B.C. woman grows all-season garden of chandeliers

Adam meets a woman who’s garden is blooming with dozens of chandeliers.

SOOKE, B.C. — While other gardeners are welcoming the first flowers of the season growing down on the ground, Jo-Ina Young is appreciating what is perpetually blossoming up in her trees.

“I just love chandeliers,” Jo-Ina says. She “planted” her first chandelier in a tree while she and her husband were renovating their home. “I collect them all the time now.”

While some may say they’re out of style, once they’re displayed out of doors, Jo-Ina says they’re “gorgeous.”

“They sell them for cheap because they think, ‘Yuck. They’re ugly,’” Jo-Ina says.

There’s no watering required. No weeding needed. And no matter the season, Jo-Ina says blooming’s guaranteed.

“There’s little ones and big ones and strange ones,” Jo-Ina points out the dozens of different chandeliers hanging in her backyard.

There’s one that a bear broke after wandering into their backyard. Another one that a hummingbird raised her babies in. And others adorned with crystal prisms that hang over the deck and require adjustments on the windiest of days so they don’t shatter.

But the wind, Jo-Ina says, is always welcome.

“When the trees dance, all the chandeliers move,” Jo-Ina smiles. “It’s a magical place to be.”

Because when they move, they make a music together. And if the sun is shining just right, it seems to attract colourful creatures to dance along with them.

“See how the prisms make little fairies,” Jo-Ina smiles as tiny rainbows flutter around her deck. “When my granddaughters were little, they used to chase the fairies.”

And in this time when so many of us choose to escape into our screens, Jo-Ina has found that if you spend time in a chandelier garden, you don’t need to connect to electricity to illuminate your imagination.