Here is my top hit from yesterday - Phyllostachys edulis, moso bamboo, with almost creepy-feeling fuzz on the new culms. The hairs are so soft that they feel like spider webs. Eventually some areas of the culms will feel more like velvet. Some rhododendrons interested me for various reasons. For Rhododendron arboreum subsp cinnamomeum, it was the indumentum. For R. 'Leonard Messel', it's the maroon-coloured limbs. I've always been a sucker for red bracts - here are some good ones on R. huanum. And for an added bonus, there was a single flower cluster, with beautiful darker petal margins. Indumentum and flowers on R. wasonii (I think that's what this is). And lots of flowers on R. williamsianum, with small mahogany-coloured cordate leaves.
These planters at the entrance to the Campbell Building are still doing well. The featured plant is Acer palmatum 'Aoyati-gawa'. One of the filler plants is Hosta 'Blue Mouse Ears'. I think @Acerholic is a fan of these. How many more times may I post Magnolia laevifolia before the flowers appear? At this stage, the bud scales are the starring feature, particularly with the petals starting to peek through. This is visible just a few steps along on the boardwalk. My other favourite this time was Cotoneaster perpusillus. A photo almost identical to the first one is on Wikimedia from 2015.
I forgot two favourites! The doublefile viburnum near the entrance to the tunnel, Viburnum plicatum var tomentosum 'Lanarth' hasn't opened any flowers yet, but it was still showy with its upright double file of buds. I still miss the "Holboellia" name of what is now Stauntonia angustifolia. I finally found the larger group of these just inside the service gate behind the shop, with lots of male flower buds. I wonder if the female flowers come out later. When I posted those before, it was after I had been looking at them for about a month that I found the female flowers at the end of May in 2019.
