Garden Explorer

A Trip to Butchart Gardens

By Ramona Borkman, Magazine Editor

It all began with one woman’s vision and passion. Coming from Ontario, husband and wife, Robert and Jennie Butchart moved to Vancouver Island to build a cement plant on a rich limestone deposit at Tod Inlet. As cement production exhausted the limestone deposits, Jennie envisioned landscaping a sunken garden in its place and began transferring topsoil by horse and cart. Little by little, the quarry blossomed in today’s Sunken Garden. The result of her vision is The Gardens, which are still family run to this day.

Butchart Gardens is located in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, Canada, located near Victoria on Vancouver Island. The gardens receive over a million visitors each year and has been designated a National Historic site of Canada.

Butchart Gardens is truly a feast for the senses. I would strongly recommend putting it on your bucket list of gardens to tour. Experiencing such a garden with so much color, texture, form, and design was inspiring and overflowing with lush greens and colorful blooms. It is one of my most favorite gardens I’ ve ever toured. Plan on spending the entire day, as there is so much to see. In fact there are 55 acres of gardens. We visited Butchart Gardens in mid-June when the weather was mild and many of the ornamentals were in bloom.