Exotic and rare plants at UBCBG in July

Alpine garden is full of surprises
Crimson Bottlebrush(Callistemon citrinus) and Ozothamnus ericifolius from Australia


Hebe pimeleoides and Olearia haastii from New Zealand


Romneya(the poppy with the biggest flowers among the poppies, up to 13 cm across)and Philadelphus microphyllus( littleleaf mock-orange, leaves are about 2.5 cm long) from hot California and Mexico


Lysimachia ephemerum and Indigofera


Rhododendron nakaharae with the leaves of nail size.

 

I wonder if that really is C. citrinus and not one of the other species.

 

This one has a tag

 

Yes, I assumed that is where you got the name. It is not automatic that a label being located in a botanic garden is giving a name that everyone would agree with. Some collections are loaded with mistaken identifications. For instance, some years ago (do not know current situation) the Hoyt Arboretum, Portland, Oregon was peppered with them, because specimens were being labeled entirely according to where they appeared to be in relation to maps instead of what the plants themselves looked like.

 

Yes labels do get mixed up in various ways. Also, we don't always have definite, correct ID of the plants in the collection. I don't know about the Callistemon, but there is no living Ozothamnus ericifolius in the garden. That photo is the Olearia and the old label for the Ozothamnus was probably nearby. You have to be especially careful with labels in the Alpine garden as plantings are so dense and there are a lot of plants that only appear part of the year although their labels remain.

 

I 100% agree and know that some plants missing or didn't planted yet. if something very new to me, like this Ozothamnus ericifolius, I always google for images. It looks quite right, small abundant white flowers, correct family, compact, rounded bush. I have one more picture, where Olearia and Ozothamnus are together, so they look very different when seen from distance

 

Ah, it is alive! I had it reported dead. Yes the taller plant with smaller leaves in that last photo. But the first photo above does not look like the right leaves for the Ozothamnus.

 

So this is a good news for the plant and the garden. Maybe I mixed close up pictures, I think I took one of each,sorry for that.