Douglas Justice's August in the Garden 2025 - UBC Botanical Garden blog offers a sample from the 150 different species of Lamiaceae growing in the garden, with a short description of the verticillaster flower structure common to almost all of them. I learned that word in a reply to a flower I posted for ID one year, but I had no idea that it was common to almost all flowers in this family and that it could look so different in different genera. I was with Nadia yesterday and I have to admit that we were so busy trying to identify which flowers went with which labels that I'm not sure I have even demonstrated this feature. Monarda didyma 'Raspberry Wine' might have been the showiest of the many flowers in bloom on the entrance plaza. In the Pacific Slope Garden are Monardella, known as coyote mints. This is Monardella sheltonii. And Monardella odoratissima subsp. discolor. Food gardener Linda didn't know the woolly bluecurls - Trichostema lanatum, but the name intrigued her and she was able to walk us right to it. It's across the path from the Monardella, but I hadn't found that yet either. In the Asian section of the Alpine Garden is the very showy Origanum 'Barbara Tinguey'. Here are two less showy Origanum: Origanum 'Nymphenburg', in the same area as the plant just above, and in the Winter Garden Origanum laevigatum 'Herrenhausen'. Here is Betonica officinalis, wood betony, in the Physic Garden and two other areas. The photos here show off the verticillasters, some spread well apart and some compressed.
One more from this family, Vitex agnus-castus. The first photo is from the entrance plaza; the others are from the Physic Garden.
Two monkeyflowers, that caught my attention: 1. Diplacus grandiflorus, a broadleaf evergreen or semi-evergreen shrub with green foliage and large-flowered bush monkeyflower. This plant is native only to California. The large, funnel-shaped flowers are attracting bees and hummingbirds. 2. Erythranthe cardinalis, scarlet monkeyflower. Its vibrant red, nectar-rich flowers attract hummingbirds and other pollinators. The flowers have a distinctive shape, with a two-lobed upper lip and a three-lobed lower lip, which helps deposit pollen on visiting hummingbirds' heads. The plant is native to western North America, typically found in moist, low-elevation areas like streamsides, pond margins, and other wet places.
Well, Nadia has already strayed here away from Lamiaceae, so I'll add other plants I was happy to see. I loved the sprays of small round fruits on the Verbascum blattaria f. albiflorum on the entrance plaza. The third photo is what I assumed without flowers was the same in the amphitheatre bed, but Garden Explorer says this is the same species but not the white form. Here on the entrance plaza is Eryngium giganteum, common name Miss Wilmott's ghost. Nadia wasn't interested in this because it has lost its colour, but to me it looked even more appropriate to the name. Another entrance plaza plant is Gomphocarpus physocarpus, which I know as bishop's balls and did not recognize at all from the flowers. The above plant is not strictly speaking a milkweed, but it is in the milkweed subfamily of Apocynaceae - Apocynaceae subfam. Asclepiadoideae. This next plant in the Contemporary Garden is a milkweed - Asclepias incarnata. Another candidate for showiest flowers this week are on the Campsis x tagliabuana 'Madame Galen. I'm using the habit photo that Nadia took, as I think I'm a bit of a distraction from the trash can. Around the corner is a Cynara cardunculus, each flower hosting several bees. The × Chitalpa tashkentensis 'Pink Dawn' trees, one on the entrance plaza and this one in the Winter Garden, are looking excellent now. I think we counted six of these Diospyros lotus on the west side of the Winter Garden, but we were unable to find a label on any of them. Fortunately for us, gardener Linda walked by and gave us the name. Common names are lotus persimmon or date plum. Linda said that the garden leaves it to the birds to deal with the cocoons. This Poliothyrsis sinensis is in the Asian Garden, on Upper Asian Way. I mentioned a few years ago that I was hoping to see flowers. Well, it looks like we missed them. And the fruits up at the top - we could barely see them.
