Skip to content

Time Traveller: B.C. residents love their Pacific dogwood tree flowers

To celebrate B.C. Day, learn more about the official provincial flower. Dogwood flowers were so popular that in 1931 the province made it illegal to cut them from trees on private properties.
dogwood-flower

Happy B.C. Day! The Pacific dogwood tree flower has been the official provincial flower of British Columbia since 1956. The photo above shows a group transporting cuttings of dogwood flowers across Burrard Inlet in 1910.

Due to the popularity of the flower, the province granted the tree special protection under the Dogwood Protection Act in 1931, which made it illegal to cut from trees on private properties.

It wasn’t until the Second World War, however, when women’s groups raising money for soldiers chose a dogwood flower emblem for their fundraising pins, that the flower became the definite floral symbol of the province.

Visit the MONOVA website for more information about the history of the North Shore and to plan your visit to MONOVA: Museum of North Vancouver, now open at 115 West Esplanade in The Shipyards.

Currently, MONOVA: Archives of North Vancouver, at 3203 Institute Road in Lynn Valley, is open by appointment only. Contact: [email protected]

Navigate culture on the North Shore by using the North Shore Culture Compass.