Welcome to Modern Agriculture!
Hi GPOD!
Today’s photos come from a friend of the GPOD, Cherry Ong, who visited the Butchart Gardens in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, in early March and captured these scenes in the Sunken Garden. Cherry reflects, “What I love about the cold season is how the interest shifts to perennials that anchor the garden.” Even this early in the season, the garden feels full of life, and offers a lesson in structure. At this time, texture and quiet beauty carry the display as spring slowly begins to unfold.
This site was originally used as a limestone quarry, but in the early 1900s, it had been mostly worked out. It was then transformed by Jennie Butchart into the lush display garden visitors know today and remains a testament to vision, patience, and horticultural artistry.
The Sunken Garden’s dramatic bowl shape creates a sense of immersion, where layered plantings, terraces, and winding paths draw visitors downward into an ever-changing tapestry of color and texture. Early spring presents us the opportunity to view the unique structure of the “bowl,” where a plethora of hardy perennials and evergreens ensures beauty well before the peak bloom of summer.
Butchart sits at USDA Zone 8, where mild coastal conditions allow for a long growing season and an impressive diversity of plantings throughout the year.
Here we see ‘Midwinter Fire’ bloodtwig dogwood (Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’, Zones 5–8) creating a pop of brilliant color against the evergreen background.
An amazing moss-covered Japanese maple‘s winding and twisting branches lend tons of sculptural appeal in the offseason. It will soon be covered with equally gorgeous leaves, but seeing it now is a treat unto itself and a reminder that cool-weather garden visits offer their own gifts.
Evergreen trees and shrubs provide so much versatility and potential for creating interest in the garden.
Broadleaf evergreens like this Rhododendron (Rhododendron spp. and cvs., Zones 3–9), are often underutilized in garden design, but work well paired with conifers such as this dwarf Alberta spruce (Picea glauca cvs. Zones 3–6).
A Yoshino Cherry (Prunus × yedoensis, Zones 5–8) is resplendent covered in pink-tinted blooms that will fade to a snowy white.
Multiple spectacular vistas greet the walker of the Sunken Garden’s paths. The dramatic backdrop of the bowl’s walls covered in evergreen vines, shrubs, and trees give the visitor a sense of secrecy and solitude.
The stacked boulders drenched in delightful mosses of varying colors, vines, and perennials create a natural doorway through which more garden treasures may be found.
Spring bulbs, some in bloom and some nodding away still in slumber, create a stunning display that will only get better as the season progresses. Planted here among boulders and a pink-blossomed heather (Calluna vulgaris and cvs., Zones 5–8), and spotlighted against a backdrop of multiple cherry blossoms, this area will practically sing with color once spring fully arrives.
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, fill out the Garden Photo of the Day Submission Form.
You can also send 5–10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
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