The Butchart Gardens - Victoria, Canada

The Butchart Gardens
800 Benventuto Avenue
Brentwood Bay, BC V8M 1J8 Canada

Telephone:     +1.250.652.4422
Website:        butchartgardens.com

Hours:
Sunday - Saturday:    9:00 am - 4:00 pm


Visited:  Friday, August 16, 2019.  Did I eat here, no.  But as my motto says have food will travel, well this is part of the travel without eating.  I love gardens so I decided to stop by.  Come and take a peek.

Sequoia Tree

Monkey Puzzle Tree

This is a national historic site of Canada with over 100 years in bloom.  The Butchart Gardens began with an idea of Jennie Butchart who wanted to beautify the worked-out limestone quarry which had supplied her husband Robert Pim Butchart's nearby Portland cement plant.  The garden covers more than 55 acres of a 130 acre estate.  

There are a collection of different gardens, i.e., the Sunken Garden with a lookout that reveals a stunning view.  You can take a winding path through beds of annuals, flowering trees and shrubs.  Here sits the bronze horse "Annabelle" to the Children's Pavilion and Rose Carousel, a menagerie carousel with 30 hand-carved wooden animals and two chariots.  Then there are the two totem poles that overlook the Fireworks' fields.  You can also see the Dragon Fountain that was a gift from the People's Republic of China and Victoria's sister-city, Suzhou.

Ah, the Rose Garden you actually can smell them before you see them.  There is a frog fountain and a wishing well,  Planted here are different varies of Hybrid Tea Roses that are registered with the American Rose Society.  Take a look through the open pergola that is covered with climbing and rambling roses to the bronze Sturgeon Fountain that was cast in Florence, Italy. 

Passing through another fountain and walk through the Torii gate and down the steps you will find the Japanese Garden.  Jennie Butchart  was the first to grown the Himalayan Blue Poppies in North America from the seeds that she received from the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens.  In 1906 Jennie Butchart with the expert assistance of Japanese landscaper, Isaburo Kisida began this non-tradition garden.     

Then there is a the Star Pond, colorful annuals that surround the frog fountain that is rising from the center.  

By the Italian Garden stands a bronze statue of Mercury.  

Then there is the Piazza with a Florentine bronze statue of Tacca the Board and there sits a Waterwheel Square walk right under the laburnum arches. 

The Mediterranean Garden holds many drought resistant plants as well as lush and exotic ones from various areas of the world that share similar growing conditions to ours.

Go and enjoy a few hours of visiting the private gardens, visit the restaurants (which I didn't do, gosh darn) and walk on the flagstones and shaded areas.  You can see the Butchart's former home as well as where Mr. Butchart kept ornate houses for his collection of exotic birds.  

Finally, the Butchart's christened their estate "Benvenuto" - Italian for "Welcome."  You will feel that it is still owned and operated by the family and cherished.  

There are several restaurants on site:  The Dining Room, The Blue Poppy Restaurant, and The Coffee Shop.  Seasonal Specialties:  Annabelle's Cafe, Gelateria and Gourmet Picnics.  

I most definitely will be visiting again, and this time not just stop and smell the roses but to sit and dine and enjoy the beauty, the fragrances and the peace.

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