Appreciation: Out and About

3 different Mahonia (the last one in my garden - a very invasive plant!)



Edit : I'm not sure about the first one, but nr. 2 is 'Winter Sun' and nr. 3 is aquifolium.

 

Even when the sky is grey, it's so romantic to sit on a bench by the Loire... ;-)



The snowdrops are not fully open yet :



An artist ?... A patriot for sure :



All tennis matches were cancelled due to covid restrictions. Back to nature (or: "invasion of the bryonic squad", or "Jocko's nightmare"...):

 

The second is Hamamelis x intermedia; third is H. mollis. Right? That's based on what I wrote above. I can't smell your photos either.

 

... I can't say, there were no labels. But I trust you.

As for the smell, I didn't smell anything, at say about 0 cm from the flowers. I have a very good sense of smell in spite of my addiction to tobacco, and since I'm trying to kick the habit, I don't bring my cigarettes when I go for a walk now...

 

It's looking pretty springy around here. This is not the earliest the Magnolia 'Caerhays Belle' has bloomed, but usually it's two weeks later than this.


Forsythia are open now.


I don't know what's happening in the rest of the city, but in the West End, the white Prunus cerasifera plums are almost in full bloom. The pink ones are always a few days behind.


This rhododendron has the fuzzy leaves of R. cilpinense, but the flowers are so white, I wonder if it's something else. I thought there was a similar species mentioned last year, but I don't know where.

These plants are in Barclay Heritage Square. From Barclay Heritage Square | The National Trust for Canada (nationaltrustcanada.ca):

I only see nine buildings on Google Maps. Maybe the blurb was written before three buildings were found not to be salvageable.

 

Enjoyed this Wendy. I love the history of places together with botany.

 

Good morning, our neighbours Magnolia opened up in the early sunshine today. Magnolia liliflora

 

This floriferous planting is at the lane behind the Saturday West End Farmers Market, around a 6-block walk away from me. The street-side flowers are mostly Monarda and Buddleia.

My neighbour Jeannette told me to look at the Montbretia around here somewhere. That seems to be the common name for Crocosmia, but I had to look it up. Maybe the flowers are commonly called that on the prairies where she's from. [Edited: Ron B, in posting #489, has ID'd this as likely to be C. 'Lucifer', and it is not the same as what should be called Montbretia, though maybe that term is being generalized in common usage. See further comments in posting #491.]


Pl@ntNet tells me it's 76% certain that the yellow flowers next to the Crocosmia are Lysimachia ciliata, fringed loosestrife.


Jeannette also suggested I visit these Trachelospermum asiaticum, at an apartment building mid-way between the market and our place. Wikipedia lists common names confederate jasmine, southern jasmine, star jasmine, confederate jessamine, and Chinese star jasmine. She said they were not open yesterday, thought I might have to wait a bit, but they're open now and fragrant. [Edited: Ron B, in posting #489, says these are T. jasminoides. ]

 

Beautiful.

Checked the weather in Vancouver, and apparently you're going to have some rain tomorrow, and temperatures between 20 and 26 next week. Lucky you ! No wonder the plants look so green, so healthy.

 

Yes, @AlainK, we've only had the merest taste of summer so far. I understand it's around 40C degrees over there. I was hoping for 20C here today - there are several festivals on this weekend. Plants are happy, though.

 

Ha ! Just got a mail from an old friend of mine who plays the drums and other things. He and his band will accompany "une balade des bords de Loire". Hard to translate : "une balade" means a walk, without any particular aim, just for the pleasure of walking. And "une ballade" is a musical form, like... a ballad. ;°) "Musical strolling along the Loire" ?

--link removed, no longer working--

As I always say, if you happen to be around, do pop in. It will be fun.

 

A few photos that I thought would not fit into the maple forum.
"Arboretum des Grandes Bruyères", the most beautiful park/arboretum in the region. Even the lawns look like English lawns, figure that...

Zelkova serrata :



Quercus robur (I think it's "robur")



A rather young Pseudolarix amabilis in the Asian section :



There are several "point of view" where the trees in the distance enhance the whole scene. I don't know what the red tree/bush in the distance is, it's at the limit of the park, in a private section :



Another "door" in the (North-) American section. It leads to a pond with Taxodium disstichum around, their feet in the water :



There was also a tree with branches going upward. Taxodium distichum 'Ascendens' according to the label.



