Special Report: City of Desert Plants?

Sprawling across the south end of Vancouver Island, adorned with a splendid array of flower beds large and small, Greater Victoria markets itself as the City of Gardens. Two of them — Beacon Hill Park is a spectacular public example of elegant Victorian landscaping, while Butchart Gardens is a renowned commercial operation — are important draws for a billion-dollar-a-year tourism sector that sustains 22,000 jobs in a region of 375,000 people.