“Legacy of Trees: Purposeful Wandering in Vancouver’s Stanley Park” has an unusual way of telling the story of a public park. The intent of author Nina Shoroplova in writing the book was to allow herself the “purposeful wandering” of the sub-title. She skillfully brings the reader along on this journey, using individual trees as markers and the focus in telling the natural and human history of this peninsula and the adjacent, densely populated city.
This makes for an engaging book to read, but a hard one to describe. While it is helpful if you are planning to explore the park, I recommend it more for reading as a narrative before going. I gained much understanding and appreciation for the indigenous and many immigrant nationalities that make up the city of today, as well as the importance of trees in all cultures.
Shoroplova gives much of the credit for the early history she recounts to Major James Skitt Matthews (1878-1970), who established the city archives and like herself was from Wales. She describes him as an “irascible Welshman who insisted on single-handedly seeking out and detailing the early stories of Vancouver.”
For more recent history, the author consulted with living experts, including interviewing Alleyne Cook, shortly before he died in his 90s. Cook designed and established the very popular Ted and Mary Grieg Rhododendron Garden, a 22-year project completed in the 1980s. Shoroplova skillfully weaves the story of bringing rhododendrons from the Grieg’s remote specialty nursery on Vancouver Island and incorporating them, along with complimentary flowering trees, into the existing landscape.
Excerpted from the Fall 2021 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin