There are hundreds of great botanic gardens of the world. Starting to the North in Canada, you can visit the 55 acre Butchart Gardens. For someone visiting the Butchart Gardens for the first time, the best advice that someone can give you is to plan on at least a day to take your time to go through the entire thing, really study everything that it has to offer and take in the entire experience. Another thing to know ahead of time is that you will want to have plenty of film available for your camera. People have been known to take multiple rolls of film while visiting the garden. The best time to visit Butchart Gardens would be from May through about September to get the full experience of everything that goes into bloom in the garden. For more information and details, visit their website at www.butchartgardens.org
For those of you who have your own transportation to go from garden to garden, you will want to drive South to Seattle. When in Seattle, you will want to go to Washington Park, a public park occupied by the Washington Park Arboretum. Washington Park is a joint project being taken care of by three different groups; University of Washington, Seattle Parks and Recreation, and the Arboretum Foundation, which is a non profit organization. From here, drive down to the Seattle waterfront, and onto the Washington State Ferry. This will take you to what the locals call, “Beautiful Bainbridge Island”, and when you depart the ferry, you will follow the signs to the far North end of the Island to The Bloedel Reserve. The creators of the Reserve, Prentice and Virginia Bloedel, lived on the property from 1951 through 1986. This facility is great for touring and seeing the beauty that it has to offer as well as hosting your private party and wedding events. For directions and more information about this facility please visit their website at www.depts.washington.edu/uwbg/gardens/wpa.shtml
If you still have some time, you will want to drive down to Seattle’s waterfront, and take the Washington State Ferry across to what the locals refer to as “Beautiful Bainbridge Island”. Once on Bainbridge, follow the signs to the far North End of the Island and take a self guided walking tour of the Bloedel Reserve. The Reserve sits on 150 acres combining natural woodlands and amazing gardens that you can take in while on your walking tour. There is also a pool which sits next to the Estate. For more information please visit their website at www.bloedelreserve.org
