I had the good fortune to travel with my husband to Vancouver, British Columbia for a business conference a year ago last May~ our first trip enjoying the beauty of the Pacific Northwest and a chance to visit our neighbors to the north in Canada.
The Butchart Gardens in Victoria were on the “not-to-be-missed” list. If you have a chance to visit, I highly recommend it~ photos don’t begin to do it justice!
I came home with some seeds, tea, and serious garden envy with hopes to return for a future visit to experience the gardens in all their glory in the summer or fall!
This spring I’m enjoying some tea, getting my flower fix from some favorite books with my tea tin as a vase, sprouting azaleas.
I’m reminiscing and revisiting the spring beauty of The Butchart Gardens.
If you’d like to tip toe through the tulips and see more photos along with more than 300,000 spring bulbs, you can visit here.
I found pastel chocolate flower cups at World Market, ($6.99 for 6 ) ready to bloom with your favorite filling for quick and easy dessert or a tea time treat!
I filled my flower cups with a mixture of lemon curd & light cream cheese, added strawberries, and topped them with an edible (pesticide and chemical free) viola.
You could also fill the chocolate cups with flavored whipped cream and fruit or fill with low-cal mousse like Kitty did with hers from Kitty’s Kozy Kitchen.
Plates/ 222 Fifth Ananda, HomeGoods
Teapot & Cups/ Gracie China, HomeGoods
Napkins & Cake plate/HomeGoods
Hope you’re a enjoying a beautiful spring!
:D Now that’s a fun field trip….I know you lived visiting the pretty gardens! I need to make a special trip to World Market for those little cups. They are delightful! Yum!
The napkins and sweet ribbons complement the plates so, so well….
Have a great day today, Mary!
xo,
RJ
Thank you for the virtual field trip. The tulips and other spring flowers must love the weather! So beautiful… just like the little tea you set up for us to enjoy! I see you have quite a collection of flower books. Any favorites? Stunning as usual! I’m going to serve violas in tea from now on. What a lovely touch!
Hi yes Yvonne– Two of my favorites are Decorating with Flowers by Paula Pryke and Carolyne Roehme Flowers!
The gardens are so beautiful, Mary. But it looks like you’re having a beautiful day as well. Wish we had World Market. Those flower cups are really great!
Wow, the gardens are amazing and brimming with spectacular color.
Hi Mary, Thank you for the beautiful trip to the gardens! This is going on my list of places to see when Mr. Fun finally retires and we have time to travel more. The flowers are spectacular and so are your photos! Linda
~Mary~
Thank you for sharing the beautiful gardens! In Holland,Mi. they have a tulip fest. its pretty when the spring weather does not ruin the blooms!
I need to get some of the choc.flower cups those look yum. I have a bad habit of getting those wonderful foods and then not wanting to use them. Do you ever do that?!
Have a super day
Paula
In.
I can only imagine the impact of these gardens through your beautiful photos Mary, truly breathtaking. Your tea looks delightful, what a wonderful way to indulge in your gardening passion!
Jenna
I remember that you took this trip last year and how you enjoyed it. We enjoy the gardens year-round – and are headed there to celebrate my birthday on Friday. It’s one of my favourite places.
Beautiful gardens!
The filled flower cups are wonderful. Fabulous post.
your cups are adorable, what a wonderful flavor combo.
don’t eve get me started on butcharts, its been a favorite since i was a little girl, sugar and spice and everything nice. i have been every season, i can’t imagine there is not a day it doesn’t knock you over with a feather… i have peeked in their greenhouses, they are salways ready to fill any flower void in a miliesecond, my kind of gardening! wonderful photos~
Love those chocolate flower cups!!!….and the Butchart gardens are on my bucket list…Magnificent gardens!!!…Great, great post Mary!
There are just no words to describe the gardens…lovely, beautiful, breathtaking doesn’t even come close. Thank you for another glimpse.
As to your own ‘Spring Tea Table & Chocolate Tulip Cups’….I don’t know, Mary. Sometimes I think things just jump into your shopping basket knowing that you will come up with a unique and spectacular way to showcase them and share with us…What an amazing talent you have!
