Greater Victoria is a community with rich history and natural beauty. Both aspects of Greater Victoria’s identity are part and parcel of Destination Greater Victoria’s brand refresh, which was launched in September 2018.

And as much as the destination’s brand was revamped to reflect what Greater Victoria has become, this does not supplant the destination’s traditions built and shaped over many years. One of these traditions is the Greater Victoria Flower Count.

Destination Greater Victoria, the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, The Butchart Gardens and many community partners organize and sponsor the Greater Victoria Flower Count every year.

Held in March and recently completing its 44th edition, the Greater Victoria Flower Count is a light-hearted and fun-filled way to promote Greater Victoria’s mild climate and foster community spirit. At the end of the week-long event a community is crowned “Bloomingest” community in Greater Victoria and an elementary school class wins a trip to The Butchart Gardens from L.A. Limousines.

Destination Greater Victoria utilizes the Greater Victoria Flower Count to promote shoulder season business, as the destination’s weather in March is a unique selling feature – much different than colder areas of the country.

The Victoria Conference Centre (VCC) has a tradition of sending daffodils to meetings planners across Canada and the United States as way to encourage VCC bookings in our shoulder seasons and off-season. When Destination Greater Victoria assumed leadership of the sales and marketing function of the Victoria Conference Centre in 2017, this tradition continued.

The Greater Victoria Flower Count media launch was held on March 4 at Royal Roads University. In attendance were the sponsors, as well as students from Colwood Elementary School.

Elementary school participation in the Greater Victoria Flower Count is an important component of the event. Grade four and five students are encouraged to submit entries. This year’s winner of the elementary school competition was Ms. Lesley Mill’s class from Cordova Bay Elementary School, who counted 13,193,034,926 blossoms.

Community engagement was also strong this year, with 44,588,324,077 blossoms counted over the course of the event. The winner of “Bloomingest” community this year was Victoria, with a total of 19,948,306,872 blossoms counted. Victoria’s win breaks Colwood’s five-year Greater Victoria Flower Count winning streak. The runner-up community this year is Saanich with 14,500,799,300 blossoms counted.

Congratulations to his year’s winners. Destination Greater Victoria looks forward to continuing this tradition next year.

Paul Nursey is CEO of Destination Greater Victoria