The time has come to resurrect the Crystal Garden, that tourist gem in the heart of downtown, into a world-class herbarium greenhouse to rival the popularity of Kew Greenhouse in London or Vienna’s Palmenhaus.
Imagine a floral bower that hosts educational lectures, a teaching facility and a plant museum. Victoria needs tourists, and tourists arriving by land, cruise ship and air crave something different to visit and photograph. What could be more appropriate for the city of flowers than a romantic Victorian glass house and water garden?
When I was a child learning to swim at the Crystal pool it was touted as being the largest indoor saltwater pool in the British Empire. My vision would bring a giant green industry back home that would pay for itself in time and correct Victoria’s dwindling downtown charm.
Mary Spilsbury Ross
Victoria
