Butchart Gardens in fall & winter

The Butchart Gardens

Victoria, B.C., Canada

48° 33′ 55″ N, 123° 28′ 10″ W

Dates visited: November 2, 2025 & January 5, 2026

Since we bought SIRI in 2022, visiting The Butchart Gardens has been on our bucket list. A must-visit according to most every Vancouver Island travel guide we've read and all our B.C. friends, we finally went this past November with a couple dear friends from South Dakota who were up visiting us...and then again in early January when Ethan's parents were in town during their Christmas display...and we also bought a season pass for all of 2026 so we can visit again (hopefully multiple times) before we depart this part of the world.

To say that the gardens lived up to the hype we had built up over three years would be an understatement.

About the Butchart Gardens

Tucked away along the Saanich Inlet just north of Victoria on Vancouver Island, Butchart Gardens is a British Columbia staple that began over a century ago. What is now a 55-acre tapestry of floral and vegetative art started as a limestone quarry.

In 1904, Canadian entrepreneur Robert Pim Butchart and his wife, Jennie Butchart, left Ontario and moved to Tod Inlet — a little finger off the Saanich Inlet — to build Vancouver Portland Cement Company using the rich limestone deposits of the area. As the site’s limestone was gradually exhausted, rather than leaving the depleted quarry as is, Jennie had another idea: transform the barren land into a sprawling garden.

By 1912, topsoil brought in by horse and cart started bringing to life the first part of Jennie's vision in the area that would later become known as the Sunken Garden. Over the next two decades, the gardens continued to grow and expand as Jennie added distinct garden “rooms,” each with its own character: a serene Japanese Garden inspired by traditional design and early 20th-century Pacific influences; an Italian Garden that replaced the family’s tennis court; and a lush Rose Garden filled with thousands of blossoms that features varieties from all over the world.

Circa 1910. The beginning of the transformation of the depleted quarry pit into what is now known as the Sunken Garden. The Vancouver Portland Cement Company plant can be seen in the right hand corner. (City of Victoria Archives photo M05821)

By the 1920s, the gardens were already drawing visitors from far beyond Victoria. So welcoming was the Butchart family’s hospitality that the main house — named Benvenuto, Italian for “welcome” — became synonymous with open doors and shared beauty. In 1939, the gardens were gifted to the Butcharts' grandson, Ian Ross, for his 21st birthday, and he spent the following six decades turning the gardens into the international destination it is today with curated seasonal celebrations including fireworks over the bay in the Summer and the Magic of Christmas displays.

Butchart Gardens welcomes over one million visitors annually, and remains a family owned and operated entity under the leadership of descendants of Robert and Jennie. Staff ranges between 250-600 people depending on the season which includes 50 full-time gardeners that manage both the perennials throughout the main grounds as well as the greenhouses and the oversight of over 500,000 annuals and bulbs that are planted each year. The main house, Benvenuto, still maintains it's open door namesake with daily afternoon tea service. What is now over 130 acres in full, Butchart Gardens also stands as a National Historic Site of Canada as a tribute to imagination and horticultural excellence.

Butchart in fall

Our November visit was almost perfectly timed for peak fall colors. Combined with a very typical Pacific Northwest misty rain, exploring the gardens that day made a pumpkin spice chai latte from the little coffee shop at the entrance a necessity (or hot chocolate for those in our group who don't honor the sanctity of PSL season, ahem, Ethan...).

It was only fitting that our inaugural trip was with Terry & Lori who once upon a time owned a greenhouse and landscaping business in Nebraska, and who were strong influences in our Sturgis house landscape endeavors. Between Lori's brain that also doubles as an encyclopedia of vegetation and the little signs in front a most of the plants, we had no need for the plant guides the garden provides visitors.

The iconic Sunken Gardens in fall colors.

The consistent light rain for much of our day added to the PNW-esque ambiance.

Ponds and colors galore.

Another icon of the gardens is the Ross Fountains.

Even if you're not crazy about plants and gardens, it's hard to not be impressed.

Dahlias in full bloom in November.

We should have counted how many different shapes and colors of dahlias there were.

Quaint little ornate boxwood animals could be found tucked into nooks and crannies of the gardens.

The Japanese Gardens stole the show for us.

The colors and textures in the Japanese Gardens is hard to put into words.

The little ornate details interspersed with the plants made for an art show-like experience.

Hello, gorgeous fall colors.

Benevenuto still stands and operates as a dining room that serves daily afternoon tea and meals.

Jennie's tea garden as it was in the 1900s, closed off to the public.

What was once tennis courts is now a series of fountains and flowerbeds.

The 2 x 3 meter bronze and granite dragon statue was a gift from the People's Republic of China.

The Magic of Christmas

We noticed hints of Christmas preparations already starting during our November visit, and for good reason: Butchart shows off at Christmas in a spectacular way. Running from the first of December through the first full week in January, Butchart Gardens displays their annual "Magic of Christmas" which includes over 300,000 lights and specialized displays, this year featuring the 12 days of Christmas that unfolded in order as you progressed through the gardens.

We visited on their last night of the Christmas display in early January while Ethan's parents were in town, and boy howdy did it bring the spirit of Christmas alive. And, since Vancouver Island is a temperate rainforest (also known as the warmest area in all of Canada), some plants and flowers were still showing off. We didn't take too many pictures, but if you ever get the chance to visit Vancouver Island in December and want a good dose of Christmas spirit, we'd highly recommend adding Butchart Gardens to your itinerary.

The entrance to the gardens is decorated with the season, including an ice skating rink in December.

Phone photos don't do the Sunken Garden at Christmas justice.

I could've sat and watched this all day (and night).

Even the giant evergreens were lit up with Christmas magic.

As a part of the 12 Days of Christmas theme, early 20th century French inspired 11 pipers piping

One of the giant redwoods, planted as a seed in 1934.

Even though we didn't have a "traditional" Christmas this year — we had no decorations put up on the boat save for two Rodger's Chocolates advent calendars with Christmas scenes on the front —we made a point to "do" Christmas in ways that Vancouver Island has to offer such as spending a couple days at Inner Harbour in downtown Victoria while the city was decorated in extraordinary Christmas lights, and I baked some of our favorite Christmas treats as we would any other year. When we got into the car after walking through Butchart, I couldn't help but be grateful for the first of many unordinary Christmas' we have in store for us, and found myself pondering about what Christmas 2026 will look like, wherever in the world we end up.

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