About a half an hour from Victoria is The Butchart Gardens. The story of the gardens can be found here. The amazing thing about this place was that it started out as a family home garden. And now, over 100 years later, it is an incredible amusement park of flowers. I probably took 300 pictures at this place (thank goodness for digital) because every direction I looked was gorgeous.
The Butchart's home has been turned into a restaurant and outdoor patio area.
The begonias were mind blowing!
The Butchart Gardens was hands down the best part of this trip - a breathtaking place.
Gorgeous! I think it might just overwhelm the senses walking through a place like that. Even though I can't always identify what I'm looking at, I still enjoy flowers and their aromas. Did it smell heavenly there?
ReplyDeleteI bet for every photo you posted here there were two more that easily could have made the cut. I don't envy you having to pick the best from that many since I'm sure they were all worthy of sharing!
Oh you aren't kidding. After about a half an hour of being there, we hadn't even made it to the front gate, stopping at all the pretty spots to take pictures. :)
DeleteThe gardens had an info center at the beginning that gave out little booklets of the flowers currently blooming. Everything I looked up was in the booklet, so that was very helpful as there are only a few flowers that I know names for.
They sell seeds for most of the plants they grow, and you should see the amount of seeds that walk out of there - people thinking about big beautiful gardens on their way out. I almost left with some, but knowing I can't water anything I plant right now, I figured it was a waste of money.
The identification booklet would be ideal. While I know the few things that grow in my yard and some of the basics, my knowledge is awfully limited.
DeleteWhile I might briefly be tempted by seeds, the reality of my gardening skills would quickly kick in and save both me and the poor seeds from certain disaster! ;)
Exactly! :)
DeleteGet the prettiest of the local native stuff and in general that will grow with little if any effort. There's usually some seen bank nearby always looking for vict, willing volunteers to grow stuff. Usually the pretty stuff in the wild is the first to go from farming or citification. Of course you might need to pester the local university botany dept for answers. And they mightened be the kindest, but you're strong you can take some snit having a hissy-fit over the phone. :-)
DeleteIt's not quite the same though is it. :(
DeleteI was actually at Costco today and they've made a big push to landscape outside their stores with native plants over the last couple of years. There was a tree in bloom today that was very pretty. The flowers reminded me of a fuchsia but were bright orange. My hands were full, so I didn't stop to get a picture of it. I'll have to go back.
People are tearing out their lawns left and right, but I've read that's going to make the water issue worse. Researching sedge grasses as an alternative. There are a lot of resources out there on changing so finding the info isn't that difficult. I'm hoping my gardener who is still coming every week to not mow my dead lawn, can help me figure it out and do the work. We've still got 3-4 months of HOT summer left and everything I've read says not to plant until fall (or spring).
That's really lovely. Very Gertrude Jekyll, but with it's own flavours.
ReplyDeleteA lot of similarities! The designers seem to have been from the Pacific Northwest, but the info did say it was designed to reflect the English Arts and Craft style.
DeleteIt was so pretty there.
That is a multitude of flowers for sure! I got my mom some seeds this year for Mother's Day. She had fun growing them.
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