View from the Pier

What you think upon grows.
Whatever you allow to occupy your mind you magnify in your own life.
- Emmet Fox, 1886-1951

Butchart Gardens, British Columbia

After spending a few days in the city of Vancouver, my husband Tom and I enjoyed a beautiful hour-and-a-half ferry ride to Vancouver Island, which afforded views of the numerous outlying islands, blanketed by low-lying clouds through which float planes sputtered and soared. From British Columbia’s capital of Victoria, often called “more English than the English,” we visited Butchart Gardens, 13 miles north on the Saanich Inlet.

Its sprawling 55 acres were in sharp contrast to the compact, urban Dr. Sun-Yat Sen classical Chinese garden I had toured in Vancouver. Butchart Gardens, which attracts one million visitors annually, had more of a carnival feel than the Zen retreat aura of the Sun-Yat Sen sanctuary.  Here, gardening is done on a grand flamboyant scale, and the family that owns it has a flair for showmanship. The two horticultural havens do share one commonality–a very formal, structured approached to gardening.

These gardens were begun in 1906 by Jennie Butchart, who had moved here from Ontario with her husband and family two years prior.  R.P. Butchart was seeking to expand his successful cement manufacturing business and saw pay dirt in Vancouver Island’s rich limestone deposits, vital for cement production.  Initially, Jennie created a Japanese garden on a slope near their home. It’s said that her ideas clashed somewhat with the Japanese expert assisting her—the entrance is marked by a red-lacquered torii gate, traditionally reserved for the entrance into a shrine. As a result, the garden is more of a North American impression of a Japanese garden.

In 1909, the limestone quarry from which R.P. made cement was exhausted and Jenny decided to landscape the eyesore as a sunken garden.  She began by planting a row of Lombardy poplar saplings to hide the chimney stack of the nearby cement factory.  She trucked in top soil by horse and cart from a neighboring farm to Tod Inlet, lining the floor of the open pit. Almost 100 years later, today poplars stand sentinel amid a massive profusion of color, with wide gravel paths winding around meticulous bed of both annuals and perennials, manicured lawns and closely pruned shrubbery. The factory was demolished in 1993—a statement about the staying power of flower power.

Jennie and R.P. enjoyed traveling extensively, taking ocean voyages to Africa, Europe, and the Far East, returning with plants and plans to improve their gardens. Through their stewardship and that of future generations of Butcharts, in whose hands the gardens continue to take shape, the property expanded and now includes the Rose Garden, Star Pond, Italian Garden, Mediterranean Garden, and Piazza, with two restaurants, a coffee shop, and seed and gift store.  Each garden arena is distinct, like a separate circus show under the Butchart Big Top.

The sky was misty as Tom and I strolled around the grounds amidst the swarm of tourists buzzing about. In the topiary garden, we admired the animal act—neatly-clipped shapes of a lion, a tiger, a bear, and a squirrel.  Then, in a mystical Mary Poppins-like moment, it seemed everyone in the crowd milling haphazardly around us simultaneously popped open their respective umbrella.  Above the riot of color, scent and texture emerging from the ground, the sky was suddenly alive with swirling parasols of every stripe and shade imaginable.  I had the odd sensation that the random assortment of flower aficionados around me were about to fall in step and join together in a choreographed song-and-dance routine.

The Butcharts carry a gene for promotion as well as green thumbs. In the 1950s, Jennie’s grandson posted billboards advertising the gardens as far away as San Diego and introduced a concert series by the Victoria Symphony.  Not long after, musical stage shows were presented and in 1978, choreographed fireworks started. The Christmas season lights display, begun in 1987, takes a crew two months to install.

The Butcharts’ pleasure in hosting visitors can be traced back to Jennie and R.P.’s early days on Vancouver Island. According to lore, in 1902 R.P. strode across a field to assess a site for the cement factory, while Jennie waited in their horse-drawn carriage. R.P. heard a noise and turned to see a bull rushing toward him. As he scrambled up a tree stump to escape, a man in a nearby cottage came to his door to watch. In response to R.P.’s call for help, the man responded, “Taint my bull.” It is said that Jennie always hoped her visitors would feel more welcome than she and R.P. did when they arrived at the Inlet, and that we did.

The U.S. became home away from home for Emmet Fox, quoted today, who was born in Ireland.  His father, who was a physician and member of Parliament, died before Fox was ten and he was raised in England. Fox attended a Jesuit college near London, and he discovered an interest early in life in “New Thought.”

New Thought is a spiritual movement emphasizing metaphysical beliefs that flourished in the U.S. during the late 19th century. Its members span a variety of religious denominations, secular organizations, authors, philosophers, and individuals who share a set of beliefs involving the effects of positive thinking, the law of attraction, healing, creative visualization and personal power.

Fox attended the London meeting at which the International New Thought Alliance was organized in 1914. He gave his first New Thought talk in London in 1928. Not long afterwards, he came to the United States, and became immensely popular, speaking to large audiences during the Depression. It’s said his sermons never lasted more than twenty minutes. The theme of his teachings is “we are what we think.” He emphasized that if we want to change our life, we must change our thoughts first–we design our destiny by our thoughts, words, and actions.

According to an October 30, 1937 report in The New York World Telegram Newspaper: “Somebody said the other day that when you see a crowd leaving a public building, you can guess what sort of meeting it has been – whether a gospel meeting or a prize fight, a circus or a classical concert – but that nobody could place the crowd that comes from the Manhattan Opera House every Wednesday night, because it contains every kind of person.  As a matter of fact, it is a cross-section of New York’s population, at a prayer meeting, the regular Wednesday evening meeting of the Church of the Healing Christ, when the pastor, Dr. Emmet Fox, explains the life of man from the angle of psychology and metaphysics.  Every week, rain or shine, over 4,000 New Yorkers make their way, in skyscraper fashion, to the replenishing station of faith, in the Manhattan Opera House.”

Just as Jennie Butchart envisioned an Eden of an eyesore, it was during my 2007 visit to Vancouver Island that the seeds were planted for my Second Act.  I began to dare to dream of a future with a little less showmanship and more meaning and creativity.  And, two-and-half years later, after a daisy chain of days focused on just that, a new life is blossoming.

For more images of Butchart Gardens, see Vancouver Island under Travel Photos.

http://www.butchartgardens.com/the-gardens/our-history/our-history.html

http://www.circushistory.org/history2.htm#ARENA

"Just as Jennie Butchart envisioned an Eden of an eyesore,
it was during my 2007