Flower Count Results for 2012

I first mentioned the flower count back in my blog dated February 21, 2012. So here are the 2012 results for the 36th Annual Flower Count are now in.

According to the news it was a bad year. We have more than 731 million blooms in the City of Victoria and over 2 billion blooms in the Greater Victoria area. Supposedly it is only about a tenth of the amount of blooms that were recorded for the 2010 year. Personally I don't care whether it was a bad year or not, we had more blooms in our city and surrounding area that the rest of Canada had in total (not an accurate fact just my personal opinion). Most of Canada is still stuck in the midst of winter and would probably only have a handful of flowering shrubs and/or bulbs blooming anywhere.

Western Canada is well known for its milder climate and here on Vancouver Island we seem to have the mildest area of all. This year with our tally of over 2 billion (2,043,380,013) blooms of snowdrops, daffodils, hyacinths, forsythia, cherry blossoms and many other flowers we still have something to gloat about. While the rest of Canada is grey and dreary we are bursting with the colours of spring and the promise of tremendous bounty. It is a wondrous site to behold!

One of the areas in the Greater Victoria Area that can boast the greatest amount of blossoms in a single area or property is the Butchart Gardens. For those that have never heard of them or never been, it is a absolutely gorgeous place to go. It started out as a limestone quarry and when the limestone ran out the wife of the quarry owner Mrs. Butchart decided to reclaim the area and started turning it into a garden. Being the supportive husband that he was Mr. Butchart brought in birds, plants and art from around the world to add to his wife's pride and joy.

By 1920 the garden was was renowned for its beauty and flowering wonders. If you want to learn more about the gardens and its history then check out the link I have provided below. It is a great place to see if you are ever in the area. I highly recommend it.


Our tourist season will be starting soon so I would suggest you add it to your list of things to do the next time you are here. You will be able to see many of the blossoms that were apart of our annual count.

Butchart Gardens