The Buchart Gardens in Victoria covers 55 acres. It was originally a worked out limestone quarry which had supplied the owners of the Portland cement plant. Today it is still owned by the original familys great grand daughter. The gardens are visited by close to a million visitors each year. Fortunately for us we decided to get there before opening and we were allowed to enter at 8.45am. It turned out that this was a great decision as there were very few people around until 10.30am when people just swarmed in but we had already covered over half of the gardens by then so most people were well behind us. The gardens employ 50 outdoor gardeners and 20 indoors and then many more staff the Gift Shop, a restaurant and two cafes. The gardens were absolutely stunning. All the plants were in the best condition and not a weed to be found anywhere.
The two photos above are of the Sunken garden with beds of annuals, flowering trees and shrubs growing to the base of the towering walls.
The Ross fountain which was created and installed in 1964 for the gardens 60th anniversary by Ian Ross who was the grand son of the Bucharts. The fountain spurts water to the height of 21 metres and was quite spectacular.
A dragon fly landed on the chain fence in front of us. This was the only one like this that we saw as all the others were a very bright blue and much prettier but didn't oblige by landing for us.
The snap dragons made a beautiful show.
With it being Canada's 150 year anniversary this year they had made a special garden feature to commemorate this. The area was still a work in progress.
A very handsome Monkey Puzzle tree.
A stunning dragon fountain was a gift to the Buschart Gardens from the Peoples Republic of China.
One of three massive Redwood trees in the gardens
The rose gardens were spectacular and all out in full bloom.
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