Yes I know it's not May yet, but April is so last month, and besides, that was all about cherries. Douglas Justice's May blog will be out soon (May 2018 in the Garden - UBC Botanical Garden) and will be all about May flowers. Some in the Garry Oak Meadow have jumped the gun just like I'm doing. I don't know when sea blush, Plectritis congesta, started up, but there sure is a lot of it, looking very colourful. Also fully open are beach strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis. The Camassia (camas) are just starting to open. I can't tell which species this is. The possibilities here are Camassia quamash subsp. maxima and Camassia leichtlinii subsp. suksdorfii.
Here are two more from the blog. Menyanthes trifoliata, bog bean or buckbean. Eric La Fountaine took a much better photo in this Botany Photo of the Day: Menyanthes trifoliata The Maianthemum racemosum subsp. amplexicaule are almost open: Here is Daniel Mosquin's photo in Botany Photo of the Day: Maianthemum racemosum subsp. amplexicaule Maianthemum dilatatum was just starting last week. Daniel's photo in BPotD: Maianthemum dilatatum Pacific bleeding-hearts, Dicentra formosa, are popping up too. Daniel's BPotD photos: Dicentra formosa
May 4, 2018: Camassia are open this week. I saw this plant last week, first photo, with a tag saying Rubus spectabilis 'Olympic Double', flowers just opening. This week it has a lot of open flowers. This Botany Photo of the Day entry, Rubus spectabilis Double-Flowered Group, was updated in 2017 to say why this is now being called Rubus spectabilis Double-Flowered Group.
Arugula - Eruca sativa - is blooming in the food garden. I stay as far away from arugula as I can, but @Willard really likes it, recognized it right away. I grew it on my balcony one year before I knew what it was. It only got six inches high before I ripped it out, so I had no idea what nifty flowers it has.
May 10, 2018. The May blog starts in the David C. Lam Asian Garden with mention of several flowering plants, including rodgersias and shrubby peonies. I was so excited to find a label under these rodgersias before they got too big and covered it up, but I've decided that the label I found is for a different species after all. These are surely Rodgersia podophylla 'Rotlaub', the duck-foot rodgersia, and 'Rotlaub' is the purple-leafed cultivar. These flower stalks are very green, could maybe be a useful identifying feature except not necessary - those duck feet are pretty distinctive. I have decided that the tag I found belongs to this species next to the one above; I think this is Rodgersia sambucifolia, with deep red stems. There is a BPotD on this: Rodgersia sambucifolia
The interpretive sign for these Paeonia ludlowii says they are a tree peony, but I thought they looked shrubby enough to include. I tried to clean the sign off. It begins "Tibetan peony, Paeonia ludlowii (Paeoniaceae) is a spectacular, yellow-flowered tree peony known only from a small area of SE Kizang (Tibet)". It grows to more than 3m. I thought those flowers were spectacular, but then, really Paeonia rockii flowers are hard to beat for spectacular. I think this counts as a shrubby peony.
Back to the blog, here are two rhododendrons in the Carolinian Forest Garden. Rhododendron minus var. minus And Rhododendron catawbiense
Here are some other rhododendrons in the Carolinian Forest Garden, photographed a week ago. I hope they are still in bloom. I think all of these are fragrant, and I kept taking photos to keep from moving away from them. Rhododendron canescens Rhododendrum prinophyllum
May 20, 2018: the Rhododendron macrophyllum in the BC Rainforest Garden is in bloom. Here is Cornus unalaschkensis in the same garden. Daniel Mosquin has a very good photo and interesting description in this PBotD from March this year: Cornus unalaschkensis. I expected the Kalmia latifolia in the Carolinian Garden to be in bloom, but there is only one open flower, on the 'Raspberry Glow' cultivar.
Back in the Rainforest Garden, here is Trientalis latifolia, in the Primulaceae family. These are single flowers, but they have six or seven petals. A common name is western starflower. Here are some primulas from the Asian garden. Primula beesiana, candlabra primula. [Edited - I've added three more] And P. denticulata, drumstick primula.
Rhododendron calendulaceum - flame azaleas! Surely I have not missed noticing these before - they must have just opened. They're everywhere in the Carolinian garden. They're spectacular, just as Douglas said. The colours range from yellow to dark red-orange. I had trouble paring down my photos - I'm partial to the darker ones, so they're over-represented.
I suspect I'm the only person in town who didn't know bog Labrador tea. I've certainly heard of it, but I got very excited about this Rhododendron groenlandicum in the BC Native garden, with its tiny leaves overstuffed with indumentum and its groups of little white flowers (with varying numbers of petals) imitating some snowball thing. And I found it so curious how much of it there is here (clearly I haven't spent much time in this part of the garden), and how near the water. The indumentum on the older leaves is brown.
Two more for May - the Rhododendron arborescens opened just in time. This Ceanothus aff. thyrsiflorus has quite a delicate colour compared to some.
The UBC Botanical Garden Garden Explorer has an online tour of the rhododendrons in this garden, with lots more photos and showing the locations - select Carolinian Rhododendron Tour from this tours page: Tours | UBC Botanical Garden.
