British Columbia’s Butchart Gardens

British Columbia’s The Butchart Gardens, with its mesmerising flora, owes its existence to one woman. Here, Natasha Dragun reveals the remarkable story of how Jennie Butchart created a little piece of Canadian paradise.

When Jennie Butchart and her husband, Robert Pim Butchart, moved to Vancouver Island in 1904, they had cement on their minds – not gardens. The couple were in the cement business, and the west coast of Canada was a natural fit for them given the region’s abundance of rich limestone deposits, which was needed to create the quality cement for which the Butcharts were known. So they waved goodbye to Ontario and created a new life for themselves in British Columbia, establishing a quarry at Tod Inlet on the Saanich Peninsula, and a home just up the road in the sleepy town of Brentwood Bay.

From nearby farmland, Jennie brought in tonnes of topsoil by horse and cart, using it to create a fertile floor in what would become her Sunken Garden. She created mounds and planted flowers in terraces, and tucked ivy into rock crevices to hide the grim, grey quarry walls. She established a rose garden which now has over 250 varieties of the fragrant bloom. And then, on her unused tennis court, she created an Italian garden, erecting a bronze statue of Mercury beside an intricate, cross-shaped pond. Inspired by her work, Robert began collecting ornamental birds from across the globe; he introduced ducks into the Star Pond (an incredible 12-point water feature surrounded by colourful annuals), let peacocks loose on the long grassy lawn, and crafted elaborate birdhouses wherever he found a vacant nook.

The Eden Jennie had created did not go unnoticed for long and soon the Butcharts were receiving dozens of curious visitors at their home, which they poetically named Benvenuto (Italian for “welcome”). They graciously served tea to everyone who dropped by to gaze at the incredible gardens, and continued to do so until the sheer logistics of brewing and pouring tea for thousands of people became too immense.

Eye-popping purple delphiniums, peonies and tuberous begonias emerge in summer, when there is nightly live entertainment on the lawn and fireworks every Saturday evening. In the early days, Mr and Mrs Ross would host weekly symphonic concerts here when the weather was warm; today’s schedule is far more diverse, and might include jazz and classical music or shows by The Weeds, a group comprised of members from the gardening crew.

And then there’s spring, when a carefully orchestrated symphony of colour explodes across the grounds in a patchwork of flowerbeds as more than 300,000 daffodil and tulip bulbs bloom among the camellias and rhododendrons. If there weren’t regular reminders around the estate, you’d find it hard to believe that something so beautiful came from something as grey as a limestone quarry. Experience the magic of The Butchart Gardens on the 19 Day Passage Through the Rockies and Alaska Cruise.

Images courtesy of Graham Werner PH:0418369178