From Rubble to Roses
Butchart Gardens rise from rock pit to world famous gardens
It's hard to know what Jennie Butchart would think of the garden she started over a 100 years ago when she hit on the idea of turning an ugly hole in the ground, the limestone quarry that her husband Robert had mined, into a beautiful garden. A true pioneer in land reclamation and saving the environment Jennie laid out the gardens as a series of clearly define spaces in a true Edwardian style. The gardens contains beds of annual interspersed amongst flowering trees and shrubs with cover and protection provided Douglas firs, cedars, and Lombardy poplars. Each season is resplendent with colour and fragrance abounding.
Robert Pim Butchart (born March 30, 1856) was one of 11 children. His Scottish parents owned a hardware store in Georgian Bay, and Robert was drawn naturally to business. At age 27, living in Owen Sound in central Ontario, Robert met a charming 18-year-old Irish colleen named Jeanette Foster Kennedy and his destiny underwent a dramatic change. Jennie was always the adventuress. She loved ballooning, flying, horseback riding and painting.
They were married in Buffalo, but it was on their honeymoon in England that Robert was introduced to the manufacturing process of Portland cement and, encouraged by his visionary bride, he saw the enormous potential the substance would have in Canada. Assisted by his brother David, they pioneered refinements, including the storing and shipping of cement in sacks instead of the barrels that everyone else used. The enthusiastic Jennie studied chemistry so that she could be an integral part of the process.
In 1902 Mr. Butchart came to Vancouver Island, and located some twelve miles north of Victoria, where he believed the required limestone could be found. Two years later, the Tod Inlet cement plant was started and Jennie joined her husband on Vancouver Island. His business lasted a short twelve years before exhausting the limestone deposits.
Jennie Butchart busied herself around the estate by planting flowers and shrubbery in an area between the house and Butchart cove, the area that is now the Japanese Garden. She would be the first to admit that she knew nothing about gardening, apart from scattering a few sweet-pea seeds around her cottage door, but little by little, the gardening bug bit her.
She took the piles of clay and sand left over from the cement processing and moulded them into the gentle slopes that now form the Upper Garden. She transformed the rough farm pasture into tennis courts and lawns. As time passed, Jennie's efforts increased and her husband often supplied workmen from the factory to assist in the ever growing project of gardening.
Once the quarry had been abandoned, his wife Jennie Butchart was inspired to create a beautiful and unique garden in the area that once housed the cement factory. Topsoil was brought in by horse and cart to begin the creation of a Japanese Garden, an Italian Garden and a Rose Garden. The gardens were given to the Butchart's grandson, Ian Ross, on his 21st birthday. For fifty years Ian worked to make the Butchart Gardens famous destination that they are today.
In the summer he added outdoor symphony concerts, a variety stage show, the ever-popular "Magic of Christmas". When he passed his son Christopher took the reins and introduced the world famous Saturday night fireworks display. Robin-Lee Clarke, great grand-daughter of Jennie and Ian' sister took over in 1999 and added the beautiful Menagerie Carousel.
The only remaining part of the limestone pits is the tall chimney of the original cement factory can still be seen from the Sunken Garden Lookout and some of the original cherry trees may also still be seen. The Gardens are now more popular than ever. Every year they are visited by almost a million people who come for the beauty, the entertainment and the history that the gardens offer. They come to see the more than 1 million bedding plants in some 900 varieties, laid artistically down.
Butchart Gardens was bestowed the honour of a National Historic Site of Canada in 2004. Well-deserved and definitely deserving of a visit by you.
