The Butchart Gardens (National Historic Site): Sunken Garden, Fireworks & How to Get There

Located 21 kilometres (30 minutes by car or 45 minutes on public BC Transit Bus #75) north of downtown Victoria on the Saanich Peninsula at Brentwood Bay, The Butchart Gardens is a 55-acre (22-hectare) botanical masterpiece and a National Historic Site of Canada that welcomes over a million visitors a year. What makes its story so remarkable is how it began: in 1904, when Portland cement pioneer Robert Pim Butchart exhausted the limestone quarry next to their home on Tod Inlet, his wife Jennie Butchart had horse-drawn carts haul tonnes of topsoil from neighbouring farms into the barren, 15-metre-deep grey rock pit—lowering herself in a wooden bosun's chair on ropes to tuck ivy and alpine rock plants into the vertical quarry walls!

1. The 5 Interconnected Gardens (Allow 2.5 to 3.5 Hours to Walk the Full Loop!)

Planted by 50 full-time horticulturists with over 900 varieties of plants (including 300,000 spring tulips and daffodils in April/May, 2,500 rose bushes in July/August, crimson Japanese maples in October, and the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' lights in December!), the one-way path leads through:

1. The Sunken Garden (The Showstopper!): pause first at the top of the stone staircase for the iconic postcard view over the entire 5-acre quarry floor, then wind down past weeping hemlocks and poplar trees to the central rock mound (the single remaining pinnacle of unmined limestone left in the middle of the pit—climb its spiral path for a 360-degree view!) and the choreographed 21-metre water jets of the Ross Fountain.
2. The Rose Garden & The Concert Lawn (With the 30-Animal Rose Carousel!): walk beneath 30 arches of climbing roses (peak bloom: late June through September) and ride the indoor hand-carved wooden menagerie carousel (small extra fee).
3. The 1906 Japanese Garden (Leading to the Tod Inlet Boat Dock!), The Italian Garden (With Gelato!) & The Mediterranean Garden: designed in 1906 with Japanese landscape artist Isaburo Kishida, the serene bamboo-and-maple streams of the Japanese Garden lead down to secret Tod Inlet (where electric boat tours run in summer!), before you finish with house-made gelato beside the cross-shaped pond of the Italian Garden (formerly the Butcharts' tennis court!).

2. Summer Saturday Night Fireworks (July & August) & How to Get There by Bus

On every Saturday night in July and August, your regular daytime admission ticket includes the famous Butchart Gardens Choreographed Fireworks Show on the Firework Lawn (accompanied by live brass and rock bands—bring a blanket!). Getting There Without a Car: board public double-decker BC Transit Route #75 ('Saanichton / Royal Oak') right on Douglas Street in downtown Victoria—it drops you directly inside the gates of The Butchart Gardens for the price of a normal bus fare (or use an all-day DayPASS).