THE BUTCHART GARDENS
The Butchart Gardens consist of 50 acres of expansive lawns, magnificent scenery and meandering paths. The ponds reflect wondrous sights of nature that brings peace to the beholder of the exquisite beauty of the grounds.
The roots of the Butchart family lie in the Forfar district of Scotland. In 1850, George MacLauchlan Butchart immigrated to Ontario and settled in Owen Sound. Here, he founded a successful hardware business.
In 1856, Robert Pim Butchart was born in Owen Sound. He was the eldest of the ten Butchart children. He attended school in the city and upon graduation entered the family business.
Jennie Foster Kennedy was born in Toronto, Ontario. An orphan at an early age, she was sent to Owen Sound to live with her aunt. She was blessed with numerous talents and at a young age won the admiration of the equestrian world. She became a certified chemist and her artistic abilities won her a scholarship to study in Paris, which she declined. Instead, she married Robert Pim Butchart in 1884. They honeymooned in England where Robert was taught the process of manufacturing Portland Cement.
In 1888, Robert established the Owen Sound Portland Cement Company. Over the years the company grew. Additional plants were opened in Lakefield, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec.
Robert realized that there was a great market for cement in western Canada. In 1902, he went to Victoria, British Columbia where he located a limestone deposit 12 miles north of the city at Tod Inlet. In 1904, Robert founded Tod Inlet Cement Plant. He sent for Jennie and his two grown daughters, Jennie and Mary.
The same year, the first part of the present Butchart residence was built adjacent to the factory. Jennie began to plant flowers immediately and gradually expanded the area. This development took place between the house and sea at Butchart Cove. This area is now the Japanese Garden.
As the gardens expanded, Robert supplied men from the cement plant to assist Jennie with her project. Jennie hired Isaboru Kishida, a Japanese landscape artist in 1906, to create a design for the area that sloped from the lawn to Butchart Cove.
The couple's daughter, Mary, had recently hired a gardener from Scotland to landscape their home. Realizing his potential, Jennie hired him as Head Gardener for The Butchart Gardens. Hugh Lindsay supervised the Chinese laborers that Robert provided to his wife and Isaboru Kishida's design became a reality. Jennie instructed Hugh to install a Torii (red lacquered gate) to mark the entrance to the garden. The maples at the top of the path and the copper birches on each side of the Torii are some of the oldest trees in the garden.
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