MySecretGarden

The Butchart Inspiration

Every time we go to Vancouver Island, Canada, we visit Butchart Gardens located just north of Victoria, B.C. By the way, Victoria, which is the capital of British Columbia, is a special place for us since we got engaged there.

All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them

For me, not only are the gardens themselves amazing, but also their history is too.
The idea of transforming an exhausted limestone quarry into a garden is fascinating in and of itself. Jennie Butchart is the person behind the project of converting the 50- acre quarry into the world famous gardens that started in 1904.
The Sunken Garden.

This is where the abandoned quarry was located. It took tons of top soil brought by horse and cart to cover its floor.

The structure seen on the above picture, taken from the Sunken Garden lookout, is the only surviving portion of Robert Butchart's cement factory. It's the kiln's chimney. Interesting fact: The plant stopped producing cement in 1916, but continued to make tiles and flower pots as late as 1950.

The Sunken Garden was inspired by a casual dare from a Butchart friend. I read that after hearing the remark that "even you would be unable to get anything to grow there," Mrs. Butchart was intrigued with the challenge to transform the tremendous, ugly site into a wonderful garden.

The colorful flower beds, borders and lush lawns exist today in shape and form as Mrs. Butchart designed them.

The Italian Garden was created by 1908.

This garden is the most formal of all the gardens and has the shape of a Florentine cross.

The Mermaid and Fish Fountain feed the cross-shaped lily pond which dominates this garden.

The lily pond is surrounded by flower beds with spectacular blooms.

The Ross fountain was built in 1964 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Butchart Gardens.

It shoots an array of changing water patterns that rise up to 70 feet.

The Japanese Gardens are exquisite:

The English-style Rose Garden is bursting with all shades of red, pink, purple and blue. Charming rose arches, towering delphiniums, sweet peas and peonies take your breath away.

Roses, most of them Hybrid Teas, are marked with the country of origin and the year selected by the American Rose Society.

Climbers, ramblers, standards... Their fragrances fill the air.

We've been to Butchart Gardens only in summer, but the gardens stay beautiful all year round. From March through October, over one million bedding plants in about 700 varieties are used to create patterns of non-stop color.

This is the great site to visit and learn more: The Butchart Gardens
Some facts from that site:
Rainfall 76 cm (30 inches) plus. Most of this rainfall occurs between November and March. Temperature extremes range from a maximum high (rare) of 36 degrees C/97 degrees F to a maximum low (again extremely rare) of minus 10°C/14°F. A typical summer daytime temperature is from 22 - 26°C/ 72 - 79°F and winter daytime temperatures typically 5 - 10°C/41 - 50°F.

I always feel lucky to be a part of almost a million people visiting these magnificent gardens each year.

My Picture Of The day. Pink Geraniums

Thank You! It's Joe Pie Weed!

Of course, it is Joe Pie Weed, a perennial that is native to North America!!!

Thank you everyone who looked at the pictures and tried to guess.

The moment I saw Randy Emmitt and Tina comments and later Kathleen, susanjtweit and Frances comments, I remembered that I got several little plants last year from my friend who grew them from seeds. They were not prominent last summer, just about 2' tall. The blooms were puny, also. (So, I didn't pull them all out and I did see the blooms!)

I can't even see JPW on the picture below, although it should be somewhere here in this jungle!

(But I see something in the right part of the picture that I need to remove from this bed - it's a tomato-red geum as Grace called it, which doesn't go at all with this color pallate!)

I was not prepared to see two stately, tall multistemmed plants which emerged this spring.

What impressed me was how they appeared: several strong shoots with nice looking furled top leaves that created a clump.

What was confusing is that I have tens of seedlings nearby and believed that they were Joe Pie Weed seedlings (Now, I know that they are not!

They should be .... foxgloves!)

I don't know what type of JPW I have. While researching, I met such names as Coastal Plain Joe-Pye Weed, Hollow Joe-Pye Weed, Spotted Joe-Pye Weed,Sweet Joe-Pye Weed, Green-stemmed Joe-Pye Weed, Queen of the Meadow, Gravel Root, Kidney Root, Purple Boneset.

In my garden, JPW gets full sun and regular watering. I don't want it to grow very tall.

They say, depending on the species and the growing location, it can get very tall (up to 8-12!!! feet).

It was mentioned on one of the Internet forums that you can control JPW height by keeping it dry or shaded which is not applicable to my situation.

Some gardeners recommend to clip it back. They think it could be done up to the middle of June, and it should still bloom.

I might do it to keep the plants shorter and bushier.

My plants have mauve-pink flowers (Yes, Silvia!). I read about a variety called Chocolate Snake Root which has shiny and deep purple stems 36-40" tall covered with chocolate-purple foliage and white flowers in terminal corymbs. Another variety, Little Joe, grows 3-4 feet that is more suitable for small gardens and has pink flowers. Baby Joe is the smallest, 30-36" with fuschia-colored blooms. Speaking about blooms, the flower clusters of JPW can get as much as 1 foot in diameter!

Based on your comments and other information, I should expect to see some butterflies in my garden this summer, shouldn't I?

I like the fact that it's deer resistant, too!

To prevent it getting weedy, I think about deadheading the plants before the seeds spread (Yes, Aunt Debbi/kurts mom and Joanne!) . I might also try to replant it to rear of the garden. By the way, JPW is cultivated easiest from cuttings.

Thanks again everyone for your assistance!

The last thing - I think I need to find a plant that can boost my memory, because I actually planted it myself and I saw the blooms last year!!!

P.S. Victoria, as Tina said it is not in getting it right but in the attempt at trying for sure. It is ME who was absolutely clueless!

August update. Here it is:

***

HELP Needed! What Is This Plant?!

Can you help me with this plant identification, please?

It's upright and tall. Now, its height is about 3 feet and it keeps growing.
Multiple stems appeared from the ground at the same time.
Please, click on the picture below to see the dark markings on the stems.

I am waiting for the flowers to appear, but instead of them,

there are new leaves unfurling on the top of the plant.

Last year, I pulled this plant out before it reached 3' . I never saw the blooms.
This year, I decided to wait longer and see the flowers, but it's getting big and takes a lot of space. Please, help!

Blooms. May-June

This is what is left after tree peony finished blooming. Its flowers lasted only a week.

Clicking on the pictures makes them larger

This oriental poppy opens its blooms one by one:

I didn't remove chives heads last year and they overseeded in the kitchen garden. I should take them under control.

Spanish lavender:

Foxgloves started to bloom all over the garden. They choose their spots without my help.

This Dropmore Scarlet honeysuckle, hardy and vigorous, is growing in the big pot:

Clematis montana is going strong:

Spanish lavender, rhododendron and calla lily.

Climbing rose Don Juan is a proven perfomer. It reblooms several times during summer:

Rosa rugoza. Thinning out the shrubs brought more blooms this year:

Rhododendrons and azaleas:

Azalea in the blue pot was a Costco Christmas time buy 4 years ago.

Herbacious Peony.
I didn't move it from the pot to the ground and it gave me one single flower.