"Bark as Art" is not really the title of Douglas Justice's January in the Garden 2022 - UBC Botanical Garden blog article, but I have titled a few of my flickr galleries (collections of other people's photos) with that name. So it wasn't for lack of interest that it has taken me most of January to get myself out to the garden. Having to be out the gate by 2pm hasn't helped any. Douglas wrote the article in mid-December, and started by mentioning what might still be in bloom "as long as it doesn't freeze hard". Well, if you're from around here, you know that it froze hard. Here is the Viburnum x bodnantense 'Charles Lamont' on the entrance plaza. There are only two open flowers but lots of buds, and it's fragrant. The Bodnant viburnums where I live in the West End have dead flowers for sure, but they have a lot of open flowers as well and are very showy now. On the other side of the Reception Centre, the Mahonia x media 'Charity' has reverted to its original name, but it has lost most of its flowers. The Edgeworthia chrysantha seems to be doing well for this time of year, though some of the buds are looking a little sad. Now on to bark. Examples of fibrous bark are Taiwania cryptomerioides, Thuja plicata and Cupressus glabra 'Silver Smoke' (Arizona cypress, syn. Cupressus arizonica subsp. glabra) I'll be back later with some green bark - I'm off to a (virtual) dance.
? Does one pirouette alone in one's parlor...or does this activity involve a giant headset...? Thanks for these photos. Nice reminder that life goes on---cheering here in snowy Ohio where temp will sink to 6F/-14C tonight! I like the lichen and fluffy green moss, cohabiting friends, on the branches of the lovely viburnum.
Yes, or kitchens seem to work to for some people. Here's the Ginkgo biloba, which I was probably going to forget to post. I'm going back to the second half of the dance now.
I'm back now. That was a lovely dance - my friends in Seattle were playing, three of them in the same living room, with dancers and musicians from around the US and British Columbia doing their own parlour or kitchen thing. Scandinavian music. Douglas devoted a paragraph to bark that remains green and photosynthetic, particularly featuring snake-bark maples. The only one he mentioned that I found, because I can easily recognize it in the Carolinian Forest Garden, is Acer pensylvanicum. I didn't find the other snake-barks that were mentioned, so maybe these will do. Here is what I've posted previously and is still on Garden Explorer as Acer davidii, though it has a red tag now that says Acer aff. davidii. I've been enjoying watching this Acer maximowiczii grow for three years now. This Acer pectinatum is new to me, and I thought I was posting it instead of the other snake-barks that were mentioned, but I see that a synonym for Acer maximowiczii is A. pectinatum subsp. maximowiczii, and the two I did not find are also shown in Garden Explorer with A. pectinatum subsp. synonym names. If you're interested in the snake-bark maples at UBCBG, there's a paper about them at https://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/attachments/snakebark_maples-pdf.789/. Here is A. serrulatum, syn. Acer oliverianum subsp. formosanum. It's in the Palmata group, not Macrantha with the snake-barks.
From now on I'm riffing on the theme, as I didn't find any more of the trees mentioned in the blog, but there's lots of bark to be seen! :) I think the Metasequoia glyptostroboides fits into the corky category. I'm moving on from function to art, though I guess a lot could be said about the function of thin papery bark. Here is Heptacodium miconioides, in the Caprifoliaceae family. I recognized that from the bark, BUT I thought this next one near it was the same, but it's not. This is Dipelta floribunda, in the same family though. The peeling bark is very soft, not brittle at all. I posted the flowers in 2013 at May 9, 2013 - more little flowers and I mentioned the bark at the time, but I didn't remember anything about it. Here is some peeling bark on Rhododendron barbatum. The grove looks pretty cool without the distraction of leaves and flowers.
Moving on to mottled bark, here is Rhododendron thomsonii. This is Stewartia pseudocamellia Koreana Group. And Stewartia sinensis. Here is Lagerstroemia subcostata var. fauriei on the entrance plaza. I photographed this Phyllostachys edulis bamboo because the sun was shining on it!
I went for a short walk bearing this thread in mind, but I didn't find anything as spectacular as the photos you took. But here's a weeping willow, a Sequoia sempervirens and an Acer triflorum : I also have a Pseudocydonia sinensis (Chinese quince) that shows an interesting bark :
Douglas Justice is still doing bark in his February in the Garden 2022 - UBC Botanical Garden blog. Several of the trees he mentioned in the February blog were ones I posted above. I recommend checking out the photos in the blog. For instance, check out the Eucalyptus coccifera (Kunanyi or Mt. Wellington peppermint) photos, and be sure to click the Load More button.
I spotted a Dipelta floribunda, and took photos of a Ginkgo. One is peeling off, the other one seems to be melting...
On Douglas Justice's members walk this evening, he told me that label is wrong, and it's Acer forrestii, possibly hybridized with something else.