The Buchart Gardens and not to be missed. The tours don't just do the gardens. One of the tours included "Butterfly World" but most of the time was spent at Buchart. We were glad we did. The butterfly's were incredible!Here they have pupa from which the butterflies are beginning to emerge. The whole garden is filled with butterflies - so look closely!
They do pose for you.
This one was a bit more shy.
Some prefer to hid in plain sight. The side/back of the wings was a lovely teal blue but it was shy about opening up for me.
The coloration is just amazing!
Buchart was as incredible as we remembered.
For every couple steps you take, you come across another vista.
You need to look closely as well as letting your eyes wander over the whole picture.
Fuchsias and Will
Love this vista. The color. The shapes.
They make remarkable use of small areas of water.
This area was very reminiscent of the rain forest areas we had seen earlier on the trip.
Love trees that have this shape. There is something very serene here.
The water fall is the base of the old cement quarry. The water changes as you look at it - height, intensity, shape,.....
The dahlias - from small to platter - all colors - were quite remarkable.
Some of the gardens are more formal in their layout.
The lawns are amazing. They use different grasses in different areas to give differing colors of green.
Of course none of these pictures does justice to the gardens. The colors are so vibrant!
The newest addition is a carousel. This bronze horse is adorned with roses. I am sure I could find a place for him among our roses.
Each of the animals is a piece of art. Each crafted with humor. There are items from all over the world represented in the decorations.
This part of the garden is a bit primeval.
Lush - so many tones of green!
Will, walking stick in hand, traverses the walk ways. Many were a bit slick with the light rain that was falling off and on during our visit.
The Japanese Gardens are lovely. They are miniturized in several ways but you don't feel it - just the harmony of the shapes and sizes.
So many different changes in levels and terrain.
The formal gardens are sometimes exceedingly formal.
Quite a contrast from the formal garden next door to the cottage garden - here with loads of different snap dragons.
Unfortunately they only gave us 1.5 hours at Buchart Gardens. The end of the tour was a drive through Victoria. Here is the Empress Hotel. We have had the lovely high tea there previously. Some day we will do it again.
You can see our ship in the distance as we drove back to the harbor.
Good by to Victoria.