Ambleside Butterfly Garden

Ambleside Butterfly and Pollinator Garden sits in a beautiful oceanside location in West Vancouver and is a lovely destination for a walk to the garden itself and six other nearby gardens if you are a garden enthusiast. Bees are active in PNW gardens for twelve months of the year so there is always something in bloom in the garden. The two hundred-plus plants in the garden beds were carefully chosen from lists of plants recommended by the Royal Horticultural Society, Pollinator Partnership and David Suzuki Butterflyway Project to develop a biodiverse and rich habitat to support insects and the birds that feed on them. The garden abounds with colour and scent to enable kids to enjoy identifying bees and butterflies casually and at birthday parties held here, photographers and painters to sit with their cameras and easels, and university researchers to collect data on the insects visiting the flowers. Butterflies develop from eggs laid on specific host plants that the caterpillars eat then metamorphosis from chrysalises into the adult form- look for all four stages in butterflies’ lives when you are there. Pictures of the adult forms of the most common forms of butterflies are shown on the fence so butterflies can be easily identified.

The garden has plenty of free parking, and nearby public washrooms in the Ferry Building Gallery and John Lawson Park. There are many popular coffee shops within half a block so, which serve as an excellent start for a one-and-a-half-hour walking loop to six other vibrant gardens. The Ambleside Pollinator and Butterfly Garden is adjacent to two community garden areas where residents creatively plant fifty garden beds. Continuing to Memorial Park, which features streamside native plantings along a salmon-bearing stream with fish ladders, West Vancouver Memorial Library across the street with roof-top planters full of fruits, vegetables, pollinator plants and large mason bee condo towers, West Vancouver Seniors’ Activity Centre and Community Centre with huge food-sharing gardens, roses, floriferous pollinator plants and a striking water feature. Return along the Sea Walk bringing you past Navvy Jack Point residents’ garden and park. The volunteers who maintain this garden welcome you to visit the garden and hope you will enjoy it.