Explorations in BUTCHART GARDENS
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FEATURE GARDEN Winter Explorations IN BUTCHART GARDENS For Canadian gardeners, winter may seem like a non-starter in terms of visiting gardens. In fact, winter is one of the best times of the year to walk the bones of the internationally renowned Butchart Gardens, 21 kilometres north of Victoria, B.C. “It’s the time when the garden can be viewed in its purest form and the genius of Jennie Butchart understood,” says Richard Los, director of horticulture at Butchart Gardens. 38 FEATURE GARDEN By Heather Phaneuf Designated a national historic site in 2004 as an “exceptional achievement in “Jennie” is Jeannette Foster Canadian garden history,” the Butchart Kennedy Butchart Gardens has a green story to tell. The (1866–1950). Orphaned at an early scale of the gardens is perfect for long, age, she moved from Toronto to slow walks and multiple visits. The Owen Sound, Ontario, to live with interplay of colour and foliage blends an aunt and family. Exuberant, with the physical designs to maximize curious and adventurous, she all the possibilities of this unique turned down a scholarship to microclimate. study art in Paris and instead In December, the gardens are married Robert Pim Butchart festooned with lights in a magical (1856–1943). Together with their transition to the new year. But enter the Jeannette Butchart children, they moved to British grounds between January and March, Columbia in 1904, to this area and you’ll notice a change of pace. Butchart Gardens atop a rich limestone deposit Winter is a strategic time to visit and developing in the quarry on Tod Inlet. Her husband understand the framework of the distinct “garden rooms” Jennie established. established the Vancouver Island The Japanese Garden, begun in 1906, Portland Cement Company, was intended to welcome visitors—a the only cement-producing company calming oasis to enter the estate from west of the Great Lakes at that time. They the bay. The Sunken Garden built on built a beautiful home, which they called the exhausted quarry site was started in Benvenuto, Italian for welcome. 1909 and completed in 1921. The Italian With her inquiring nature and a Garden replaced tennis courts in 1926, certificate in chemistry, Jennie was hands- the Rose Garden replaced a kitchen on at the company, but it wasn’t long before vegetable garden in 1929 and so on. her creativity also reshaped the surrounding Beauty and life in this winter garden craggy landscape. It provides an off-peak majesty, while was Jennie’s vision for allowing closer study of individual Christmas light display reworking the land plant forms and overall design. Exterior and the exhausted pathways lead you through slowly quarry that set the changing garden rooms and landscapes, foundation for this where a bloom is never far away and a verdant space, creating fine attention to detail is always within something quite sight. different—a sublime, Responding to incremental changes welcoming garden that in the environment, blooms change as grew and grew. In 1931, the seasons moves. Winter brings out the power of the garden the Grecian windflower (Anemones), to attract so many rock cress (Arabis), elephant’s ears people to Victoria earned (Bergenia), Camellia, Glory of the snow Jennie the Victoria Best (Chionodox), Australian fuchsia (Correa), Citizen award. In 2015, winter aconite (Eranthis), heather Historical display Jennie was inducted into (Erica), winter daphne (Daphne ador), the Business Laureates of silk-tassel bush (Garrya elliptic), witch British Columbia Hall of hazel (Hamaelis x intermedi), Christmas Fame. rose (Helleborus), Viburnums and many Today, the family horticultural legacy more. Learn more by downloading the lives on in 55 acres of gardens supported by off-peak Flower and Plant Guide from 26 greenhouses and 50 full-time gardeners, butchartgardens.com (look under ‘The along with seasonal staff during the busiest Plants’). months. It takes a massive team effort to Like many of us, Jennie was a self- maintain the gardens while entertaining and taught gardener who knew how to educating the public. network with those who could guide 39 FEATURE GARDEN and inspire. A case in point is the Moving past the parking lot, you’ll Japanese Garden, where you can enjoy discover the warmest micro-climate at the calm Jennie envisioned and Japanese Butchart Gardens. This is where the garden designer Isaburo Kishida helped massive Agave, native to both arid and develop—a distinct Canadian adaptation tropical environments, was installed of a traditional approach. In winter, it over 20 years ago. Jennie would have may be the glowing green brilliance approved of testing the limits of growth of the mosses that capture you, or the here at Butchart Gardens. meandering route that draws you to a Walk