Douglas Justice's August 2015 in the Garden | UBC Botanical Garden Blog is about watering trees and water conservation, not a word about how colourful the garden is looking right now. Before I start in on dazzling colour, I wanted to ask if those Treegator bags that have been showing up around downtown and the West End have been considered for the garden? I saw someone driving a huge portable tank about the garden delivering water, so maybe that's easier. Also I wanted an ID - I don't see Abelia on my database list. This one with nice purple stems is on the grass next to the Reception Centre - is it Abelia x grandiflora? OK, colour - There was a group of four people gathered around the Euonymus Sp. Aff. planipes discussing how interesting that some of the red fruits had four lobes and others had five. They were sure that it wasn't the Euonymus, though, and that the tag belonged to something else. Their Euonymus doesn't have fruits. I'm a bit confused on the name of the Inula racemosa 'Sonnenspeer'. Above the botanical name on the label is " 'Sonnenspeer' Elecampane ". When I looked up Elecampane, it gave me Inula helenium. Are those two botanical names synonymous? This group at the edge of the Carolinian Garden is a riot of colour. Some of what's here are Sorbus decora, Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii 'Goldsturm', Lobelia cardinalis, Lobelia siphilitica, and Vernonia gigantea; also Senna hebecarpa in the background right. Below are Lobelia siphilitica, Lobelia cardinalis and the Senna. The Campsis x tagliabuana 'Madame Galen' had flowers last time I was there. It's still going strong.
Well, this posting is not about colour. I posted a query in Plants ID: Looks like Plectranthus leaves + Stachys flowers = what? that turned out to be Ballota, I thought maybe B. acetabulosa. So I wanted to see the ones at the garden. The ones I posted from English Bay were at least knee-high, so I was surprised, to say the least, at the size of these (compare to the nearby labels). Really, I can't tell from this if I got the species name right on my original posting. I also checked out the Stachys. I think this has to be S. byzantina, though my list shows a different one in this area next to the Pavilion steps.
A few more from yesterday. My favourite find was this Sorbus harrowiana, with huge leaflets on its compound leaves. There's another Rowan-type Sorbus in the background of the last photo for comparison. I might be mis-remembering this Franklinia alatamaha accessioned in 2012 as being about waist high, but I was surprised how tall it is, and it's covered in buds. We were so excited to see one flower three years ago. What seemed funny about the Cotoneaster horizontalis 'Variegatus' is that wherever there were a group of fruits, the leaves on that part of the branch were not variegated. I posted the Aralia californica last month. The fruits have coloured up now. The fruits on the first plant are larger than on the second, but the second one has great purple stems.