Love this!! I made my first trip to Butchart Gardens last summer
with my mother and two sisters. We had tea there and it was the best
high tea I have ever had. I don’t think I will ever get over it. What about that hole in the hedge looking out to the boat dock?? Amazing!
Your spring photos offer a whole new view of that magical place. I still have some rose tea from there and you have inspired me to make some today and savor the memories! Thanks for taking me back to that special place.
I have been enjoying your blog and your lovely photos. What a nice surprise today to see your pictures from Butchart Gardens. I visited there several years ago in the summer, and it is an incredible place. And you are right, definitely not to be missed for anyone visiting the area. In fact, it is a trip I would love to repeat, and after seeing your pictures, Spring seems like a great time to visit!
I live in British Columbia but grew up in Virginia. High Tea and going to Tea rooms ranks high in my books.
The Butchard Gardens are all that you described and more…it touches the soul and you see the Glory of God made manifest by the hard work of the pioneer couple; especially the wife who had a vision for a garden from this property all those years ago.
I just purchaed the book of the history of Butchard Gardens as a 60th birthday present for my eldest daughter who lives on Cape Cod and will be coming this way for her birhtday. I am sure she will be delighted with it and share it with her family and friends.
Thank you for the lovely post and tea scenes along with the beauty of the Butchard Gardens.
Beautiful gardens are set my heart to singing no matter where they are. Today I saw beautiful ones at a French chateau and the colors ranging from pale pink to fuss chia to deep purple with a touch of orange blew me away. There is such color inspiration in flowers.
Wonderful colors and gorgeous pics Mary! Especially nice since we’re still cool and somewhat damp today in Philly… Lovin’ your little chocolate treat cups:@)
Gorgeous, gorgeous flowers in the beautiful garden. What a feast for the eyes.
Lovely tea and dessert table with edible violas in the darling chocolate cups.
Mary, I just started my own blog thanks to you. I enjoy reading what you share everyday and hope you like the name of my blog…after you. Ha! I think it is perfect roots instead of boat because I have been interested in following the roots of my ancestery and the best part is the home. I love boating, too, and I love all you write about on your blog. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your inspiration.
Carol Hunter-Sullivan :)
Well, now the Butchart Gardens are on my bucket list! They remind me alot of Longwood gardens which is very near to us, we are members and can go anytime we want. The chocolate flower cups are wonderful, you always make me hungry:) XO, Pinky
I visited the Butchart Gardens last summer but the springtime version is just amazing. I’ve got to plan another trip for the spring. And those flower cups!! Soooo sweet, I’ve go to give those a try too. I really enjoyed your gorgeous photos!!
I have heard that there is nothing to rival Butchart! What fabulous pictures and those flower cups are adorable. We just traveled to our World Market – one hour away – and I didn’t see those. I love them. Maybe we will get some later. The kiddies would love those. Your Cooking With Flowers looks incredible too. I have to go and read a little more of that!
Hi Mary, my hubby and I did tour the Butchart Gardens when we took an Alaskan cruise. It is wonderful, but our stop was in the early evening and by the end, it was getting somewhat dark. Thanks for sharing your pics and for the shout-out! I love your flower cups with the darling edible flowers and berry. Our World Market is out of the chocolate cups. Have a wonderful day!
it looks like an amazing place, and i love your table set up.
We’re making a second trip to Butchart in June as part of our vacation to Washington and Montana. It is definitely destination-worthy!
I couldn’t agree more regarding the beautiful Butchart Gardens! I’ve been there . . . in May a few years ago. I’d love to return to British Columbia one day.
Beautiful gardens! and your photos are wonderful. I wish I could just snap my fingers and conjure up gardens half as beautiful as theirs. The chocolate cups are wonderful little treats. Your tea setting on the table is wonderful… xo marlis
It’s always been a dream of mine to go to Butchart Gardens. So happy you were able to go! And your photos are amazing. I am inspired and smitten with the floral combinations. Hmmm… I wonder if I could pull something like that off on a smaller scale. I am going to ‘pin’ it to remember. I think I could visit and re-visit all your lovely photos today. Tea looks delightful too….I’ll bring the banana bread… [wink] ;)
Oh, what a beautiful post! Butchart Gardens is an all time favorite for me. I’ve been fortunate to see them several times, and each time I’m awestruck. Your images are incredible. I keep scrolling up and down taking it all in again and again. Your tribute table and tea party are the perfect compliment. ‘-)
Oh, gosh…that looks like heaven on earth!!!! How incredibly pretty all of those flowers are! To just stand in a place like that and to take in the sight and the smell and the feeling of being surrounded by such beauty….what a wonderful experience that must have been!!!
