Earlier this year, I took a trip with my family to Vancouver Island, British Columbia and we paid a visit to The Butchart Gardens. As stated on their website: “The Butchart Gardens is a must-see oasis over 100 years in the making”. And what a privilege it was to take in the beauty of this place that stands as a testament to what is possible when one has a grand vision. The story of The Butchart Gardens has some hidden life lessons for us as we embark on The LEAP Journey and it is also one of the most interesting family business success stories rarely told…
It all began with a vision and passion
In 1904, husband and wife, Robert and Jennie Butchart moved from Ontario to Vancouver Island in pursuit of riches through the mining of limestone deposits. With a quarry for their backyard, they built a cement plant at Tod Inlet, and Robert soon built a successful cement business. At the time, the West Coast was exploding with development, and cement was in constant demand from San Francisco to Seattle. The first sacks of cement sailed out of Vancouver Island aboard the “Alexander” in 1905.
Jennie Butchart busied herself around the estate by planting flowers and shrubbery in an area between the house and Butchart cove. As time passed, Jennie’s efforts increased, and her husband often supplied workmen from the factory to assist in the ever-growing project of gardening. By 1908 the limestone ran out, leaving a gigantic pit near the house.
In an attempt to hide this hideous excavation, Jennie decided to expand her garden. The concept of a sunken garden formed, and Jennie had massive amounts of topsoil imported by horse cart to form the garden bed. The rubble on the floor of the pit was pushed into tall mounds of rock on which terraced flowers were planted. Mrs. Butchart dangled over the sides of the bare quarry wall in a boson’s chair and carefully tucked ivy into any discernible pocket or crevice in the rock to hide away all the gray.
In 1929, the project was completed. It had become a garden of immense interest to the surrounding community. Tales of Mr. and Mrs. Butchart’s fabulous gardens spread as fast as the gardens themselves. From the beginning, friends, acquaintances, and even complete strangers were welcomed, as they came to marvel at the horticultural masterpiece. At one point, Mrs. Butchart found herself serving 18 000 cups of tea per year – or so the story goes…
When life gives you lemons…
According to Wikipedia, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” is a proverbial phrase used to encourage optimism and a positive can-do attitude in the face of adversity or misfortune. Lemons represent sourness or difficulty in life and making lemonade implies turning the difficult things in your life into something worthwhile – i.e. life lessons learned, a business opportunity, something to be proud of. The story of The Butchart Gardens represents a life lesson in the same vein – i.e. “When life gives you a used-up mining quarry, turn it into a garden”.
However, there are even deeper lessons here. Turning your mining quarry into a garden will require a vision and consistent hard work. It won’t be easy. The vision you need to have to turn your quarry into a garden, must be an authentic vision that aligns with what gives you purpose, since it must keep you motivated, even when there is no tangible evidence of your efforts bearing any fruit yet. The Butchart Gardens started with one woman’s vision and passion. She could visualise the garden before it was a reality. She relied on her own strengths and she wasn’t afraid to put in the hard work to make it happen – even hanging from the walls of the quarry from a boson’s chair to create the garden bit by bit. For a LEAP Thinker on The LEAP Journey it is an important reminder to have clarity about what drives you as well as what your core competencies and unique strengths are, so that you can put these to work in your own life.
Any seasoned gardener will tell you that gardening requires patience and planning. And LEAP Thinkers know how much planning goes into a leap or transition. Change doesn’t happen overnight. It requires consistent little efforts in the right direction and the persistence and perseverance to keep going.
However, there is also a reminder to enjoy the journey and to not get too fixated on the end destination. Jennie enjoyed her garden and was happy to share it with others – never thinking about how she could turn it into a business, but simply wanting a way to express herself and turn her surroundings into something beautiful. This “mission” resonated with her authentic self and she kept going, ignoring what others were doing and saying, because it was of no consequence to her.
Jennie started her garden project in 1908 and the gardens were finally completed in 1929. It took her 21 years to build her vision into a reality. The lesson here, is to realise that building a legacy requires long-term commitment – in some instances a lifetime of commitment and perseverance. It’s not just about reaching the end destination and being done with it. It’s about living your purpose every day and finding the best ways to express it through your work and in your relationships. It’s really about enjoying the journey of being authentically you, sharing your gifts with the world and finding joy in the many small milestones along the way.
Pivoting from existing strengths
In 1939, Mr. and Mrs. Butchart gifted the gardens to their grandson Ian Ross on his 21st birthday. Ian Ross transformed them into the world-renowned attraction we know today, adding outdoor concerts and night lighting in the summers, and the Magic of Christmas in the winters.
The gardens were then handed down to their great-grandson Christopher in 1997. Christopher began producing a choreographed firework show in the garden every year. Unfortunately, Christopher suddenly died in 2000 and the gardens landed in the hands of his sister Robin-Lee Clarke (63), who is the current owner of the gardens. In 2009 Robin-Lee added the Children’s Pavilion and Menagerie Carousel to the gardens.
The Butchart name has remained prominent in Victoria for over 10 decades and the gardens have been handed down from one generation to the next. The next in line to inherit the gardens, is Barnabas Butchart Clarke (34), the only child of Robin-Lee and David Clarke, and great-great-grandson of the founders. He currently lives in Victoria and produces dance shows.
Today, The Butchart Gardens is a National Historic Site of Canada. You can still find remnants of the original cement plant and over a million bedding plants in over 900 varieties awaiting you as you wander The Butchart Gardens.
The story of the Butchart family is also a brilliant example of continuous self-reinvention and innovation. This family business has managed to survive for over 100 years. They kept reinventing themselves by pivoting from their existing strengths. Every time the gardens were handed down to the next descendent, he/she also took it upon themselves to add something to the existing gardens that not only enhanced the visitor experience, but also served as a unique expression of their own personalities and strengths. For the LEAP Thinker, it’s helpful to remember this as a lesson that it is not what you do, but how you do it that matters. Every descendent who oversaw The Butchart Gardens had their own unique style. Although they continued to build the family legacy, they did not feel the need to change who they were as people to make it work. They allowed their own self-expression to add value in unique and wonderful ways.
Building a legacy
Leaping and building a legacy does not require full reinvention by throwing away every aspect of your past self. Rather, it is about understanding your own journey and how every experience in your life and career has contributed to the person you are now as well as how it can and will contribute to who you want to become. Appreciate the importance of having a powerful story. This is part of what makes The Butchart Gardens so amazing; the 100-year story of the garden. Thus, try to discover the parts of your story that inspired your journey in the first place. Hold on to the parts of your story that describe your authentic self to the world and that you can leverage to become the person you know in your heart you want to be.
Walking through these gardens got me thinking about life in general. Often, we find ourselves in situations that are less desirable or sometimes even downright frustrating. And we can choose to sit and cry amid the chaos. We could even get angry at the dust and decay underneath our feet. Or we can decide that we want to build a garden instead and create a more desirable future. We possess the power to either fall into dismay along with the chaos around us or to choose to create something beautiful out of it. Growing gardens, just like building legacies, are hard work. They require effort and patience, but the pay-off is tremendous. You stand back in awe at the beauty and at what you were able to accomplish. You can choose to build a legacy that can inspire others. Be generous with your gifts. Share it with others. The universe will reward you in ways you can’t imagine yet. And through your focus and effort, you might just inspire others, much like the gardens have inspired people for over 100 years…
References:
- Butchart Gardens. (2018). Our Story. Available online from: https://www.butchartgardens.com/our-story/
- Birds of a Feather. (n.d.). Butchart Family History – Robert and Jennie. Available online from: https://www.birdsofafeather.ca/butchart-family-history
