Vancouver Island: 5 Hot Plots for Garden Lovers

Posted on 07. Jul, 2009 by BCAA in Living, teaser

Butchart gets all the glory, Cougar Annie’s the poetry. But here, we focus on the back-stories of five fave Edens in Vancouver Island’s verdant understorey

by Helena Zukowski

1. Royal Soil

It was in Paris in the Roaring Twenties that exiled Georgian prince Nicholas Abkhazi met and fell in love with Shanghai-born Peggy Pemberton-Carter, launching a romance that would span seven decades, three continents and one world war. Separated when Peggy spent two-and-a-half years in a Japanese internment camp and Nicholas was incarcerated as a POW, the couple reunited after World War II and married, beginning a new life in Victoria on an overgrown, weed-infested lot that, over the next 40 years, would become one of B.C.’s most important gardens. (In 1999, it was purchased by the non-profit Land Conservancy, which protects the province’s historical and culturally significant landmarks.) Today, the Abkhazi Garden is renowned for its harmonious use of site, including the glaciated rock outcroppings and Garry oak trees unique to the southern tip of Vancouver Island.

Major Plot Points:

The tearoom’s Royal Abkhazi blend, created in 2008 by Victoria’s Silk Road tea company, with homemade scones and local organic jam. • A Curious Life: The Biography of Princess Peggy (on-site gift shop). • May 17 Plantaholics Sale — independent growers’ unusual plant specimens. 250-598-8096; abkhazi.com

2. Rhodo-mania

Bryan Zimmerman was a Christmas tree farmer when, 30 years ago, as he was clearing 9.7 newly purchased hectares in Courtenay, he had a vision of “creating something lasting” — a unique woodland garden. So to avoid disturbing root systems, Zimmerman worked the land by hand, then took generous advantage of the island’s reputation as one of the best places in North America for rhodos. The result: the internationally acclaimed Kitty Coleman Woodland Gardens, where, serenaded by songbirds, visitors lounge in rustic gazebos or wander woodland paths skirting water features and 3,000- plus rhododendrons. (“Kitty” is the First Nations woman who paddled ashore here in the late 1800s and for whom a nearby creek is named.)

Major Plot Points:

On-site artisan festival, Labour Day weekend. 250- 338-6901; woodlandgardens.ca

Milner Gardens

3. A Touch Of Class

When Horatio “Ray” Milner purchased this 28-hectare Qualicum estate in 1937, he intended it to be a bucolic escape from his hectic professional life. The World War I veteran, lawyer, King’s counsel, philanthropist and Order of Canada recipient, along with wife Rina, found some time to start a garden. But it was the second Mrs. Milner, Veronica, who was the true visionary behind today’s Milner Gardens and Woodland. A British aristocrat — related to Winston Churchill — and an accomplished artist, Veronica would spend 40-plus years nurturing a serene, unique escape that has drawn such famous visitors as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Princess Diana and Prince Charles. Along with many rare trees, the garden is renowned for its 500-plus rhododendrons and azaleas — anchoring an immense perennial garden.

Major Plot Points:

Art & Photography in the Garden, an artists-at-work event, July 18 to 19, including silent auction, live music and lectures. • Margaret Cadwaladr’s In Veronica’s Garden (on-site gift shop). 250-752- 8573; mala.ca/milnergardens

Ronning Gardens

4. Bernt Earth

In 1910, Norwegian homesteader Bernt Ronning settled a tract of North Island wilderness on a government promise that a road would be put through to Cape Scott. The thoroughfare never materialized, but hikers did — stopping in whenever the trapper, fisherman and camp cook was home to boogie on his hand-hewn “dance floor” and thump out songs on the pump organ. Ronning’s true love, though, was his two-hectare garden — laboriously fashioned out of the rainforest and planted with seeds and tree cuttings from around the world. After his death in 1963, the forest reclaimed the garden, but local horticultural angels intervened. And today the original rhodos in Ronning Gardens bloom alongside trees planted by its founder decades ago.

Major Plot Points:

Twin monkey puzzle trees, once among the oldest and rarest in B.C. (though one of the original pair has died, several others have grown in its place). • North America’s tallest monkey puzzle — 24-plus metres — is also here. 250-288-3724.

Shephard Gardens

5. Beds, Path & Beyond

The garden created by Bill and Marilyn Shephard is a veritable babe compared to Prime Picks one through four, but it has been nurtured with equal lashings of love. The 1.5-hectare property near Port McNeill was a horse farm before the Shephards purchased the land in 1991 and transformed it into the intimate extravaganza it is today — known particularly for its early summer bulbs and perennials (rhodos, azaleas, peonies, tree peonies, wisteria and globe flowers).