3 quarters of a billion blooms in 2013!
Thanks to everyone who not only took the time to smell the flowers, but counted them too.

The Flower Count is an annual light-hearted promotion sponsored and organized the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, The Butchart Gardens and Tourism Victoria. The goal is to bolster community pride and increase awareness of Greater Victoria as an attractive shoulder-season tourism destination. It brings national and international attention to the fact that Victoria (City of Gardens) has the mildest climate in Canada. While the rest of Canada and much of the US is still in the cold clutches of winter weather, Victoria often enjoys spring temperatures of 10-15° Celsius (up to 60° Fahrenheit).

Best Blooming Arrangement 2013

Congrats to Esquimalt on winning the Mayors’ Flower Arranging Contest for the second consecutive year.  Click here to view the photos.

A total of eight municipalities participated in the competition including Langford, Central Saanich, Saanich, Victoria, Colwood, Esquimalt, Oak Bay and North Saanich. Many thanks to the official media judges for their help with this competition: Shannon Donnelly, Cliff Lequesne, Ian Slipp, Astrid Braunschmidt and Karen Elgersma.

Were you one of the many that wandered down to The Bay Centre to see all the imaginative arrangements designed by each of the local mayors? If so you helped choose the District of Saanich as the winner of the People’s Choice Awards. Click here to review photos of these arrangements.

Community Challenge

Each municipality across Greater Victoria is encouraged to take up the challenge to be the “Bloomingest Community” of the Greater Victoria area! People reporting flower counts will have their number attributed to their community. Whether they live on the Saanich Peninsula or in Sooke, every flower counts, for their own community and for the overall total.

How Did It Start?

In the late 1960’s, members of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce started a promotion called “Victorian Days”. In late February, dressed in Victorian era costumes, they would visit cities such as Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg, handing out daffodils to the general public, radio stations and news rooms. In 1976, the event expanded to involve Victoria residents and create a fun promotional story through the counting of February’s flowers. The Victoria Flower Count was born.

City of Victoria Wins 2013 Flower Count

The total number of blooms counted in this brisk 2013 during the 37th Annual Greater Victoria Flower Count was 762,742,426.  That’s right 3/4 of a billion blooms.  The city of Victoria came in as the leading municipality for the third consecutive year.

“The annual flower count is a great reminder that Victoria really is the City of Gardens. Even with the recent blast of winter cold, our brave blossoms came peaking through to win the day,” said Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin. “Thanks to everyone who participated in the count again this year – it is a wonderful way to welcome in the Spring.”

The classroom competition for a trip to Butchart Gardens was won by Susan Shemilt’s grade four class at Frank Hobbes Elementary . The competition was open to grades four and five who practiced using their multiplication tables to participate.