Douglas Justice's May blog is out - May 2021 in the Garden - UBC Botanical Garden, with lots of good photos, including one of a very cute frog. Here are some things from the blog that appealed to me. First up, are the male strobili (cones) on the Ginkgo biloba at the entrance. Right beneath them are some pink and white Paeonia rockii. I didn't go look at the rodgersia that Douglas mentioned. Here's R. podophylla 'Rotlaub' instead, duck-foot rodgersia. I was for a while upset that the Decaisnea insignis was cut down, but finally after I saw it returning, it occurred to me that all those great flowers and fruits would be at camera level. It's the female flowers that open first. I think the idea is that the pollen doesn't fertilize the flowers on the same tree, but I'm not sure it always works that way. I think there is only one of these trees in Stanley Park, and it gets fruits. Edited June 2, 2021: Last month I found a group of young ones in the Azalea Garden in Stanley Park. I'll end for tonight with Tellima grandiflora, fringe cups, which are everywhere.
I'll move on to miscellaneous stuff that appealed to me this month. @David Tang posted an Actinidia kolomikta for ID before I got around to posting this one at UBCBG. Actinidia kolomikta - Plant Finder (missouribotanicalgarden.org) says that male plants often have better leaf variegation than females. This seems to be a good example. I really like the red leaf margins too.
The Clematis montana var. wilsonii was definitely visible climbing the Thuja plicata in back of the Garden Centre in May. I just ran out of battery power on my phone before I remembered to photograph it. Maybe it looks even better now, on June 2, and I spent about an hour looking for some plants I never found, so I had lots of battery power left.
