Butchart Gardens ~ Part 1

Our reason for going to Victoria was to see Butchart Gardens. Have you heard of this place? It's amazing! We took the ferry over, (90 minutes), then waited 30 minutes for a bus, then rode 40 minutes to the gardens. We finally arrived at 11:15am and only had 2 1/2 hours to see the whole garden. (so we could get the bus and catch the 3:00 ferry back to Port Angeles).

We barely had enough time to see everything, but we did make it through. This is a very popular tourist attraction, so it was hard to get photos without others in them.

There are five main gardens, plus the entrance.

The Entrance:

This fountain is a new addition - a gift from China. Until a permanent home can be found within the garden, the dragon fountain is on display in the entrance.

Sunken Garden: You can read the full story of how Jennie Butchart created these world-renown gardens on the website, but basically Mr. Butchart was in the cement industry and bought this land because of the limestone quarry nearby. They built their home here, and when the limestone resources were exhausted, Jennie started creating a garden to restore the ugly landscape back to beauty. These efforts transformed this into an amazingly beautiful garden. I could have easily spent the whole day just wandering through this one garden.

At the one end of this garden is a pond with the Ross Fountain - added to the garden by Jennie Butchart's grandson, Ian Ross.

nature's ballerinas

As you leave the Sunken Garden, there is a "bog garden"....

Then we headed up to the carousel...there was a large stage and ampitheater where they have concerts. Also the big lawn where fireworks are held on summer, weekend nights.

Oh and a few plants and flowers...