In last week’s column, I gave you a glimpse of the beauty of
Vancouver, British Columbia, as we lauded the beauty of Minter
Gardens, a 32-acre wonderland of 11 themed gardens. The trip to
Minter was a highlight of a recent visit by some 550 members of the
Garden Writers Association, the largest organization of
professional garden communicators in the world with more than 1,500
members.
In last week’s column, I gave you a glimpse of the beauty of Vancouver, British Columbia, as we lauded the beauty of Minter Gardens, a 32-acre wonderland of 11 themed gardens. The trip to Minter was a highlight of a recent visit by some 550 members of the Garden Writers Association, the largest organization of professional garden communicators in the world with more than 1,500 members.
Minter Gardens is located less than two hours from Vancouver, the largest city in Western Canada. Each of the 11 themed gardens are special in their own right. The gardens are designed in such a way that each feature garden is followed by a gray or quiet area – an area with understated plantings to mark the end of one garden and the beginning of another.
Especially dazzling is the Stream Garden with its wonderful astilbe; the Rose Garden that features more than 75 varieties of roses; and the Hedge Maze, great fun for kids and grown-ups alike.
The floral flag, planted on an entrance hillside, represents the largest floral flag in Canada. The red maple leaf of the Canadian flag, with its outlining of white and red, are made up of thousands of fibrous – or wax – begonias.
No visit to western Canada would be complete without a visit to the world-famous Butchart Gardens in Victoria. This 55-acre floral wonderland, transformed from a barren limestone quarry, has been around for more than a century. The fact the garden got its beginnings from a quarry is well-represented by the famous Sunken Garden.
Finally, the garden writers visited both VanDusen Botanical Garden and the University of British Columbia’s Botanical Garden in Vancouver. VanDusen features 7,500 types of plants from around the world on 55 acres. Visitors can choose from one of three walking tours, ranging from 20 minutes to two hours. Highlights include the maze garden and water features such as ducks, giant koi and sunning turtles. There are traditional rock and herb gardens that give way to arching laburnums, perennial flowers, drifts of heather, dells of ferns, and hundreds of rhododendrons and azaleas.
The UBC Botanical Garden offers more than 10,000 different plants on 44 acres. Gardens feature alpine and Asian treasures, medicinal and culinary plants, the towering trees of British Columbia’s coastal native forest.
Vancouver is, indeed, a wonderful garden experience.
Getting to Know the Gardens
– For more information about Butchart Gardens, go to www.butchart-gardens.com.
– For more information about the University of British Columbia’s Botanical Garden, go to www.ubcbotanical-
garden.org.
– For VanDusen Botanical Garden, go to
www.vandusengarden-.org.
– Minter Gardens is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Go to www.mintergardens.com.
