Weeping Beech Circle · 1890
European weeping beech
Fagus sylvatica 'Pendula'
Our most famous tree, 26 m across. Planted by sexton Hugh Ballantyne.
History
Trees + nature
Six hundred trees of 48 species, a spring-fed pond and six acres of restored meadow. For many Elderbrook residents, Hollowmere is simply the most beautiful place in town.
Specimen trees
Six to look for
Ridgeview · 1902
Sugar maple row
Acer saccharum
Forty-one trees along the east ridge. Peak colour mid-October.
Pioneer Ground · c. 1780
Bur oak
Quercus macrocarpa
Older than the cemetery. Probably left standing by the first surveyor as a boundary mark.
Elm Walk · 2008
Liberty elms
Ulmus americana 'Liberty'
Disease-resistant elms replanted after the originals were lost in the 1970s.
The Mere · 1870s
Eastern white cedar
Thuja occidentalis
The cedar hedge around the Mere, clipped by hand every August.
Natural Meadow · 2015
Tamarack
Larix laricina
A conifer that turns gold and drops its needles: the last colour of autumn.
The Natural Meadow
A burial ground that gives back
In 2014 we let six acres of hayfield return to tallgrass prairie: big bluestem, wild bergamot, coneflowers and milkweed. Natural burials there help pay for its care. In 2025, birders counted 71 species in the meadow, including nesting bobolinks, a threatened species in Ontario.
About natural burialThrough the seasons
Spring
Trilliums in the Pioneer Ground, lilacs on the Victorian Terraces, spring peepers at the Mere.
Summer
Bobolinks and meadowlarks in the Natural Meadow; great blue herons fish the Mere.
Autumn
The maple row, the beech turning copper, and migrating warblers in the cedars.
Winter
Owls roost in the spruces by the vault; look for fox and deer tracks in fresh snow.