December 2020 in the Garden - Pleasing to look at any time

Douglas Justice's December 2020 in the Garden - UBC Botanical Garden blog features some of his favourites in the "pleasing to look at any time" category. There were plenty - three pages worth! They were all fun, and I enjoyed the nudge to get out there and have a visit with my own favourites, which is where I'm going to start. Most of these are on the entrance plaza.

Koelreuteria paniculata, with a focus on the limbs for a change.


Melliodendron xylocarpum buds.


Sorbus 'Joseph Rock', has looked spectacular for months already.


I've tried for years to get a good bark photo of the Lagerstroemia subcostata var. fauriei. I can probably stop now.


Speaking of bark, here is the best Arbutus menziesii.


Douglas's favourites are coming up next.

 

Among the viburnums now, there are buds, flowers and fruits. Here is the Viburnum cinnamomifolium below the boardwalk Ting. This one has open flowers.


The same species next to the "Service Road" has only buds.


This Viburnum davidii (Pere David's viburnum), with similar-looking leaves, isn't exuberant yet, but it's the one I found, right across from Lindera mentioned in the blog. These buds are even less developed than on the cinnamon-leaved viburnum.


In the area where I expected to see the Pere David's viburnum, I found instead Viburnum parvifolium, with very showy fruits.


Here is the Lindera erythrocarpa (red-berry spicebush), with the flower buds just developing. I recommend taking a look at Douglas's buds photo on the blog, which is either from a different shrub or a different year.


I have more for another day.

 

@wcutler Quote: Speaking of bark, here is the best Arbutus menziesii.
Being a lover of Acer griseum, I was thrilled to see this Wendy.

 

I think this is the only other plant specifically mentioned in the blog that I will post - Phyllostachys edulis, a running bamboo previously featured in Douglas's March 2019 blog that I wrote about at March 2019 in the garden - Bamboo, some well-behaved, some not so much | UBC Botanical Garden Forums.
It's much bigger, and looking very under control right now. Last week I watched a Garden Conservancy slide show by Daniel Hinkley, of his garden at Windcliff. He has a bamboo allee that he says he keeps under control by harvesting and eating the stray shoots. I didn't catch which is the one he is growing; it seems that only around 10 percent of bamboo species are registered as being edible (from Is bamboo edible or is it toxic? | Bamboo Plants HQ). In the second photo, you're to be noting the "vestiture of dense, velvety hairs".

Speaking of Dan Hinkley, he has some Bark-a-Lounger Botanists videos at Windcliff – Daniel J. Hinkley. The page is indexed for Windcliff, but I think all the videos are from Heronswood.

Nearby, closer to the tunnel, is what I think has to be another Phyllostachys: P. sulphurea 'Robert Young', yellow culms with stripes of green.


In the same area, I got very excited by the leaves on this young plant. Douglas says it is likely a Malus seedling, and there is more than one apple in the area. I had no idea that apples had juvenile leaves and fuzzy young stems.

 

I was able now to check the presentation. He mentioned "one of the edible bamboos, the giant timber bamboo, Phyllostachys dulcis". He planted other species of bamboo as well, but it's the Phyllostachys that he eats in the spring as it pushes up from the soil.

 

'Robert Young' continues to be placed within P. viridis as far as I have seen. It isn't of course the only yellow hardy bamboo with green striping. But the stripes being random is characteristic of that cultivar.

BambooWeb - Bamboo Species List

P. edulis is moso, the spectacular giant bamboo with aged looking culms and horizontal sprays of small leaves forming a contrast with the thick main stems. The foliage structure is being demonstrated by the small specimen shown above but not yet the characteristic towering culms. The point of a plant like this is the grove effect it produces when allowed to develop fully.

BambooWeb - Bamboo Species List

 

Here is another hardy yellow bamboo with green striping: Phyllostachys vivax f. aureocaulis, in the Asian Garden. Maybe the young shoots can be turned over to the food garden to include in their food bank contributions. I tried to take a photo of the label, but only got the stem in focus, which was fine, because I had to delete the photo I wanted of the stem, which was not in focus.

 

I was losing my enthusiasm for walking around freezing looking for plants I can't find, couldn't even get myself out to the garden in time for my reservation, but then the sun came out when I arrived, and I found everything on Douglas's list that I'd wanted to find last time. So now I'm in a good mood again, and here are some more nice plants.

I finally found the exuberant Viburnum davidii. I'm including a photo of where it is - it's exactly in the centre of the third photo - I would say Siebold Trail "cees" rather than "tees" at Stearn Trail where this is.


I forgot to miss the leaves on this deciduous Genista radiata, which Douglas described as "looking as though someone has carelessly dropped a pile of fresh ... (Japanese black pine) needles on their way through the garden".


A little similar-looking, maybe a bit more carefully arranged, is Erinacea anthyllis, in both the European and African sections of the Alpine Garden, as it comes from SW Europe and NW Africa. The Botany Photo of the Day at Erinacea anthyllis points to a previous entry for this species that mentions how prickly the stems are, which I did manage to notice. I thought there were little yellow buds; well, I don't know what exactly those are, but the flowers are blue, so the yellow things are some other structure.

 

Veronica (probably will always be Hebe to me)

I'd given up on finding the Veronica topiaria last time, but today there was a garden person nearby. He didn't know what it was either, but he found me this Veronica cf. topiaria label, and I was feeling very bad for the garden that Douglas had to get excited about this poor thing that only looked like it might be the plant of that name.


But then from that I did find the real deal and it's real nice. And it's right at the path too, with a label and everything. I'd been confused last time about the supposed "pewter-green leaf colour".


It seems I can't distinguish pewter from silver - last time I found Veronica 'Silver Dollar'.


And I found Veronica 'Quicksilver'.


Last time I was also very taken with this Veronica catarractae 'Delight'; the label gives the common name as 'Delight' parahebe.


Here are two other Veronica I liked from today. This is V. buchananii 'Minor'.


And Veronica edinensis, whipcord veronica.

 

Here is some miscellaneous stuff from my last two visits. It's of course hard to stay focused, and why would I want to.

First thing I noticed was the Melliodendron xylocarpum, one of my favourite trees. I like everything about it, including the buds.


The second thing I noticed was the great moss on the Ginkgo biloba.


I thought I was going to do a posting on glistening drops, but that didn't really work out. Still, I have to include the Sorbus 'Joseph Rock' again, even if I did post it two weeks ago.


This Chamaecyparis thyoides 'Rubicon' was so sparkly, like with Christmas lights, but that only showed up at all in this one photo.


Here is one more sparkly one - I think this is a Hypericum, but there are several in this bed, just past the entrance and I don't know which this is.


Here are some fruits photos: Disporum cantoniense 'Night Heron'.


And a pernettya, Gaultheria poeppigii, which I remember as having the best-tasting fruits of this genus in the garden.


Here is a photo I liked from last time - the Liriodendron chinense leaves look like paper dolls dresses you could string up for Christmas decorations. I didn't know there was one of these trees where I found the leaves on the ground, had to look hard to find it.


Speaking of Christmas decorations, here are winter planters on the entrance plaza.

 

Thank you for finding and photographing these beautiful and unusual plants to share with us . . . I've learned a lot because of you.