Rose, Japanese, and Italian Gardens at Butchart Gardens

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:59:59 -800

The Rose Garden
was built in 1929 atop the Butchart's old kitchen vegetable garden. There's a
big oval of lawn in the middle, and various covered walkways that are built out
of curved wood pieces. One thing, however, that I didn't like so much about
this garden is that they were not as good at placing identifying tags to tell
you what kind of rose you're looking at, which made it less interesting to me.
(By contrast, the flower beds in the Rose Test Garden in Portland are always
tagged with the variety that is planted there.) The Japanese Garden is
built in the style of a traditional garden, with streams coursing from the
upper part of the gardens downhill towards Tod Inlet, rock paths across the
streams, small plants, and a lot of stone objects and careful water features.
The paths undulate around and around the garden, but the low-hanging tree
canopy and the lack of any geological features makes it easy to lose oneself in
the garden. In contrast to the flowing lines of the Japanese style garden, the
adjacent Italian
Garden is remarkable in its sturdy geometry and symmetry--at the
front there is a 12-point circular star pool in the middle of a circle, and
beyond that, rectangular planters that form a symmetry across the Butcharts'
house patio.