What a fine write-up (and good photos) by Douglas Justice for August, at August in the Garden 2022 - UBC Botanical Garden. Here are some hydrangea photos from the Asian Garden. The Hydrangea heteromalla is a huge tree with off-white lacecap-type flowers. Best colour was on the Hydrangea aspera 'Macrophylla'. I posted these H. aspera Villosa Group for ID one year when I just had photos of the buds. This has the best fuzzy stems. Who'd have thought Hydrangea bifida would be in this genus, unless you've read it here before. Two-lobed deinanthe, with flowers that remind me more of kiwi.
The beauty of our UBC Alpine garden at the end of July.Some plants from the same article. Dianthus cruentus, Catananche caerulea Digitalis laevigata subsp. laevigata Althaea cannabina. So special! Salvia candelabrum. Alcea rugosa Impatiens tinctoria is not on the list but is very interesting. Geranium pratense 'Plenum Violaceum. I love this colourful Petunia exserta Gillenia trifoliata is an attractive plant in the Rose family. Allium hookeri
The pictures of Hydrangea radiata at the eastern end of Fraser Grove in Carolinian Forest Garden. White lacecap flowers, chalk-white leaf undersides
Here are more photos of the Hydrangea radiata, with a better example of why the "chalk-white leaf undersides quietly lift it into the realm of the exceptional". The thing is, standing a bit away from the plant, the leaf-backs looked like normal green, like what Nadia's photo shows. But I had this description, so looked for the white on the leaf-backs and then started to see it. At the other end of the bed are Hydrangea quercifolia, with such great flower heads. On the way to the hydrangeas, I passed Elymus hystrix, with the appropriate common name bottle brush grass. Most, but not all of the spikes had a rachis that was zig-zagged but curvy. Way cool. Here in the Carolinian garden is Rhododendron viscosum, with common names clammy azalea or swamp azalea.
I forgot to post the Ammi majus on the entrance plaza. Common names are bishop's-weed and false Queen Anne's Lace. Here near the entrance are some more common hollyhock, Alcea rosea. I didn't post Deborah Butterfield's horse "Columbia"? Here are a couple of landscape shots, the first obviously outside the Amphitheatre looking over to the Alpine Garden, and one of that garden. Another I forgot that I liked, Actaea cordifolia, in the Carolinian Garden.
I went to the garden yesterday specifically to see Diervilla rivularis, mountain bush honeysuckle, as ubcgarden's posting of Ben Stormes's photo and description came up on my Facebook notification. Here it is on Instagram: UBC Botanical Garden (@ubcgarden) • Instagram photos and videos These flowers are a lot smaller than I was expecting, but I still had no trouble finding it, all the way at the end of the Carolinian Garden, across from the fence. I guess it's mostly finished flowering now, though it seems that the flowers don't open all at once. Ben's photo has really good detail. On the way, I found Diervilla sessilifolia in two locations in that garden. The common name is bush honeysuckle. I didn't have a lot of open flowers to choose from.
I have lots of photos from my August 11 visit, mostly in the north garden. I posted these Asclepias incarnata at the edge of the Carolinian Forest waterway two years ago, but I didn't remember the name this time, was happy to find a label, and they look better this year. The next photos are from what is still called the Winter Garden in Garden Explorer, which Douglas called "the area around the Roseline Sturdy Amphitheatre", where Tim Chipchar is planting long-blooming herbaceous perennials. So the Althaea cannabina - I was not convinced that that's what these were, because the what I saw as narrow leaves appeared nothing like what the "palm-leaf marshmallow" leaves should look like. But I finally realized that they were lobed, mostly with tiny side lobes, but in a few cases with obviously palmate leaves. I recognized the bladder senna next to these from a cultivar I first saw at VanDusen. The species is Cotulea arborescens. Are these not the best pods ever? Here are close-up photos of the Digitalis laevigata that Nadia posted. The blog notes that laevigata means polished, not rough, in this case (or all cases?) referring to the stems and leaves. I don't know if this floppy circular arrangement is characteristic of Santolina pinnata subsp. neapolitana 'Edward Bowles', but it's what attracted me to it. I'll end for tonight with Origanum laevigatum 'Herrenhausen'. There's the laevigat(um) attribute again, maybe because the leaves are hairless?
These are old photos already, still from August 11. I'm surprised that I didn't post Catananche caerulea, with its chaffy bud scales. "Chaffy" was Douglas's word - new to me - with an alternate definition surprisingly incongruous to their golden (Douglas said bronzy) appearance. Here is Acanthus spinosus - the attribute in the name refers to the ouch factor on the leaf edges - I think all the Acanthus have spiny bracts around the flowers. The next plants are shaded by this x Chitalpa tashkentensis 'Pink Dawn' in the Winter Garden area. The Begonia grandis was starting to get one flower, but it's the underside of the leaves with the sun shining through them that make these so striking. I've been doing peltate-leaved plants recently, since Douglas last month mentioned the Astilboides tabularis, which I posted from the Asian Garden; I can't remember if I posted this one from the little plaza under the Chitalpa. Next to it is peltate-leafed Podophyllum pleianthum. On the other side of the amphitheatre is Cotinus coggygria, looking surprisingly appealing for its beige colour. In back of the amphitheatre is a fragrant Clethra barbinervis.
Speaking of Clethra, I still haven't finished posting my August 22 photos, and there's a reason for that. But first, here is Lysimachia clethroides, gooseneck loosestrife. Right next to it is a plant I like for which I had no name until I was able to ask Douglas Justice at his members walk tonight, so now I can post Veronicastrum sibiricum var. yezoense. The flowers were mostly finished, but there is a spike going sideways on the right side of the third photo.
