Vancouver Island University's Milner Gardens received a coveted five-bloom rating from Communities in Bloom, plus a special mention for its rhododendron garden.
Located in Qualicum Beach, the garden boasts about 230 species of rhododendrons, some endangered, as well as as a small orchard and food garden, blue-green hostas, honeysuckle, and lace-cape hydrangeas, among other species. Next to it is the woodland, with 24 hectares of a coastal Douglas fir old-growth forest visitors can explore.
"The rhododendron species garden at Milner Gardens and Woodland stands as the only one of its kind in Canada and among the rare few globally," noted judges Tina Liu and Leslie Cornell. "Since the site being gifted to Vancouver Island University in 1996, it has served as an invaluable educational resource."
To score five blooms as a special attraction, the garden had to score well on a 100-point scale. In a detailed report submitted to the garden, the judges also included ways the attraction could be improved with educational resources.
"Mostly what they want us to do is give more on the education front of many of the categories they talk about – conservation and land restoration. That seems to be one general theme is to talk more and show more about some of the things we're doing," said Geoff Ball, Milner Gardens and Woodland's executive director. "As far as the general visitation experience, there wasn't a lot of extra add-ons, they seem quite content with what we've got."
The Greig Rhododendron Species Garden first opened in 2018, organized into six global geographic areas including Szechuan, Yunnan, Himalayas, Northeast Asia, Europe and North America.
According to Ball, that was only the first phase. A second phase is underway, which will include the addition of leafed specimens that can grow 18 metres high to show the visiting public "how big rhododendrons can be in the wild." Current species can be viewed growing over nine metres, as noted by Communities in Bloom.
"It was an excellent opportunity to just have people objectively come through and look at the whole operation, and they look at everything from your service area, your compost pile, your storage for how you store your sand and gravel, to how you interact with the community and the education programs, conservation programs and sustainability as well as the sheer beauty and attractiveness and how well the gardens are kept."
Moving forward, Ball said the comments around education has been something VIU has been working into the garden's strategic plan as part of its mandate, and courses may be offered at some point.
"We are looking at launching that end of things very soon, we're just wrapping up our strategic plan and it's going to make sure we keep offering all we do for the community, but play a bigger role for VIU in terms of offering the community educational opportunities and support student and experiential learning on-site," he said. "So we're very excited with that, and it seems like it's aligning with what the judges said we should be doing."
The rhododendrons are best viewed at their peak in April and May.
