Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in Québec.
Born January 22, 1872, in Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. In the early 1880s, the family moved to Montréal, at the time the financial and industrial centre of Canada.
Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, the gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
