Butchart Gardens is a must see while on Vancouver Island. It is located about 20 minutes from the village of Victoria so a car or public transportation is necessary. If you have any interest in gardening you do not want to miss this one. A bit pricey however we chose to go on Saturday as they put on an amazing fireworks display in the evening. We have been to lots of fireworks displays and this one is definitely one of the better ones. They have an huge ground display with moving fireworks. There was one point where they had two lines of dancing teacups crossing the lagoon to music, all with fireworks. Very cool. The only bummer was there was no wind and some of the displays were hidden by all the smoke.
I can not describe the gardens except with some of the pictures I took – The pictures do not even begin to show the beauty here.
Sunken Garden
Japanese Lily Pond
Glass House
Rose Garden
In the Rose Garden there are 250 varieties and over 2500 plants.
Interesting borders
Begonia’s are everywhere
Sunken Garden upclose!
Sturgeon Waterfall – Paul’s favorite in the Gardens
Even the trash cans are flowerbeds!!!
Beautiful colors
Beautiful combinations
and more colors!
They have a boat ride in the harbor for an additional charge – We walked down for a bit of a sunset colors on the water.
I was looking everywhere for that pile of clippings, a wilted bloom, something to prove this was a real garden! We took a break from the gardens and listened to Tropic Mayhem for about an hour. Interesting, we are in British Columbia and their opening song is Surfin’ USA! They were lots of fun and played mostly Beach Boys Music which I enjoyed.
Tropic Mayhem
We spent about 4 hours in the gardens which Paul would have been bored crazy if it were not for the fireworks. I will give in on the Tea Party but not on getting to see someones vision for amazing floral displays.