Ontario Herbal Medicine Places of Interest:

Museum of Health Care at Kingston
32 George Street
Kingston, ON K7L 2V7
613-548-2419
http://medicine.istorm.ca/index.html

The Museum of Health Care at Kingston has various research papers and exhibits relating to herbal medicine, including the Parke-Davis collection of turn-of-20th century medicinal plant materials and a collection of antique patent medicines, some of which are plant-based.

The Niagara Apothecary has a vast assortment of herbal medications, drawers of century-old dried specimens (some in manufacturer's boxes), and native medicines. The apothecary also has a modest collection of reference books.

Royal Botanical Gardens displays a large collection of medicinal plants, grouped in beds focusing on particular body systems or ailments. Interpretive signage provides an overview of the plants in each bed, corresponding to plant labels, and during the summer months an interpreter is stationed in the garden on a regular basis. The RBG consists of 1100 hectares (2700 acres) of gardens, forest, wetlands, and Niagara Escarpment cliff located between the cities of Hamilton and Burlington.

Other Places To Go

Black Creek Pioneer Village has a 19th-century Doctor's House and associated gardens where various heritage medicinal plants are grown. The gift shop also sells a small booklet, Nature's Pharmacy, which describes a number of medicinal plants. The Village is a collection of houses and buildings typical of 19th-century Ontario.

The London Museum of Archaeology offers tours of its outdoor medicinal gardens, a permanent exhibit on medicinal plants used by the region’s historic Attawandaron/Neutral Nation, and an “edu-kit” for rent to teachers and groups.

Joseph Schneider Haus, the restored home of Joseph Schneider, an early Mennonite settler of Kitchener, contains a garden including medicinal plants used by Mennonites of the 1850s.

The Hutchison House Museum has an herb garden with some medicinal plants. It also offers a school educational program about herbal folk remedies. Peterborough residents built the house in 1836 for Dr. John Hutchison and his family.

Street address:
15 Highway 551, M’Chigeeng ON
705-377-4902
http://www.theocf.ca/

The Ojibwe Cultural Foundation has no exhibits on medicinal plants, but its centre’s hosts offer visitors general information about how plants native to Manitoulin Island were used by the island’s Ojibwe inhabitants for medicinal purposes.

The Oshawa Community Museum and Archives has a Heritage Garden where a variety of different herbs typical of the pioneer and Victorian periods are grown. One of the houses that comprises the museum is the former home of Lurenda Henry, an early Oshawa pioneer who was also a traveling herbalist.

The Scugog Shores Historical Museum includes the Ojibway Heritage Interpretive Lands, a permanent exhibit that interprets the natural and cultural history of the Scugog watershed prior to European settlement. The exhibit includes a collection of trees and plants – including some used for medicinal purposes – that represent some of the species that flourished throughout the area prior to the construction (in 1834) of the Lindsay dam on the Scugog River.

Richters is a commercial herb-growing company that has an outdoor display garden including some 200 medicinal plants. Richters also hosts occasional seminars on how to grow and use medicinal plants, and the company’s website has a section where visitors can send their questions to medicinal plant experts