That's the title of Douglas Justice's July 2020 blog: July 2020 in the Garden - Welcome back! - UBC Botanical Garden. Douglas has lots to say, and good photos too. I got just as over-excited today as Douglas did. It was members day, one day before the official opening. I really planned to just see the three Fagaceae family trees he wrote about, in the Pacific Slope Garden, but I got distracted. I will post those another day. Here is a little colour first - the African section of the Alpine Garden, and the European section. [Edited - see posting #5 for more colour.] Douglas wrote about Dierama species and hybrids. I couldn't get up to any signs today, have no idea which was the species he wrote about and which were they hybrids. The last photo is an unnamed hybrid on the entrance plaza. The Phlomis samia across from the Sanctuary Garden is not quite open yet. But Phlomis russeliana in the Contemporary Garden is nice and colourful. Across from the Phlomis samia, at the Sanctuary Garden, is this very nifty Impatiens tinctoria. I was being ushered out of the garden by then as it closes now at 3:30, so I didn't get a good look at the back of the flowers. Back to the program, here mentioned in the blog are the Inula magnifica, and the Rhododendron cinnabarinum subsp. xanthocodon, showy leaves but long past flowering. Just past these is another Fagaceae family member that I was happy to see again. You'll have to wait for that. I'm so sorry I didn't get a better photo of this Tropaeolum speciosum. Laura Caddy, curator of the Alpine Garden, was nearby. She assured me I was looking at one vine - flowers and fruits. This insists on growing in the Asian section of the Alpine Garden, refuses to grow in the South American section where it belongs.
It doesn't matter what age we are, we all get over excited sometimes and especially now when we can go to gardens and arboretums again after these awful but necessary lockdowns. Enjoyed the photos you took Wendy and the link to Douglas Justice welcome back. Thankyou.
Back to the program: three Cascadian native Fagaceae. Here is Quercus kelloggii, California black oak. Chrysolepis chrysophylla, Giant golden chinquapin; and one very young youngster. There are several Notholithocarpus densiflorus, California tanoak. I should show these trees a photo of the one I posted in Stanley Park so they'll see what they aspire to be. The third photo shows the fruits just starting on the female end of the inflorescence (or is that a flower bud?). The mature acorns are from last year's flowers. I mentioned in the previous posting the Fabaceae in the Asian Garden that I was happy to see again, on the path where the Inula and Rhododendron are. In Hawai'i, if you see something like this with droopy bronze leaves from any distance and say "Mango", you'd be right, but I was onto this, having been surprised by the leaves on this tree eight years ago. This is Lithocarpus cleistocarpus.
Also mentioned in Douglas's blog is Rosa filipes 'Kiftsgate'. It's true what Douglas said about the fragrance - I have so much trouble finding things, but this was pretty easy to find from Lower Asian Way, even though I couldn't find the path marker. Here is another single, or slightly semi-double, white flowered rose along the north path by the Contemporary Garden - it hasn't been named, was given to the garden and the name was not confirmed. That rose is also very fragrant, completely overpowered the Clethra barbinervis next to it. This Rosa 'Cooperi' is right at the garden entrance, outside the garden centre. On the white flowers theme, here is Stewartia pseudocamillia, which Douglas included in his last update to the June 2020 in the Neighbourhood - UBC Botanical Garden blog. Last white flower for this posting - teeny ones, on the Diospyros lotus near the entrance.
Yellow flowers I know the folks like colour, and there was lots of it, so here's a yellow posting. Centaurea macrocephala, in the Contemporary Garden Cotula sp. in the South Africa section of the Alpine Garden. Dasiphora fruticosa 'Gold Drop', in the Europe section of the Alpine Garden. Erythranthe guttata, in the Garry Oak meadow, along the path up from the tunnel Santolina chamaecyparissus, in the Europe section of the Alpine Garden. Spartium junceum (Edited: spelling corrected), Spanish Broom (though Garden Explorer says it's from France), in the Europe section of the Alpine Garden
I will conclude this with old friends I was happy to see, two trees and two herbaceous plants. Carpinus fangiana, which I think I got in focus one year. It's funny how some plants, even some with the teeniest flowers, always come out in focus for me, and others that I'd think should be easy almost never do. Tetracentron sinense, which I first saw at Birr Castle and Gardens in Ireland. I love the red stems, the distichous arrangement of the leaves (arranged alternately in two opposite vertical rows), and the heart-shaped leaves themselves, with teeny red or yellow edges. The leaves seem quite variable. I have a photo of the leaf backs from VanDusen Botanical Garden that give a very different impression, where the rugose texture is not evident and all you see are the palmate arrangement of the primary veins. I get excited about most Aralia; this Aralia californica is in the Pacific Slope Garden, where the Fagaceae are. There should be little hobbit houses under these Petasites japonicus var. giganteus.
Here is another single, or slightly semi-double, white flowered rose along the north path by the Contemporary Garden - it hasn't been named, was given to the garden and the name was not confirmed It's the plant now widely known and grown as "Darlow's Enigma", so named by Darlow some time after I demonstrated to him it wasn't the Rosa moschata 'Plena' he had been selling it as. Years later it was being said by others the correct name was 'Cascadia'. However the description of that rose in Modern Roses 10 does not fit the Darlow plant. Centaurea macrocephala and Spartium junceum (note spelling) are listed noxious weeds down here.
The Spartium has been grown in the Alpine Garden for quite a while. It produced seedlings one particularly warm summer, but they don't otherwise seem to thrive here. It seems to be right at the edge though. If the climate warmed and dried a bit here I think it would take off. It probably would be invasive in drier eastern parts of the province now. I like to use it in arrangements--the flowers smell so wonderful.
I was back in the garden today with a long list of what I wanted to see, of which I saw almost nothing, but I forgot the lose ends here. I did not look to see the back of the Impatiens tinctoria flowers, and I was so focused on the plant in front of the Phlomis samia that I totally forgot that they were not quite out last time, and they looked perfect today. I only happened to capture them as a backdrop to my next plant. I had on my list to see the Digitalis ferruginea and D. parviflora, which were mentioned as possible IDs for a plant in my https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/two-spiky-herbaceous-plants-at-queen-elizabeth-park.98388/thread. I found neither of them, but when I was looking for another plant that I didn't find, I came across these Digitalis trojana, Helen of Troy Digitalis, native to Turkey. They have almost finished blooming. I think these are all the same. We only found one label. You can see the Phlomis in the background of the first photo. Here is another spiky flowering plant, at the edge of the amphitheatre. Pontechium maculatum, Russian bugloss. Based on the location along Upper Asian Way, this has to be Filipendula purpurea 'Nana'. I wasn't sure that the first group and the second were the same, but only this one name is listed in this bed.
Here is Lonicera involucrata, in the Pacific Slope Woodland Garden, never been posted in this forum. It has a lot of common names listed on Wikipedia: bearberry honeysuckle, bracted honeysuckle, twinberry honeysuckle, Californian Honeysuckle, twin-berry, or black twinberry.
