BUTCHART GARDENS: OVER 100 YEARS IN BLOOM

We enjoy visiting botanical gardens during our travels and our top three include Butchart Gardens. We have visited this magical place a few times over the years during the spring and summer, in rain, sun and under cloud cover. No matter the weather, it was always enjoyable and well worth the effort to get there.

VISIT IN SPRING OR SUMMER

Timing is important in order to enjoy any visit to outdoor botanical gardens. For an example, our only visit to the renowned Hamilton Gardens in New Zealand was during April, but being in the Southern Hemisphere, that is their autumn, so the gardens weren’t impressive. We really enjoyed Cape Town’s Kirstenbosch Gardens. They were stunning, even though we were there in mid-February, which is right at the start of their autumn. Their spring and summer at Kirstenbosch would be an even better time  to visit.

BUTCHART GARDENS IS A NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

Butchart Gardens is located in Brentwood Bay, just outside Victoria, B.C. on Vancouver Island. The gardens have been open for over 100 years and have been designated a National Historic Site of Canada. They welcome over one million visitors every year to their 55 acres of gardens based around a rehabilitated limestone quarry.

IT’S EASY TO REACH

So if you are visiting Vancouver Island and you have an appreciation for horticulture, we highly recommend that you include Butchart Gardens in your travels. Only 20 minutes or so by car from Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal (connecting Vancouver and the Gulf Islands to southern Vancouver Island), it is just off the highway to Victoria. The city itself, which is the capital of British Columbia and arguably the prettiest city in Canada, is compact and easy to explore on foot.

For more info, check out the Butchart Gardens website.

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