The Butchart Gardens:
A “Victorian” Gem
(Llew and Rochelle at the entrance to the Butchart Gardens)
One cannot visit Canada’s exquisite city Victoria without making a detour to the beauteous Butchart Gardens. Taking the public bus allowed us to see much of the beauty of outlying Victoria, its fields and farms, its seaside houses and its well-built roads. When we did arrive at the Gardens, we found that we were preceded by busloads of other folks all of whom intended to enjoy the gardens that day. We could not have asked for a better day, weather-wise. The sun shone cheerfully down on us, the temperature was perfect and the light just right for the taking of countless pictures.
Once in that sprawling space, we were grateful for the plan of the gardens that traced a sensible walking route (left) as it is so easy to get lost in the midst of that patchwork of flowers and statuary.
On reading a little bit about the gardens, we were amazed to discover that the area was once a cement quarry. Yes, limestone and mortar were actually quarried in that space more than a century ago by Robert Butchard who owned a company called Portland Cement. When the quarry fell into disuse, Jennie Butchart, his wife, came up with the idea of planting a few flowers to cover up the mess dug into the ground. Thus was born the idea of the Sunken Garden (left) . So successful was the venture, that Jennie never stopped and before you knew it, the gardens sprawled over impressive acreage.
Over the years, they have come to include a Japanese Garden (left), complete with lipstick-red bridges and weeping willows that trail into the koi-filled ponds. …
…an Italian Garden (left) that is bountiful in its colorful formality…
… an enchanting Rose Garden (left)which was in glorious bloom when we visited, its hundreds of full-blown flower heads nodding happily at visitors in the smiling sunlight…
… and a Mediterranean Garden (left) that actually contained ripe figs that one could reach out and pluck right off the tree.
Everywhere, there were stunning banks of annuals including stately delphiniums (left), vibrant sunflowers…
… masses of dahlias (left) in a rainbow of hues…
… not to mention sculpture and wrought-iron lamps (left)…
… hanging baskets that dripped over with profuse blooms…
and border beds (left) that buzzed with the busy antics of hundreds of bees.
In the tearoom, one could stop for a refreshing cuppa, or browse in the gift shops for packets of seeds and gardening gloves.
When we reached the edge of the garden, we saw boats anchored in the sheltered cove (left) that the Butcharts used to entertain their friends with sails around Tod Inlet where their home was located.
Ah, what a privileged lifestyle those Butcharts had and how much they must have enjoyed living in the midst of so much natural beauty.
(A cascading waterfall in the Mediterranean Garden is engulfed by riotous blooms)