone of the RBG.

 In 1946, after training at the University of Guelph and working at the Royal Botanical Garden at Kew as an exchange student, Laking wrote to McQuesten, expressing his interest in becoming involved with the formation of the RBG. He was hired that year, and rose to director by 1954.

During his time, major collections were established at the RBG; the lilacs, iris, roses, clematis, magnolias, pines and peonies were well known and well documented.

In 2006, Laking completed a book called Love, Sweat and Soil, a history of Royal Botanical Gardens from 1930 to 1981. 

It really was a splendid time, when people with vision acquired the 2,700 acres that would become the RBG and Dr. Leslie Laking had the skill to shape the gardens we still enjoy today.

Photo of Rock Garden looking toward tea house at the Royal Botanical Gardens by Kathy Renwald