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A Garden for All Seasons
Butchart Gardens
by
Barbara Ballard
This beautiful garden on Tod Inlet is the
inspired brainchild of one lady lucky enough to have the money to carry through
with her ideas. Ninety years ago Mrs. R.P. Butchart and her husband owned a 130
acre estate, part of which was an old quarry. She decided to turn 50 acres of
it into a garden and thus began a saga of one family’s dedication to
horticulture and hospitality. She started by having top soil brought by horse
and cart to fill in much of what is now the Sunken Garden.
In 1929 a Rose Garden took the place of a former
kitchen garden. Visit it in the summer to revel in the glory and scent of 250
different types of roses showcased in 3000 plants. The formal Italian Garden
covers what was once a tennis court.
The fame of Jennie Butchart’s garden has spread
far and wide. Even back in the 1920’s more than 50,000 people a year came to
view the gardens. Today, 1 million visitors view over 700 varieties of 1
million bedding plants on show from March through October.
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“It’s
a total experience”, said Paul Turmel, gardener at Butchart Gardens. “You have
to look at more than the flowers. Look at the tree-scape as well”. It’s hard to
do with 400,000 bulbs of every colour and description vying for my attention.
Hyacinths and double daffodils blend seemlessly with Siberian wallflowers and
English daisies. Tulips are planted in masses of forget-me-nots. Japanese
cherry trees bring blooms to the sky. A riot of blossoms is everywhere.
This “Edwardian style” garden is carefully planned to unfold a series of vistas
as you walk around. The sunken garden is, perhaps, the real stunner with its
raised beds and steep walls providing dimension and depth. The walls of this
former limestone quarry are steep enough that the gardeners wear harnesses
attached to trees and suspend themselves over the edge to sculpture the ivy and
tend to the ground cover. The sunken garden’s peaceful willow tree lined pond
is complimented by a lake containing a large fountain playing colours into the
air.
In 1908 the Japanese style Garden was created. Here ferns and moss mingle with
running water and dry stream beds filled with small stones. Shrubs are
sculptured to create visions of mountains and clouds. Double flowering
trilliums mingle with dog tooth lilies. Look carefully in this garden through a
large peephole in a hedge for a picture postcard view of Tod Inlet. In the fall
Japanese maples slash the garden with colour. 
In the summer, you can partake of high tea by the Garden’s star pond while
glorying in the beautiful hanging baskets full of flowers. On Saturday nights
in July and August there are fireworks set to music as dusk falls (get there
before 5pm or you won’t get in). Outdoor stage shows and music performances
take place in the summer tourist season. At Christmas time the garden is
transformed by thousands of lights and festive decorations into a fairytale
land as carols waft on the air.
The spring colours of today will soon make way for rhododendrons and azaleas in
full feast, and summer will see flowering annuals planted by the thousands.
Monkshood, Lily of the Nile, Sweet Alyssum, Begonias, Bougainvillea and Angel’s
Trumpet are only a few of the many that will add to the show. Chrysanthemums
and Michaelmas Daisies will follow in the autumn as trees sport their coloured
fall foliage. But, for now, 400,000 flowering bulbs is feast enough for anyone.