The cement quarry turned Eden – Jennie Butchart’s sunken garden of 1904 grown into Canada’s floral landmark, a National Historic Site of horticultural theatre.
At a glance
- Type
- Display garden (National Historic Site)
- Period
- From 1904
- Style
- Sunken quarry, Japanese, Italian, rose gardens
- Location
- Brentwood Bay, Victoria, BC, Canada
- Coordinates
- 48.5636, -123.4681
- Founder
- Jennie Butchart
Overview
When her husband’s cement works exhausted its limestone pit, Jennie Butchart lowered soil by horse-cart and herself by bosun’s chair to plant the walls – the Sunken Garden of 1904-21 that grew into 22 hectares of themed gardens drawing a million visitors yearly. Still family-run in its fifth generation, the Butchart is Canada’s horticultural celebrity.
History
The Butcharts’ world travels seeded the Japanese garden (1906, with designer Isaburo Kishida), Italian and rose gardens on the works’ footprint; hospitality’s tradition – tea for all comers – became the institution’s manner. Night illuminations (1950s), summer fireworks, and the carousel added theatre; National Historic Site designation came in 2004’s centenary.
Architecture and Design
The quarry’s cliffs frame the sunken parterre’s seasonal repainting; Ross fountain jets the old sump. Residence Benvenuto’s bones host the dining room; the boar Tacca – Florence’s copy – polishes its snout under children’s hands.
Cultural significance
The Butchart is reclamation’s garden parable a century early – industry’s scar to beauty – and Victoria’s defining attraction, the West Coast’s floral pilgrimage.
Visiting today
Open daily year-round; summer Saturday fireworks and December lights book the calendar’s ends. Afternoon tea reserves ahead.
Getting there
Brentwood Bay lies 23 km north of Victoria; BC Transit 75 and tour shuttles serve the gates, floatplanes the cove in season.
Sources and resources
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