Flowering Regeneration

In 1902, Robert Butchart formed the Vancouver Portland Cement Company and began to acquire land on Tod Inlet. Construction of both the cement factory and a substantial wharf was initiated in 1904, and the manufacture of cement began in March 1905. The company prospered, and Tod Inlet quickly became a thriving community. By 1911, there were 368 employees at the plant, including Chinese, Sikh, Indigenous, and European workers.

Jennie Butchart continued to enlarge her garden, and before long the Butcharts’ house and gardens began to attract attention and visitors. A Japanese garden, including a grand torii gate, was built with the help of Isaburo Kishida, a Japanese landscape artist. Cement was readily available from the nearby plant, and the garden’s design includes bridges, stone paths, and flowing water alongside varieties of flowers.

As the limestone deposits were exhausted in 1909 and the quarry closed, Jennie Butchart began to employ Chinese workers from the cement plant as gardeners. With the goal of beautifying the gaping hole of the quarry, she hired farmers to bring in soil to cover the barren ground, eventually forming the famed Sunken Garden.

Jennie Butchart was fearless and could be found hanging in a bosun’s chair while planting ivy on the quarry walls. At the same time, her generosity was legendary. Her growing floral showcase attracted visitors from afar, and she served tea to many of them, including complete strangers. 

In 2004, on its one hundredth anniversary, Butchart Gardens was designated a National Historic Site. As part of the celebrations, two towering totems were carved in the Coast Salish style by Charles Elliott of the Tsartlip First Nation and Doug LaFortune of the Tsawout First Nation. The poles are one of the ways Butchart Gardens recognizes its presence within the traditional territory of the WSÁNEĆ (Saanich) people. 

In 1939, Robert and Jennie Buchart finally stepped aside, gifting ownership of the property to their grandson Ian Ross on his twenty-first birthday. Ross was responsible for many developments, including the eponymous fountain. Today, the owner and managing director is Robin-Lee Clarke, Robert and Jennie Butchart’s great-granddaughter. In 2009 she introduced the Rose Carousel, a “menagerie” of thirty handcarved wooden animals and chariots on which visitors, especially younger ones, love to ride. 

To serve the million-plus annual visitors, Butchart Gardens employs as many as six hundred people during the peak season, including fifty fulltime gardeners who maintain twentysix greenhouses that produce colourful flowers destined to bloom across twenty-two cultivated hectares on the fifty-five-hectare property. It’s an exceptional creative achievement that has matured and evolved over time. 

GETTING THERE: The Butchart Gardens is located in Brentwood Bay, B.C., about twenty-two kilometres north of Victoria. Besides driving your own vehicle, bus trips are available with BC Transit or as part of a private sightseeing tour that includes admission to the gardens. 

SEE AND DO: If you can, set aside most of the day to wander through this floral wonderland. Visitors are asked to follow the garden etiquette, which includes staying on paths, not picking flowers or fruit, speaking quietly, and refraining from jogging or running. 

EAT AND DRINK: The Dining Room Restaurant offers garden views from within the original Butchart family residence as well as afternoon tea. Casual and lighter fare is available seasonally at the Blue Poppy Restaurant (a converted greenhouse), a coffee shop, and a gelateria.