Gary-Summer: July 24, 2026 - Buchart Gardens

Friday, July 24, 2026

July 24, 2026 - Buchart Gardens

Title: July 24, 2026 - Butchart Gardens

Hike Info : Description : Extra Photo's : Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type:Touring

Description:

Today is a slow morning in Victoria. I woke up around 6:30 and saw there was no lightning and went back to bed. Sort of nodded off and on. Andrea got up to go for a run and I got up around 8. We had a hotel breakfast. It is not until a little before 11 do we actually get out of the room.

Sherri and Andrea

We get to Butchart Gardens about 11:45, after paying the entrance fee. The fee seems really high, but in Canadian dollars. Later on when I get an email from the bank, the amount seems tolerable. I can hear my Dad in my ear grumbling about how high prices are now. The difference is that even though I think the prices are high-I am like Dad in that regard-I will not let that stop me or my family from enjoying what we want to do. We just need to choose wisely.

Now that I have that out of my system. Sherri and I have been to the Gardens before with Mom and Dad. Andrea has been here as well when she has done her Dragon Boat races. In a lot of ways it is not new to us. But particular to Sherri, she wants to spend time exploring and enjoying the Gardens and a High Tea.

Surprisingly, Sherri and Andrea spend about the first half an hour in the gift shop. I found a shady bench and continued to read Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. The book started off slow. From reading his previous book, he is an engaging writer. So I am willing to give him a chance. Now I am engaged in his characters and wonder what he will be bringing next to the story.

Sunken Gardens

When they emerge from the gift shop, we start walking along a path. That is when Sherri realizes she has forgotten her phone/camera in the car. I get commissioned to retrieve it while they continue to enjoy the flowers along the way. It takes me about 15 minutes to get back with them. They had not gone far-not sure if they wanted to make sure I could find them or if they were enamoured with the flowers.

Trees of Life

I will not be going into detail about every flower we saw. More just some general places we went. Hopefully the pictures will give you some ideas. The first section we went to was the Sunken Gardens. Sherri asks me about a plant. Which they saw. I thought it was a begonia. When I put Google Lens on it, it confirms it! This is so unusual as my extent of botany is: it is living!

We spent about 45 minutes just wandering around the Sunken Garden. The two original trees, called the Trees of Life are down there.But to me, they are not the main attractions. The riot of colors with the peacefulness of the grass and ponds are. As we make our way around, it is realized that we need to get moving so Andrea and Sherri can make their 1:15 reservation for High Tea.

Ready for their High Tea

It takes a little effort to find the entrance-actually, if we just opened our eyes at the start of our search, we would have seen the way. They leave for their tea, I find a bench in the shade and have my sandwich-notice the theme? All are content with their sustenance. I read for a while longer until their tea finished around 2:15.

Did Andrea and Sherri enjoy themselves? I will have Sherri and Andrea put the High tea into their own words:

It was so nice, lots of good food selection. Tea was really good. Felt like they were being taken care of. Down to the tea strainer being set for them. Food was very decadent. The tea was delicious. Mom got the 100 year tea; Andrea was the Button tea.

It was a great time to spend with her daughter.

They want their own High Tea.

Andrea at the High Tea

The first thing which they do is serve the sweet thing first, an English peach trifle. Then served tea before the main food.

The quiche, which was both of their favorites, had a really thick crust. There were leeks , with crushed peppers. The peppers were locally sourced, something like from the Volcanic Gods.

Then there was the sausage with something like a philo dough. It was done in layers, with time in the freezer to get the layers right.

After they get out, we go over to the Rose Garden. There, we wandered around the circle. We saw a sign saying there were 2,500 different roses in the garden with around 250 varieties. That is a lot of roses. Every couple roses, one of us comments about how fragrant or vibrant the flower was.

Monkey Puzzle Tree

When we emerged, we thought we were going to the Japanese Garden. Instead we ended up at the Fireworks area, totem poles and Rose Carousel. The totem poles were created for the Gardens 100th birthday, honoring both the First Nations of the area as well as representing various animals. We come across a couple Monkey Puzzle Trees. We stopped and cogitated on, where have we seen these trees before? We each have different recollections. We rested there for about 15 minutes before moving on.

We retreated back to the Rose Garden and now went the right way to get to the Japanese Garden. To me this seemed much more like a Japanese Garden than what we saw in Minnesota. But there are two different types of terrain which these and the Minneapolis gardens are built on. I think Butchart was built on ground which was more conducive to a good Japanese garden. First, we descended into a hallow, by a series of steps. Then the path winds its way around, so you have to slow down and enjoy the surroundings. There were all of the elements which we learned about last month-see Wikipedia on this. These gardens seemed to flow more than forced. I could see how you could get yourself lost on these paths.

By the time we finished with the Japanese Gardens it was 4pm. We all are pretty tired. But there is one more thing left which Andrea and Sherri want to do: revisit the gift shop. Which means I get to read some more. By the time we left, it was closing in on 4:45.

Andrea drives us out. We decided we wanted to stock our stuff. I wanted to get gas and Shereri wanted a Polish dog and poutine. That means we will go to Costco. Apparently Victoria really likes their Costco. When we got off of the highway, there were signs telling us exactly where to go to get to the store. We are still unsure how to convert something such as km/l to miles per gallon. Somehow 11.5 km/l seems low.

Costco Adventure

We did wander around Costco. But, we did not pick up anything. This Costco carried much of the same stuff as what the ones in Salem and Fresno does. But they seem to have things arranged differently. We ended up not buying anything. But we did go to the food court and had Polish dogs and poutine. We are content.

I drove us back to the hotel, arriving at 7:15. We all just lay down and relax. I eventually take a shower, followed by Sherri. By 10, I go to bed.