Springtime at Butchart Gardens, Victoria B.C.

Saturday, May 17th, we spent 4-5 hours in the beautiful Butchart Gardens. Butchart Gardens is 55 acres of garden paradise! A "Heaven on Earth" for garden and flower lovers like me! Springtime in the Gardens are truly spectacular with hundreds of thousands of bulbs in bloom as well as flowering trees and shrubs. We slowly stolled along the paths and walkways - - you can't hurry through someplace a beautiful as this - - you need take time to be able to appreciate each colorful display! There just aren't enough words to describe what an awesome experience it was.

Everywhere you look throughout the Gardens there are arbors, pergolas, theme gardens . . . each one with different displays of tulips, groundcovers and beautiful trees and shrubs.

This tropical garden and waterfall contained many varieties of shade plants . . . coleus, ivy, ferns, hostas - - it was beautiful!

The variety of tulips everywhere was unbelievable! Pinks, purples, yellows, reds . . . in every size and height. And planted in and amongst the tulips were either blue, white, or pink Forget-me-nots or English Daisies in every pastel color. Truly breathtaking!

This bed of short white tulips had pink and red English Daisies planted amongst them. One of the things that makes the Gardens so beautiful is that the displays of flowers and plantings are at all levels. Some at your feet - some at eye level - some above your head.

Here we are in garden paradise. There are so many rock formations throughout the gardens and each one has beautiful tulips, ground covers and perennials spilling out of every crack and cascading over the edges of the beds.

Enormous Douglas Firs, Cedars and other varieties of evergreens made an awesome setting for the smaller flowering trees, shrubs and carpets of lawn. You just needed to stand and take in the beauty in each area of the garden. Every view was different and beautiful.

Here's another example of some of the un-tulip like tulips. They were so unusual . . . they looked almost like roses instead of tulips.

The pretty little blue flower under these blossoms are Forget-me-nots. . . . they were everywhere in the gardens.

These unusual pink tulips were planted with shades of pink English daisies amongst them . . . so delicate and pretty!

Randy is taking a moment to sit and enjoy the view. . . and looking through yet another variety of yellow and red tulips.

Each and every bed was so pretty and yet a little different from the last one. It was amazing to see the variety both in color and size. Every step throughout the Gardens brought a different view and variety of flowers . These red and yellow tulips were very short with white English Daisies planted amongst them.

Here we are in a gorgeous sea of color! Just look at the variety of colors and shapes. These are veiws from the sunken garden. In the early 1900's when the gardens were first started, the sunken garden was on old quarry. Jenny Butchart hired men to haul hundreds of thousands of yards of topsoil from neighboring farms into the quarry. Then trees, shrubs and flowers were planted. The sunken gardens has evolved into a breathtaking display of spectacular plantings. And in this garden as well as throughout the 55 acres, each season brings a new and different display of flowers.

I can't imagine the garden ever being any more beautiful than it was when we saw it. I asked one of the gardeners if he had a favorite season in the gardens. He, of course, said he loved them all . . . they were all different and beautiful. But it would be hard to have any season surpass the beauty of the springtime gardens!




This is a view from a stairway leading into the sunken garden. This view of the gardens was almost a sensory overload. We stood on the stairway for a long time just trying to take into our brains all the beauty our eyes were seeing.

This is my idea of heaven! The hillsides are covered with ivy and other vines - - the variety of trees in all shapes, sizes and colors - - pathways over carpet like lawn - - and some of the most beautiful flowers you'll ever see anywhere. It was breathtaking!






This display of tulips is in the Italian Garden. Huge beds of tulips in amongst fountains, arbors, benches and boxwood hedges. The most formal of all the theme gardens . . . and so pretty.

This is a veiw looking into the Japanese garden. The different varieties of trees and shrubs with Japenese Maples everywhere made this shady garden so cool and refreshing to walk through. It was very peaceful and secluded.

You can see why I loved the gardens and I spent so much time here. When the brochures says:

"Spectacular spring bursts forth in a show of unparalleded beauty. One of the finest displays in the world heralds the season with hundreds of thousands of bulbs" . . . it really means it! I don't think I've every seen anything prettier!







I felt so fortunate to be able to take in so much beauty. Above me is a Rhododendron - - an enormous flowering shrub. These shrubs were everywhere in the gardens. . . and in reds, pinks, salmon and white. The blossoms are huge!








Butchart Gardens are an example of one womens dream to beautify a ugly, barren piece of ground and turn it into something beautiful. It is now a National Historic Site. You can see what's possible in a climite of 100's on inches of rainfall each year, an army of gardeners and volunteers . . . greenhouses full of gardeners dedicated to producing amazing plants varieties.

What a thrill to have spent a beautiful Saturday afternoon strolling this gardern paradise! It was such an unforgetable and perfect day! And the fact that I got to share it all with my best friend, who also appreciated the spectacular surroundings and beauty, made it all the more special! It was a truly memorable ocassion!