Butchart Gardens

Finally I'm going to stick with updating the blog until it's done! Our grandson's graduation cruise was diverted from the Mexican Riviera to Canada because of the Swine Flu so we got to see the world famous Butchart Gardens. The gardens were started over a hundred years ago by Jennie Butchart to beautify a worked out limestone quarry, and they're still family owned today. The gardening became a hobby for Jennie and she worked long hours along side her helpers. The story goes that back in the early days word began to spread about the beautiful gardens and people would come wanting to walk through them. Jennie would graciously
provide "tea" for the visitors. Today there's fountains and a gift shop, even an ice cream shop. The gardens cover 55 acres, if a plant "looks sick" another replaces it immediately, the whole garden is continuously scanned. Canada is beautiful and flowers, flowers everywhere. Victoria, BC, and Vancouver, BC are both beautiful,
clean cities. Vancouver is definitely metropolitan. One thing that caught my attention was that even the
condos had planter boxes on the balconies. It's a gardeners paradise!