You mini picnic celebrates it all in such grand style! I love the little pansy blooms floating on the tea! The dishes and napkins are SO incredibly pretty, too!!! They speak volumes about the memories you have of the gardens!
Breathtaking!! I have had seeing tulip fields on my bucket list for several years now! These gardens are just beautiful, I can see why you were so inspired to wonder back to your memories and wonderful photos of yout trip!! Always enjoy your posts!
Beautiful!! I’m hosting a new linky party at http://hickorytrailblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/efforts-and-assets-linky-party-1.html
I would love to have you!
Angela
Beautiful gardens. I am going to look to see if the WM near us has the flower cups for the next luncheon…they are really cute.
I would love to see Butchart Gardens one day! They must have an amazing climate there to grow such glorious things.
The flower cups are beautiful filled with fresh fruit and, flowers :)
Butchart is one of my favorite places! I haven’t been in the Spring during tulip season …how gorgeous! Our trip was in July and the roses were in full bloom…I’m sure each season is gorgeous…I hope to return again! Your flower cups are just precious..love the idea and how pretty yours are!
Miss Bloomers
Butchart Gardens is definitely on my bucket list of places I’d like to see one day, Mary! It must be lovely in every season. I have to check out your other post about it. Your chocolate flower cups look so sweet and pretty. It’s always nice to bring back good travel memories with a cup of tea.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Love your website! It is wonderful!
What amazing gardens. They have got to go on the bucket list! Love that shot of the staircase. Can’t imagine what it must all look like in the depths of winter.
Happy to have you at “Oh, the PLACES I’ve been!”
– The Tablescaper
I love flowers! This post is amazing and colorful!
xo
Sharon
We visited Butchart Gardens during a 10th wedding anniversary trip to the Pacific Northwest (and BC). Next month we’ll celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary, so the trip was awhile ago, but I’ve never forgotten these gardens. We’ve been to many lovely gardens all over the world since then, but Butchart set the bar pretty high.
Butchart Gardens look like just my cup of tea, love going to gardens like this especially in the Spring when we get this huge colour wave.
Don’t the tulips and forget-me-nots look so fab together.
Paul
Beautiful trip to the gardens, I have never been there so I appreciate your sharing your gorgeous images.
If I’m ever near Butchart Gardens I will be sure to visit, beautiful. I need to to go to World Market and look for the flower cups, love those and how you filled yours.
Beautiful post.
Hi Mary, I found you over at Wow us Wednesdays. When I first saw your picture, it immediately reminded me of Butchart Gardens. I was delighted when I saw the caption and realized it WAS Butchart Gardens. I’m so glad to see it’s still thriving, as it was when my husband and I visited it about 15 years ago. Seeing your beautiful pictures has been a treat. I’m so glad you shared them!
Debbie
Reblogged this on homeiswheretherootslead.wordpress.com.
Oh this post is getting me really excited! I went to the Butchart gardens in my teens. Next month, for my 10 wedding anniversary my husband and I decided to go to Victoria. Ofcourse, the gardens are on our ‘not to be missed list’ as well. I just remember being in total awe, like every second. Those cups are fantastic..World Market is so awesome for things like that.
Wow! What an amazing garden – how wonderful to have a bit of this garden to take home. It is highly unlikely I’ll ever get the opportunity to visit that part of this world – so very delighted you took us there. Those chocolate cups are works of art! All beautifully photographed! I appreciate you sharing with Home and Garden Thursday,
Kathy
These are the wonderful gardens I have ever seen in my life. I am speechless right now what can I say about them. Gorgeous..!!