The south Island is gearing up for the 49th annual Greater Victoria Flower Count, a celebration of the coming warm weather and an effort to promote the region’s milder climate.
On Monday, March 4, representatives of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce and Destination Greater Victoria kicked off the event at Abkhazi Garden, and starting on March 6, residents will aim to find the area’s “bloomingest” community.
“For almost as long as the tourism board has been around, we’ve been proud to participate in the Greater Victoria Flower Count,” noted Paul Nursey, CEO of Destination Greater Victoria. “This event invites locals and visitors to enjoy the outdoors as the weather starts to warm and the days get longer, and it highlights the natural beauty of the region that is part of what makes Greater Victoria a destination of choice.”
Residents and visitors are invited to count flower blooms on trees, shrubs and bushes throughout the city and submit the counts at flowercount.ca to find the community with the most blooms. Last year saw more than 33 billion blooms, with the Town of Sidney taking first place.
“It originally began as a reminder to the rest of Canada that our weather is better than theirs in the winter and we aren’t cold and blustery and snowy,” said Bruce Williams, CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce. “But it’s since evolved through the pandemic into something that’s a kinder, gentler message. Your warmer weather is on the way, spring is coming to the rest of Canada very soon. Our big bloom count that we have here represents a get-well bouquet for the rest of the country.”
A small tree full of blossoms equals 250,000 blossoms; a mid-sized heather bush has 1,000 blossoms; and trees fully in bloom count for 750,00 blossoms.
Submissions will be accepted from 7 a.m. on March 6 to 4 p.m. on March 13. Counters are encouraged to share counting photos on Instagram using #FlowerCount to be entered to win a $500 gift card towards an electric bike.
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