Here is Douglas Justice's June, 2019, blog: June 2019 in the Garden | UBC Botanical Garden. As usual now, there are good photos, and a link to Garden Explorer where you can just for this month follow along in the blog with a photo for each plant mentioned and the locations showing on the map. I think the theme this time is "June is a great month". It's a little all over the place, like my recent visits. Some of the plants mentioned are ones that caught my attention last time I was there, like this Rodgersia aesculifolia. Last week, first two photos, the leaves were more bronze. The colour is still attractive. This species is supposed to have distinctive brown hairs on the leaf margins, which you can see above. Rodgersia were mentioned in the blog as part of the planting around the redesigned pond at the entrance. The plants above were from farther along Upper Asian Way. This plant below is next to the pond, had leaves and flowers that look like the plant above, but it's entirely lacking the bronze highlights. I've given it the same name, wonder whether the location makes a difference, maybe it's a little further along in development, or maybe it's a hybrid. Oh, or I could have the species wrong. Most of the garden's roses are not open yet, but the Rosa x odorata 'Mutabilis' is fully open and looks fabulous.
Here are a few more from the blog, these from the alpine garden. Lavandula pedunculata Buddleja loricata Berkheya purpurea, looking almost soft and innocent before the flowers appear. I haven't found the Moraea alticola yet, which is supposed to be interesting even without flowers - there are photos in the blog and Garden Explorer. So to compensate, here are some flower photos from the genus. Moraea huttonii Moraea robusta
Here are some cacti, on orders from Nadia, who could not join me yesterday. Opuntia 'Mesa Melon' Opuntia 'Colorado Red'; the second photo shows this one, with the much denser spines, next to 'Mesa Melon'. Escobaria vivipara. This species is found in the western US and also Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. The name is not apt - it is not viviparous (developing young inside the plant), which disappointed me. This Freesia laxa is not a cactus of course, but it's in the trough garden outside the cactus greenhouse.
Douglas's blog begins with a note about how good overcast conditions are for intensifying colours. The photos I really wanted didn't work at all with Monday's sunshine, so I went back on Wednesday. I was surprised to see how much I'd learned from the blog. First, though, here are some shots of the renovated pond, with the traditional Japanese lantern, which is not so easy to see here, in the second photo, as I was concentrating on what I think are the Geranium platypetalum. I looked for Philadelphus lewisii on Monday, was supposed to find it on the path up from the Moon Tunnel through the Garry Oak Meadow, finally found one small likely candidate at the top of the meadow across from the pavilion, not yet in bloom, and I was pleased that the label confirmed my guess. My photos were terrible, so I didn't post it. Yesterday, as I walked up that path, I noticed it all over the place - here are two large shrubs where the path makes a U-turn. In the background to the left of the mock orange above, is Oemleria cerasiformis. not mentioned in the blog, but I get excited when I see them, as they're quite new to me and I'm always surprised when I recognize one. I hadn't noticed this shrub on Monday - the fruit photo is from a different plant I found on Monday when I was still looking for the mock orange. Another plant I had trouble seeing on Monday is the Buddleja loricata, so I went for the one that was along the upper fence, seemed easy to find. On Wednesday, I noticed it everywhere in the African section of the Alpine garden.
Gosh, it wasn't all that hard to find. I just had to relax for a few minutes, chatted with a visitor from Wisconsin (who was not with the tour from Wisconsin there at the same time), walked down an African plot path and there it was, in flower too. The third photo shows the net-like sheathing. The plant next to this was vying for attention, with new red leaves to match its cute red-skirted flowers - Vaccinium cylindraceum. I ran into Marilyn Plant, who was there volunteering collecting seed for the Friends of the Garden to sell in the shop; she suggested I have a look at the Tigridia orthantha, definitely in the intense colours theme, Iris family from Mexico and Guatemala. Also intensely coloured is this Thermopsis macrophylla, with nice fuzzy leaves, from California.
