I first thought this was Cuban oregano, but the leaves have no smell and the flowers are not right. But the leaves look very much like Plectranthus to me. The flowers, however, look a lot (to me) like Stachys byzantina, except that the calyces (?) are not hairy enough, and the full-size leaves continue up the stalk. I'm also not finding any Stachys with roundish leaves like this. Am I even close? Is it a shrub or a perennial? This is a Parks Board planting at English Bay.
Wow, I was never going to figure that out, though I did get the Lamiaceae part and the flowers in verticillasters. Thanks, Tyrlych. I see a few Ballota pseudodictamnus photos that look exactly like it, and some that don't; the same goes for B. acetabulosa. For the latter, I've found a photo by someone I know taken in 2008 at UBCBG. So maybe it's more likely to be that one, which on Dave's Garden says zones 5-8, whereas for the other, I've seen zones 7-8, possible but dicier here. This Beth Chatto page for B. acetabulosa says "Similar to B. pseudodictamnus, but slightly daintier, and appears whiter in drier conditions. Each leaf has a faintly scalloped edge, and the green ‘bobbles’ along the curved flowering stems are larger. 76 cm". Ah, if scalloped edges really are a distinction, then this is B. acetabulosa. Of course, google shows scalloped edges on both in some photos, though I see at least one photo of B. pseudodictamnus with entire leaf margins. Common names (for either, it seems) would be Greek (or Grecian) Horehound, False Dittany or False Divinity. I did see on the RHS page for B. pseudodictamnus that the leaves are supposed to be aromatic, which we did not think was the case for these. I didn't see if that's supposed to be the case for B. acetabulosa. I just read a curious thing about the calyces on Plants for a Future: "The calyces are used as floating wicks in oil lamps. The calyx is placed on the surface of the oil and soon becomes saturated with oil. It is then lit. A good ground cover plant for a sunny position".
