I grew up, at least in terms of vocational awareness, with certain supposedly inviolate assumptions, not the least of which was the superiority of some horticultural endeavors on Vancouver Island. Seeing as how I was gaining my own insights into the world of plants, flowers, sports turf, et al at the finest establishments that Scotland had to offer I thought them overly generous. Ex-Pats perpetrating a myth. For myth it is!
Having just returned from spending a wonderful Labor Day weekend in Victoria I had ample opportunity to view its floral splendors and compare them with what I see all day and every day here in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The tables have well and truly been turned and the most visible example of that is in the world reknowned “Victoria Hanging Basket.” While the gardeners of Victoria may well have created the genre, they most certainly have not kept up with what we now enjoy. The baskets here in Lake Oswego and, for that matter, in other municipalities close by, can stop traffic, swallow lamposts and cause people to wander open-mouthed so lush and prolific are they. Stunningly beautiful, thoughtfully color coordinated and meticulously tended, they are an asset to this town. All we need is an inner harbor, the Empress Hotel, a taste for afternoon tea and the world might well come to us. Lake Oswego is to be commended for its program of hanging baskets along with the overall efforts of its parks department. There is not a “Best Kept Village” in Britain nor a picture postcard town in the French Alps replete with its Geraniums and Datura that can better the efforts and results here. It is with great pleasure and a real sense of value that Flowerbud purchases a basket every year. By comparison the baskets in Victoria seem an afterthought, lipservice to legend.
If hanging baskets are synonymous with Victoria, so are the world famous Butchart Gardens, a blaze of color deep in a rock pit that is promoted on a multitude of roadside billboards that line Interstate 5 and likely many other routes. Butchart is a business more than a garden. It takes flowers and a nominal landscape and puts a theme park spin on it all as it encourages thousands of visitors to jam the paths. Benches are provided so that you can sit and admire the throngs as they do one of two things, stop to take photographs or walk in front of those stopping to take photographs. This is not a garden meant for reflection, for the enjoyment of a moment’s peace or for the admiration of flowers. It is merely a place to be jostled, to see every possible make and model of digital camera and then finally be spat out via the restaurants and gift shops. I knowingly went in as a tourist, having even taken a double decker bus to get there! On exiting I felt like I needed an ambulance to take me home.
So in the future I will enjoy and appreciate the flowers and parks of Lake Owego, take afternoon tea in the impeccable Empress Hotel, Victoria and enjoy the boat ride in between.