Butchart Gardens: best florals ever

800 Benvenuto Ave, Brentwood Bay, BC V8M 1J8, Canada

Butchart Gardens the Best floral show ever

I use to hate flowers, pictures of them, people taking pictures of them, but mostly because girlfriends would drag me to see them, that mysteriously changed after I visited Butchart Gardens.  I guess I would subconsciously think of flowers and the word “burden” would flash before my eyes, any time I looked at flowers. I also had the issue of when I tried shooting flowers, the available flowers were not really that pretty to look at, were not well maintained, people would laugh at a guy who looks like me, taking pictures of flowers. I was young then, so it used to bother me, but with maturity comes a great appreciation of things I previously ignored.

I took off to Victoria, British Columbia, and just north of that, I found out was well-known gem located in Brentwood Bay, a place which contained the best outdoor, floral display on the West of North America.  I was just shooting some pics of some pics of the Government building, and its surroundings, when this photographer just started talking to me about a bunch of places that she recommended that we go see, considering that we were in Victoria for 2 more days. This lady was a huge fan of flowers and huge floral displays, so she insisted we experience this Butchart Gardens since we had all of this time.  She had been there over 30 times, she confessed, said there is so much to see and that we would be busy for a while. She said she was heading over there tomorrow.  She also had all kinds of macro lenses all ready to shoot great close-up photography with, so I knew it had to be a big deal,  but already put in the head of my company that we’d be there “for a while” and “flowers” which I didn’t like at that point.  I’m thinking “great! what if I don’t like this damn place, now I’m going to be stuck there for hours!!!”  So to Brentwood Bay, it was, to see the flower show. I took a few lenses with me to cover the bases a little since I had no idea what I’d see there.  I figured, that if I was bored, I’d find one way or another to entertain myself.

We get to the place, it’s freaking stunning! I hadn’t even taken but 10 steps and saw that I already liked it, suddenly ( know, “what a punk!”).  My people were gauging me for a response because they knew that I don’t like being dragged anywhere, and although we all started that trip together, I kept disappearing from view.  They wondered if I was going to be a sourpuss over what they thought was going to be me being bored.  The next thing I know, they’re looking for me because I was the one holding THEM UP while we were talking, because I was trying to get pictures of the many beautiful flowers that I saw, and THEY became annoying to ME, because they were now interrupting my good time, walking too fast not appreciating anything!  This really confused people, and I told them to keep going, and that I’d catch up to them.  There was just too much stuff to see, just at the entry alone, and at that point, I just wondered if I’d have enough time to see the whole thing! You can seriously pass more than 3 hours there and not see everything.  I just ditched my company, I was in my own zone.

The Butchart Gardens was established by the Butchart family, who were in the cement business and set up a place for limestone, in a quarry they mined.  When there was nothing left to mine, it was Jennie Butchart (the wife) who later converted their estate, piece by piece, to what became Butchart Gardens, and even commissioned a Japanese master of gardening to build up their Japanese Garden.  Butchart Gardens is split up into different sections, or various gardens, and walking paths which make it impossible to get lost and make sure you see all of the highlights of the place from the paths. The Butchart’s created a part of the garden where the quarry was dug and named it the “Sunken Garden”.  When you see most pictures of Butchart Gardens, you will, without a doubt, see a picture of the Sunken Garden, as it’s the most memorable part about the place and is something one must experience for herself. It’s gorgeous and you will not believe how beautiful that place is in spring, in particular, most of the year you’ll see excellently carved trees and colorful flowers!  You can look out on the land from this location, and will have to go down into it to reach the other highlights of the place.

You’ll make your way toward the Ross fountain, eventually, which is this automated water fountain which will create cool patterns off in the distance. That is another highly photographed location and is a dedication to the grandson of the Butcharts, Ian Ross, with whom they left the property to. He was responsible for the promotion of the gardens and getting its name out, making it what it ended up being recognized for being today.  I have been twice to this location, so far, and I saw the place change a lot, when I compared the pics, mostly because the same flowers you saw once might not be the same ones you see the next time around. They do change up the place, with the flowers, colors and such, which I’d suggest was a seasonal thing.  So you might see a completely different show each time you go.

You can see a list of their flowers here, but that’s not everything that you’ll see there. I saw these beautiful Purple Flowers, they are not on their chart but they were certainly all over the place.

Hopefully, you didn’t walk right by the Japanese garden, as I saw many people doing. It can get a little dark in that area because there it’s under a lot of tree cover, so hopefully, you have a camera that will have flash or you have some skills and a good lens to try to get as much light on what you’re seeing, as possible.

Hidden in there is a beautiful fountain which looks like winding, diving sturgeons entering the water. Very crafty!

A pond that I found while talking an alternate route off of a main path

If you keep your eyes opened, you’ll spot all kinds of Easter Eggs there. If you look at it from an artistic standpoint, the whole place is beautiful art.  An example is that if you look carefully, on the side paths, there are bunches of weeds stuck together to form various animal shapes. Actually, I didn’t notice it at first, some kid near me pointed out a tiger, and then from there I noticed different animal shapes after that.

So yeah, I changed my mind and I actually like to photography nice, well-kept, professionally presented flowers! The soothe me, for some reason. I’d by myself some before I’d buy a woman some, that’s how great I think  I am  they are! 🙂

As always, the finished products can be found on the main site of www.drunkphotography.com.