Victoria
The harbour, the parliament lawns and the inner harbour walk are the city side of the trip. Ferries and the island road bring you out toward Brentwood Bay.
Canada, seen from a garden
The visit sits on the Saanich peninsula, north of Victoria, on an island in the Pacific. People come for coast, harbour towns, and one private garden that has been tended for more than a century.
The island
Rain forest, coves and small farms sit a short drive from the city. The garden is one stop on that larger coastal day, not a separate country.
The garden in the middle of the trip
Butchart is a display garden made from an old quarry. Sunken beds, a rose garden, a Japanese garden, an Italian garden and a Mediterranean slope are walked as rooms, one after another.
Visitors treat it as the reason to cross from Victoria onto the peninsula. You arrive, you walk, you look at what the season is doing, and you leave by the same gate. This note describes the place. It does not sell a ticket and it does not quote a rate.
The quarry
The sunken garden fills the old limestone pit. Paths drop below the rim and the beds read as a bowl of colour.
Seasons
Spring bulbs, summer borders, autumn maples, winter evergreens. The same paths look like a different garden each quarter.
Evening
In the warmer months the paths stay open after dusk and the beds are lit. It is still a walk, only later.