Summer Garden Insights 2025

By Brian Nixon, Horticultural Manager

The summer season has almost arrived here at The Butchart Gardens; colourful summer annuals, magnificent perennials, and a wide range of trees and shrubs that captivate the landscape will soon take centre stage. The scope of The Gardens is massive, drawing visitors from around the world to come and admire the hundreds of thousands of fascinating summer flowers that will be graciously on display this upcoming summer season. Not everyone who visits has a “green thumb,” nor do you need to. Plant lover or not, it’s difficult not to appreciate the sheer magnitude of an intricate summer garden like the one you are about to read about.

Our summer plant collection is substantial and continues to grow every year as we bring in new specimens as they are introduced to the market. Our classic summer favourites rarely change as they are the backbone of the overall design; these summer favorites include Tagetes (Marigold), Begonia (Tuberous and fibrous), Calceolaria (Scotsman’s purse), Heliotropium (Cherry pie plant), and Hydrangea. These are just a few examples of the 265,000 annuals – 900 varieties planted in The Gardens each summer for our visitors to admire. What I truly appreciate about this season is the impressive variety and abundance of plant material we cultivate in The Gardens.

What should visitors be expecting this summer? They can expect to see a summer floral display like no other – mass plantings of pretty flowers that seem to go on forever, lush manicured lawns, and well-designed perennial borders which will lead you on an endless journey of their own. Standing atop the Sunken Garden lookout gives you a good perspective of how we like to create stunning pockets of colour. We often refer to the flower beds in the Sunken Garden as “The Jewels.” This term was created and used by Mr. Ian Ross because these raised garden beds with stunning flowers resemble glistening jewels.

We pride ourselves on showcasing extensive plantings of colourful flowers to create eye-catching displays in locations around The Gardens. While this is true for many of our summer plantings, not all flower beds are designed and planted this way. Different ways to draw attention to plants include putting special thought and creativity into floral design and thinking outside the box. One way to do this is by displaying plants to complement one another. The Children’s Garden is a perfect example of this. Along the pathway to the Rose Carousel, the Children’s Garden displays plants that are grown for their interesting foliage, e.g., Abutilon, Colocasia, Cyperus, and Brugmansia, planted next to pretty colourful flowers. This is where horticulture becomes much like an art, and our talented gardening staff do a tremendous job planning and executing these types of garden designs and installations. These types of garden designs are children’s favourites, can bring fun into the garden, and make them feel alive.

The weather plays a crucial role in dictating the precise timing for introducing our beautiful summer plants into the garden. The warmer the temperatures, the quicker the spring plants go over, progressing the speed at which the summer planting must begin. The cooler the temperatures are, the longer spring plants will last in the garden. No matter the spring conditions, we will introduce summer annuals into The Gardens by mid-May at the latest. The greenhouse team has been carefully tending to hundreds of thousands of summer annuals ready to be planted in the garden beds. These plants range from cuttings taken in the fall, seeds sown early in the new year, and rooted cuttings that arrived over the last few months. The special care given to these plants sets them up for a long, healthy summer to thrive and develop into lush, mature plants that will fill this beautiful garden with spectacular summertime blooms. 

As certain varieties of plants become obsolete from our suppliers, we add new varieties to our planting lists to fill these voids. These new plants keep our enthusiasm high, and our horticulture team thinking of ways to incorporate them into the master plan. Many new plants are being added to the market each year, but we must carefully select which will meet our high standards. All new varieties of plants that we are keen on introducing into the gardens go through a thorough vetting process. The plants are brought into trial before we fully commit to any new varieties we have not grown. We have a trial area in a growing field where plants are grown and monitored for the entire growing season. If the new plant makes the cut, it may be planted the following year. During your next visit, pay close attention and see if you can spot any of our new additions. It can be challenging to determine new plants from old, as many plants look similar to the ones they are replacing. Many new cultivars are being bred for disease resistance and, in some cases, drought tolerance. 

Gardens and plants have a unique way of bringing people together, and when you include fireworks, summer entertainment, shopping, and food into the mix, there isn’t much that can top an experience like this. Our summer season begins in June, with the first roses blooming early to mid-June. I welcome you to join us and experience the magnificent 2025 summer season!