Address
800 Benvenuto Avenue
Brentwood Bay, British Columbia
Canada
Directions: Google Maps
Support
Phone: +1 250-652-4422
Phone: 866-652-4422
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About Butchart Gardens
A popular botanical site, the Butchart Gardens are located near Brentwood bay, in British Columbia, Canada. The garden site, originally a limestone quarry, belonged to Robert Pim Butchart and Jennie Butchart, a family that manufactured cement from limestone deposits. With time, as the limestone deposits depleted, Jennie Butchart transformed the quarry into a garden, from 1909.
Visited by 1 million people every year, the Butchart gardens are family owned and unfold over 55 acres of land with exotic collections of rose shrubs, and around 900 varieties of flowers from all over the world. Developed from 1904-1939, the site is well maintained like a 20th century estate garden, and opened to public from 1904. Today, the Butchart Gardens are a National Historic Site of Canada, and are one of the top attractions at Vancouver Islands.
Typically, visitors spend a whole day at Butchart Gardens, and the 6 gardens worth exploring at the Butchart grounds are the Sunken garden, Rose garden, Japanese garden, Italian garden, and the Mediterranean garden. The largest of all the gardens is the Sunken Garden, and is one of the first gardens to have started by Jennie Butchart in 1909.
The “Circle of Doves” and the “Wild boar” sculptural art at the gardens are signature collections belonging to the founder, Ann-Lee Ross, and are one of the main attractions at the garden. Other garden design elements at the Butchart grounds include the frog fountain, the wishing well, the sturgeon fountain, the torii gate, and the concrete lawn walk.
Visitors favourites include the 30 wooden statues of animals, skillfully crafted by hand, to adorn the garden, and is known as the children’s pavilion and rose carousel. The garden transforms into an ice-skating rink in December, perfect for winter evenings, and the summer nights ushers in the start of musical season for jazz, ballet, folk music and lawn concerts for local artistes and top performing bands.
Every year, boat tours are organized at Butchart from May – September, and are typically a 45-minute ride, exploring the wildlife and nature of Vancouver Island during the summer. At the garden grounds, firework display is a regular event during the Saturdays in the summer season, and the gardens are well lit, at dusk creating panoramic views for the visitors.
Open all round the year, the Butchart Gardens are open from 9:00am-10:00pm (summer), 9:00am-3:30pm (winter), 9:00am-5:00pm (spring), and 9:00am- 4:00pm (autumn). The best time to explore the gardens is the summer, when the flowers are in full bloom from June-August.
The entrance rates vary with season, and are much cheaper during the winter and expensive during the peak season. Admission tickets cost $19.35 -$34.80 for adults, and $9.70-$17.40 for youth (13-17), and $2.00-$3.00 for children (5-12), and $17.42- $31.32 for groups. Payments are accepted through Visa, MasterCard, JCB, and Discover, and a single ride at the rose carousel costs around $2.00 and boat tour rates cost $19.75 for adults and $15.25 for youth, and $12.00 for children.
