Paterson Memorial Garden

William Paterson moved from England to Kingston in 1913.  He originally worked as a farmhand for the Wartman family and eventually established a nursery business on the Wartman farm, on what is now Sunny Acres Road, near the nylon factory.  Mr. Paterson became known as one of the best sources of rare alpine plants in Ontario.  He shared his plants and his knowledge widely throughout the City of Kingston.  Mr. Paterson was made a life member of the Kingston Horticultural Society in 1965 and was a recipient of the Ontario Horticultural Award of Merit. He provided plants to the City of Kingston greenhouses and regularly supplied flowers for St. John’s Anglican Church in Portsmouth Village. After his death on October 14, 1983, the City began the creation of a garden in his memory at the site of the greenhouses in Rodden Park.  Many rare alpine plants were transplanted from his nursery to the Paterson Memorial Garden.

Over the years, many of the original alpine plants have disappeared, and other perennials have been added. In 2017, a crushed stone edging was added around the perimeter of the garden and in 2018, after extensive weeding, mulch was added to control the grass and weeds which threatened to overtake the garden. For 2019, the focus will be on identifying plants currently in the garden and on returning to the original intent of a rock garden with alpines and other perennials tolerant of the hot, dry conditions. The next step will be to create a site map to assist future gardeners in identifying and maintaining the garden as a memorial to one of Kingston’s most influential gardeners. There will be a one-time spring clean-up, and volunteers with plant-identification skills are also needed to help identify existing plants.