Dear Jimmy Tarigan,Butchart Gardens is located in Vancouver Island, about 22 km north of Victoria. It is a 55 acres of floral display. In 1904 Mr & Mrs Butchart with the help of landscape consultant and landscape artist produced the Gardens as it is today. And in 2004 when it was celebrating in bloom for 100 years was also designated National Historic Site of Canada. Last June 10,2007 I and 2 of Tan's family from Nanaimo went to visit the Gardens, about 2 1/2 hour drive away. The entry fee was $23/person including parking. We brought some lunch from home and had lunch first before we started our tour. There are 7 main important of
features of the Gardens worth visiting: The Piazza, Sunken Garden, Rose Garden, Japanese Garden, Star Pond, Italian Garden and the Mediterranean Garden. You can see flowers and flowers everywhere, and they were all beautifully arranged. The Piazza is the entrance area, kind of a lobby of a hotel. There are cafe and restaurant, souvenir store, washrooms, water wheel and the lucky "wild boar" bronze statue. Of the 7 features we liked the most 5 of them:The Sunken Garden, Rose Garden, Japanese Garden and the Italian Garden. Because we spent most of our times there and took lots of pictures. That day was a Sunday, and there
were so many people come to visit, and many come by buses too.The Sunken Garden is the starting point, the biggest and the largest from all of them. There is a mound, a small hill in the centre of the Sunken Garden and at the far end is the large fountain in the centre of a large pond.
The Rose Garden was very popular. The Rose Garden "is home to 2500 roses in 250 varieties", and was the only part of Butchart Gardens that in which the plants were labelled. There were too many people that it was hard to take close up pictures of the roses. I should think that they should make the footpath much wider.
The Japanese Garden is full of greenery creates a feel of tranquil, with creeks, ponds and bridges.The Italian Garden is very open, wide pathways with pond and fountain.
We finished the tour in about 3 hours.
Photo(top): The Piazza, main entrance area with the "wild boar" statue.
Middle1: Sunken Garden with the Fountain.
Middle2: Rose Garden.
Middle3: Japanese Garden.
Bottom: Italian Garden.
