butchart gardens Archives - Travelers' Joint

Butchart Gardens and a Vancouver Hotel

written by Mae

When visiting Vancouver, the Butchart Gardens is a must-see! It’s such a wonderful sight especially for shutter-happy people like me, a large park of many beautiful things. Beautiful flowers of different types abound in various colors could be snapped…the scenery and landscape are picturesque, details as statues, fountains, flower pots and all combine harmoniously into a lovely picture.

bloom

The Butchart Gardens feature different garden cultures within. I mean you’d see Japanese art, a red bridge, a welcome shrine that’s every inch a Tokyo characteristic. There’s an Italian garden featuring Victorian architect and influence. There’s a sunken garden, a rose garden displaying a thousand roses. Pure bliss! You won’t get tired moving about and savoring, smelling the flowers.

stat shrine

In case you do get tired, just s few steps away from the garden is this wonderful Vancouver Hotel that is every inch Victorian. Wouldn’t you be indulged to get in and take a peek? Let’s see next week!

empress1

Empress Hotel

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January 24, 2012 0 comment

Canada North America Victoria

City of Gardens

written by Mae

British Columbia (BC), Canada is such a big province I get confused with all the cities within. So let’s tackle one of two that I’m somehow familiar with – Vancouver and Victoria, focusing on the latter. Vancouver remains on the top list of the best city to live in this year toppling off Vienna, which holds the top spot last year (ranked 3rd this year following Melbourne). (source) Victoria is BC’s capital about 100 kilometres from Vancouver and it is rightfully called the City of Gardens.

Victoria’s agreeable climate make it a place where plants and flowers bloom abundantly. There are a lot of flowers blooming during the winter and early spring, those would be daffodils, crocuses, early-blooming rhododendrons, sakura and sumomo hana.

Victoria and its surrounding city is also home to many rare, native plants found nowhere else in Canada and most can be seen in the many gardens available to the public.

Butchart

The photos were taken by hubby in Spring at the Butchart Gardens, designated a National Historic Site of Canada due to its international fame. I was wondering why elements of Japanese gardens are too obvious and googling I found that one of the designers was Isaburo Kishida of Yokohama.

The garden is owned by the Butchart family, descendants of Robert Pim Butchart (1856–1943) who began manufacturing Portland cement in 1888 near his birthplace of Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada. He and his wife Jennie Butchart (1866–1950) came to the west coast of Canada because of rich limestone deposits necessary for cement production. There, they established a home, expanding the gardens in years to come.

Always colourful

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November 18, 2011 0 comment