Gardens of Victoria and Vancouver Island

Two major highlights of our trip out west were to the famous Butchart Gardens, a short drive from Victoria, and the Government House Gardens, just minutes from where we were staying in Victoria. The gardens offered a wide variety of views and perspectives for differing tastes and interests; from rock and cliff gardens, shade and wet gardens, to Japanese, Italian, and other formal designs.

Top three pics are in the Japanese Garden at BG

ETA: I just received an e-mail from Graham Bell, the Advertising & Promotions coordinator at BG, who pointed out a couple of errors pertaining to driving distance and costs, along with some suggestions for enjoying the gardens at less visited times (such as first thing in the morning, or early afternoon).

Wow, I had just barely posted this entry! The miracles of modern technology. I thank him for his astuteness, as I certainly wouldn't want to post inaccurate information. The paragraph above has been edited to delete the inaccurate information...

Pics at right are in the formal garden and Italian Garden

I'm going to have to cull about 400 pics to 8 or 9, so if you would like more, just e-mail me and I'll send you a batch!

Next four pics are in the sunken garden.

There were also lots of annuals just planted--geraniums and many other flowers. They are probably just blooming now! I can just imagine beds of color, streaming around the bottom of groups of trees, bushes, and perennials.

Sigh, only about 1/2 of the stuff we saw are able to safely grow in our planting zone...but, hey, with global warming, in perhaps another ten years I can plant some of them! lol. (not really lol.)

This was just stunning. The flowers were gorgeous, and one thing I really appreciated are the layers of color and texture of the evergreens, interspersed with deciduous trees and bushes. Seriously, I have oddles and oddles of fabulous pics. If you want more...