There are some roses open, just not the Rosa filipes. Here is Rosa henryi, at Delavayi and Kingdon Ward trails, also a strong climber with masses of fragrant white flowers, but distinguishable from R. filipes by being more likely to have only five leaflets, having fewer flowers in a corymb (5-15) and larger flowers (supposed to be 3-4 cm in diameter, but 6cm was pretty common). It is also mostly hairless and mostly without prickles. I'm quoting from what I wrote last year, but can't find where I got that - my source indicated Wikipedia, but it doesn't say that now - maybe it was found to not be accurate? Of these two roses, I prefer this one in the garden because it's right at the path and down at nose and eye level. And the leaves are so good-looking. And the flowers are relatively so big. The Nootka rose, Rosa nutkana var. nutkana, is also in bloom, on the path from the Moon Gate to the north garden.
Back to the beginning (of the blog), Douglas mentioned Bistorta officinalis, which I posted last year, wasn't going to post again, but this bed looks so attractive. Note the huge leaves on the B. officinalis 'Superba'. Last week I posted Bistorta affinis 'Border Jewel' from the Asian section of the Alpine Garden. I think this is the same, on the path in the Asian Garden just before the Moon Gate. These leaves are so tiny compared to the one above.
Here's what I really went back to see on Wednesday - @Eric La Fountaine put me on to this small Helwingia himalaica, a so much more interesting plant to look at than the H. japonica that I posted in 2013 but then lost interest in because the flowers were so sparse and so tiny. This one is totally different - very showy, LOTS of flowers growing from the middle of seemingly every leaf. They're small flowers, but they're noticeable - no need to spend five minutes trying to find a flower. The Botany Photo of the Day for that species, Helwingia japonica, says that they're quite special - I should be a little forgiving because of the unusual epiphylly. That also says that they're monoecious - separate male and female flowers on the same plant, but then goes on to say that "our plants are all male". I asked Douglas Justice about this, who replied "In this case the correct term is polygamo-monoecious: describing a population of otherwise monoecious plants where some individuals have bisexual and unisexual flowers". I had thought that I saw some female flowers on my Monday photos that suffered from sunstroke (I was looking at the green centres that looked to me like ovaries that would develop into fruits), but then I read that the umbels are either male or female, and there were definitely obviously male flowers on all the umbels. I wonder if that's really the case - all the photos of fruits show just a single one. Do they really compete and let just one flower from a female umbel develop into fruit, or might the umbels have a lot of male flowers and just one female or bisexual one? I didn't find any female flowers on Wednesday. [Edited]Nadia reminded me I didn't give the location of this plant. It's on the path just across from the Moon Gate, on the south side of Upper Asian Way, as soon as you head south, on the left just before the Stewartia. Eric said you can't miss it. Actually, I'd already missed it before he told me about it - that was my route when I started on Monday.
I missed the peak bloom by a long shot. Each shrub has about three flowers left a month later, on July 9. Here is one, and some sepals, which are kind of nice.
I had a diary note to visit the Vancouver City Hall to see the mock orange in the garden area to the northwest. Several years ago I saw blossoms that struck me as perfection; a lovely semi-double, as I recall. I'd like to see them again before finally choosing one. There's a lot of downside to Philadelphus if you don't have a lot of room to spare. And I haven't gone, and I've probably missed it! Almost a year to the day after Wendy's post. :- { Does anyone know the city hall plants? Have pictures or know the name? I see that 'Snowbelle' has a compact form that would work well for me, but it may be a bit too double for my tastes. I wish I'd paid attention to that diary note so I could really see the difference.
I was looking at this thread because I've just photographed the Helwingia himalaica and wanted to read up on it again. Re-looking at the photos, there are two areas of flowers on the leaf in the fourth photo - isn't the lone flower female? And @Gwen Miller, I'll see if I can remember to go visit city hall in the next day or two. Or did you already purchase something?
Wendy, you're so thoughtful! No, I haven't purchased anything, but salvaged a cutting of some unknown specimen being cut back by the city here in North Van. If you happen by City Hall and see something spectacular, I'd love a picture and an idea of how large it is.