under towering Coast redwoods contemplative place near the specimen (Sequoia sempervirens) native to moist, wedding cake tree (Cornus controversa foggy, coastal plain areas along the ‘Variegata’), now 60 years old, and Pacific coast as well as Japanese black the arching Japanese maples (Acer pine (Pinus thunbergii) and Japanese Winter in the gardens palmatum). aralia (Fatsia japonica) native to coastal The Sunken Garden is a showstopper areas of Japan and South Korea. If you’re that’s as powerful in the off-peak months familiar with the Pacific coast of North as any other time. Head 15 metres down America, you’ll recognize the evergreen into a vast space where limestone was arbutus (Arbutus menziesii); similarly, once worked. Here, the exactitude of the Nootka false cypress (Chamaecyparis edgings and precision of plantings are nootkatensis). visible against the backdrop of the sheer Cross provincial borders and quarry face. Look to the Lombardy walk by arborvitae or Tree of Life poplars (Populus nigra ‘Italica’), planted (Thuja occidentalis), native to eastern to block the view of the cement plant North America and evocative of the chimneys. Try to imagine Jennie Indigenous knowledge which helped dangling over the edge of the excavation treat scurvy among early settlers. Look in a bosun’s chair as she tucked ivies into for the Monkey Puzzle tree (Araucaria nooks and crannies in the walls. araucana) native to Chile and Argentina Spring blossoms and known as a living fossil due to its species longevity. Enjoy the flowering trees of winter, including—cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera ‘Pissardii’), Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), star magnolias (Magnolia stellata) and Rhododendrons. This January – March 2020, get a sensory jolt at the Spring Prelude exhibit in the Blue Poppy Restaurant. Nestled against backdrops of flowering shrubs, the botanical display is broad, ranging from forced outdoor plants such as Magnolia stellata and redbud trees (Cercis) to an impressive panoply of indoor plants, including moth orchids (Phalaenopis), Cyclamens, Begonias, Bromeliads, the startling flamingo flower (Anthurium) and familiar tulips (Tulipa spp.) and daffodils (Narcissus). There’s an enviable exactitude to the professional maintenance of the gardens, a stewardship that underscores everything within and without. At Butchart Gardens, the relative quiet of winter is the perfect time to implement change. It’s a time when visitors may be exposed to major landscaping projects 40 FEATURE GARDEN Winter in the gardens that somehow, mysteriously, don’t is pruning efficiently to intrude on the appreciation of the place. maximize the impacts of light and air. Ongoing maintenance and sustainable practices are fundamental in any garden There’s an evident commitment today. In 2018, fierce December winds of the family and staff to the changed the hardscape of the Sunken continuation and evolution of Garden when the top 30 feet of one of Butchart Gardens, which is run the original cement factory chimneys without government grants. Today, the family legacy continues under was blown down. In 2017, heavy snows Butchart Gardens front entrance caused the loss of a silk tree and crab the guidance of the founders’ apple tree, despite staff working hard great grand-daughter, Robin-Lee to knock the weight off the canopies. Clarke. In 2011, 90% of the hybrid tea roses “I’ve so much respect for those who gardenscapes, while being responsive to were lost. No surprise that a woodland built this place … and those who will a changing climate and needs for access management plan is in place, along carry it forward,” says Los, who’s been and mobility. The gardens continue with an integrated plant management at Butchart since 1988 and director to invite us to challenge ourselves and approach that leaves room to respond to of horticulture since 1997. In 2019, explore what is possible in an area the dictates of a changing climate. he handed over the reigns to Carlos that pushes zonal boundaries. It’s the Moniz, who “… knows my job better Interestingly, plants are propagated Butchart way. and grown here in a space that does than anyone.” Moniz has worked at the not depend on municipal water but on gardens for over 44 years; his own father established reservoirs and wells. Staff are was head gardener in years past. Legacy Heather Phaneuf is a writer and gardener living vigilant about appropriate water use and takes many forms here. in Mississippi Mills, Ontario, who has a growing, actively investigate more efficient ways The evolution of Butchart Gardens is green fascination in horticulture, gardens and to irrigate as weather patterns change. in good hands, hands that are respectful those who create them. Composting is an established practice, as of Jennie’s vision and the evolving 41.