First excitement is the x Chitalpa tashkentensis 'Pink Dawn' outside the Shop in the Garden, which is just starting to bloom. I didn't get the name of the person outside the shop who told me about the blog article written last year by Douglas Justice when this tree was donated to the garden and transplanted here. I know of a few other locations of this hybrid: one tree at Nelson and Bidwell in the West End, three trees at Riverview, one tree in Thornton Park (posted for ID), one tree at 9th Ave and 20th St in New Westminster, two trees on Strand at E. Columbia in New West. I swore last week I'd never go near or photograph the Magnolia conifera again, but Nadia and Lily dragged me over there, so here is one more photo. No more, I promise. We posted the Koelreuteria paniculata last year; it's back and looking very showy.
As Nadia said, there are lots of flowers now. On the Asian side, I'm sure we've posted these before - Sorbaria tomentosa and Inula magnifica. Here's the wildflower planting along the path to the north garden. I don't think these are are catalogued. And I don't know what this nice pink one is. My favourite yesterday was this Eryngium eburneum. There's lots of it planted in the alpine garden. We found this blue Eryngium in the back 40, where the volunteers grow plants, I think for the Shop in the Garden.