One great thing about living in this part of the world is the wealth of gardens to visit (and get ideas from). I've already earmarked some weekends this summer for garden hopping. Afterwards, I'll update this page with more descriptions and more gardens. My personal favorite garden to visit is the VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver. Now if I could just pick the whole thing up and plunk it down in the central Fraser Valley, we'd be set. This is a gardener's garden, not just a tourist trap. The 55 acre grounds are divided into various gardens, some by plant families, others by region of origin. This garden plays host to BC's Master Gardener program, as well as garden-related events throughout the year. If VanDusen is a garden for gardeners, the UBC Botanical Garden has the additional purpose of being a garden for researchers. My only visit to this garden was far too brief, and so I've promised myself to spend a full day this year. The place is huge. If you're going to check it out, don't forget to budget time to see the Nitobe Memorial Garden, a world-class Japanese garden also at UBC. Okay, I know I should be taking pictures of the plantings, but here's a snap of my daughter, Kate, enjoying a walk at Dart's Hill Garden Park in Surrey. I'm lucky the girls are pretty patient with my gardening outings... I can get a bit carried away. Queen Elizabeth Park has yet another focus. It's more a garden for public recreation, for tourism, and for wedding photos. In the gardens I've just listed, Vancouver is fortunate to have three very distinct gardens, developed for three different needs. I enjoyed visiting Queen Elizabeth park, but it has a definite tourist-trap vibe (at least to me).  On to a different community, and a different kind of garden altogether. Darts Hill Garden Park is an amazing garden, carved out over the last 55 years from what was a remote area of brush in South Surrey. It inspires awe to see the what Edwin and Fransisca Darts were able to achieve in this garden. This is the garden of a real plantswoman, with a collection of rare and beautiful plants from around the world. The property has been donated into the care of the city of Surrey, and is now directed by the Darts Hill Garden Park society, under the continued guidance of Fransisca Darts. Visit the site, then visit the gardens. You'll be as impressed as I was. Here in BC, we're world renowned for the Butchart Gardens. This brings me to write about the difference between a botanical garden (as are the first two gardens listed on this page) and a show garden. I don't know how to explain the difference, except to say that botanical gardens are more concerned with teaching the visitor about plants (botany), and show gardens are, well, showier. There's certainly some overlap in these functions. There are parts of the Vandusen Gardens that can be extremely showy (the Laburnum walk comes to mind), and you can certainly learn a lot about plants by visiting a show garden. The Butchart Gardens fit firmly into the category of a show garden. If in doubt, look at the plantings. If you're surrounded by endless geometrically shaped beds of dutch tulips, with forget-me-nots stuffed in any bare patches around them, you're definitely in a garden more concerned with dazzling the tourists than with bringing more plant knowledge to a visiting gardener. Now if it sounds like I'm biased in favour of the botanical gardens, maybe that's a fair assessment, but let me also say this: you simply have to visit the Butchart Gardens. It's not a fluke that the gardens are world-famous. The gardens are beautiful by any standards. The fact that they put in over 1,000,000 bedding plants each year may strike me as excessive, but it's all part of the spectacle. We're lucky to have another show garden in the upper Fraser Valley. In comparison to the history behind the Butchart Gardens, Minter Gardensare quite a recent development. The gardens were opened to the public in 1980. Conceived by Brian and Faye Minter, it's hard to believe that this amazing show garden went from idea to reality in less than three years. For spring colour, it's hard to beat the display of 100,000 tulips imported from Holland. The show gardens feature 11 themed gardens, as well as all the amenities. Definitely worth checking out. It's also not far from Bridal Falls, if you fancy a quick hike on the same day trip.