Our 2023 events are here…
for your gardening pleasure!
Our Arboretum Tree Tours are now under way for 2023
With more to come… so please stay tuned!
Boutique Special: 25% off our Puzzles!
Our beautiful 1000-piece puzzles, featuring cheery, colourful scenes from around our beloved Farm, are now on sale for $29.99. Choose from two delightful images – one from the Farm’s Ornamental Gardens (photographed by Richard Hinchcliff), and one created from a painting by artist Claudette Gratton. The Peonies puzzle has sold out and remaining inventory is limited, so place your order today!
Take a look at our puzzles – Buffet Garden and Le Jardin – to find your favourite! Available now in our online Boutique!
Upcoming FCEF Annual Events
2023 Used Book Sale: TBC
Follow us on Facebook for up-to-the-minute announcements.
New for Visitors to the Ornamental Gardens!
Self-guided walking tour of the Ornamental Gardens – English with descriptions and map.
Guide des Jardins Ornementaux – Français avec descriptions et plan.
Who we are
The Friends of the Central Experimental Farm are the volunteer gardeners who help protect, preserve, maintain, and enhance the Ornamental Gardens and the Dominion Arboretum.
Who we aren’t
For information about weddings, farm animals, the tropical greenhouse, photo sessions, plant identification, and more, please go to our FAQs page for helpful links to the answers you need.
Are you a member? We have new benefits: discounts at some local nurseries!
Support the Friends’ mission and receive membership benefits on Master Gardener Lectures.
Our Winter Greeting Cards are now available in our online Boutique! This set of 6 cards features images from the Farm in winter, at work and at play, photographed by Richard Hinchcliff (co-author of Building Canada’s Farm). Click here to place your order while supplies last.
Boutique
Visit our Boutique to share books, puzzles, and greeting cards with friends and family all year long. We ship across Canada, and to the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
Blooms is the Friends’ contribution to Canada’s 150th and tells the story of the Farm’s beautiful Ornamental Gardens. Take a peek inside! See how you can buy Blooms or our other publications for local pick-up or delivery within Canada.
The Friends gratefully acknowledge the very generous financial support of our Blooms book donors.
What’s Happening Now
See the Gardening Calendar for more garden events in the Ottawa area.
Read the Friends’ letters and responses to encroachment on the Farm. “It’s a research facility. It’s a public garden. It’s a heritage site. We’d like to see it stay that way.”
River Ward City Councillor Riley Brockington asks Ottawa Centre candidates of the 2019 election salient questions about the Central Experimental Farm, “Ottawa’s jewel in the crown.”
Collections
You may now visit the Arboretum and Ornamental Gardens Collections at the Farm.
Self-guided walking tour of the Ornamental Gardens – English with descriptions and map. Guide des Jardins Ornementaux – Français avec descriptions et plan.
The Friends are located at Building 72 in the Arboretum during these Office Hours.