"And what is this one ?..."
"Maybe a kind of oak" I replied.
Not as big as the local species of oak, but quite big when you are under the branches.
I felt I was improving when I read "Quercus phellos". ;°D

 

Saucer magnolia actually

 

Common name montbretia applies to Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora conventionally; plant shown resembles much planted 'Lucifer' which is of different parentage. Climber on wall is Trachelospermum jasminioides actually. And not T. asiaticum.

 

@Ron B, thank you. I've noted the corrections in the postings and my files.

 

If I were you I would say something on the source post about my saucer magnolia comment also, as the plant shown is clearly that and not lily magnolia. In addition 'Lucifer' is most likely for the variety shown by not certain; there have been some similar ones circulated. And it would not surprise me to find web pages stating that all crocosmias are montbretias, just as the voodoo lily name that used to be applied to Sauromatum specifically has become repeatedly used for Dracunculus (and sometimes others) over time.

 

@Acerholic, this comment is for your posting #482.

 

Our "département", like many others in France (and elsewhere), bears the name of a river.
The "Loiret" is a resurgence of the river Loire. The water infiltrates the lower soil about 20 km upstream, and comes back at "La Source". Self-explanatory.
Olivet is the last small town (now in the "conurbation") before it rejoins the Loire again.

The atmosphere there is of an impressionist painting, with its guinguettes (bars where people would drink absinthe and dance the Sunday away...).

Nice properties on the south side, big ones, small ones, they all have "un garage à bateau" (a boat house ?).
A heron ("héron cendré") is standing on a boat : it must be used to hikers because it barely turned the head when we came, à 10 mètres, 30 feet from it. And my friend had a dog (a small Jack Russel - and my, I just can't figure out how such a small thing has so much energy!) !






I must have dozens of photos of this one. I saw that they recently added notes with an abstract in English.




There are several mills along the river. This one is not very spectacular, the first mill was built in the 15th century but the present building is more recent. There's a couple more mills that are much more picturesque, but we didn't walk very far today.



The most common tree along the roads of France is Platanus × acerifolia, Platanus × hispanica, or hybrid plane.

It has long been used to provide shade. It's so common that when someone had an accident, people would say "Il s'est fait un platane", even if the tree was not un "platane". (He hit a plane ! ??? <LOL>)

Some of them are leaking down the fences - or are they eating them ?



Others were probably closer to the bank at a time when heavy rains would make the soil spongy, then grow straight branches again. OPther (native) species look the same.



Among the native trees, Carpinus betulus, hornbeam, charme (*). This one doesn't have an aerial root, it's a young tree that fused with its kin :



AK

 

Those are thrilling photos, Alain. The plane tree eating the fence is a riot (very funny).

 

When an irresistible force meets an immovable object.

 

I always liked this catch-all thread for things I come across in my neighbourhood walks. It's Viburnum x bodnantense time again. This one on the boulevard outside Barclay Heritage Square, on the Haro side, appeared here almost two years ago in January. It's looking even better now.


This one is on Pendrell near Thurlow, still in the same West End neighbourhood.


My neighbourhood is really densely packed with high-rises and long 3-story apartment buildings, yet there are still several locations that make it feel homey.

 

I took a photo of one of those today, too, in my neighbourhood, which is fairly high up on a hill in East Vancouver.

 

I took these photos two weeks ago, but they are more about the street than the Magnolia kobus trees per se. For information for locals who might visit, this is Charles Street west from Rupert Street at Rupert Park Pitch & Putt. It is not a major street, though it does run through two neighbourhoods, ending in Vancouver at the east end at Charles Park, then picking up very briefly in Burnaby. The 2 km stretch from Rupert west to Nanaimo is all as wide as shown in the photos, with the wide boulevard on both sides. The kobus magnolias are most densely planted on the north side of Charles in the first block from Rupert, but they continue west up to 6 per block on both sides, for about 1 km. west to Renfrew. Street trees — City of Vancouver Open Data Portal

 

22°C today, and they forecast 28°C for tomorrow ! I went to the nearest park I like so much this afternoon.

It looked as if it had snowed, I think it's the first time I've seen so many daisies :



I don't know why they drastically prune this grotesque pollard of a Salix of some sort. When I came closer, another surprise : it's invaded by small beetles, I've never seen this (them) before :



I expected to see more Prunus (or cherries as you call them) but there were not so many. Prunus subhirtella 'Fukubana', and Prunus serrulata 'Kanzan' :



All the Azalea/Rhododendron have not flowered yet, but there are already some nice ones :