The Butchart Gardens

The Butchart Gardens - 35 mins by car or 60 by scenic ocean drive

World famous, The Butchart Gardens is open year round.

In 1904, Jennie Butchart set about to transform a depleted limestone quarry on their property into a garden. (Her husband’s Portland cement company had abandoned it.)

Eventually, Jennie and her staff of gardeners developed several other garden areas, covering almost half of the original 130 acre estate.

And the family shared their glorious grounds with their friends and neighbours over the years.

It is now a garden paradise with a variety of fountains, ponds and streams, lawns and meadows, and exquisite theme gardens including a Japanese Garden, Italian Garden, Rose Garden, Begonia Bower.

And there’s even a concert lawn with rows of benches, where, on summer afternoons and evenings informal musical stage presentations take place.

Some of the more spectacular garden settings include the dancing Ross Fountain, the Star Pond, the Bark Cottage, the Sturgeon Fountain, the amazing holiday lighting and displays, and the fabulous Fireworks Pond.

Be sure to stop in for some delightful afternoon tea in the historic, original Butchart family mansion’s Dining Room. Or you can enjoy a snack or a meal in the lovely Blue Poppy Room restaurant, with its skylights, flagstone floor and plants and flowers in every nook and cranny.