I don't get any prizes this month for demonstrating Douglas Justice's helpful hints in his November in the Garden 2025 - UBC Botanical Garden blog. There are lots of stories and photos there - I recommend it. Here are just a few photos totally on topic. There are three Arbutus unedo near the Roseline Study Amphitheatre. One has just a few fruits that are quite small, just a bit over 1cm in diameter, and a lot of flower buds. But next to it is one that got the memo and decked itself out for the occasion - a lot of flowers, 2cm diameter fruits of varying colours, some half eaten to show of the inside. I'm not seeing these on the Garden Explorer map where I photographed them, at the southern entrance to the amphitheatre. I posted Zenobia pulverulenta last month, but here it is again. It has lots more flowers in the posting on the blog - maybe it's still early, and there is an individual that I couldn't get close enough to. My only other photos of flowers mentioned in the blog are of Helichrysum trilineatum. I am assuming that the epithet refers to the three sort-of parallel lines on the leaves. Here are a few photos from the entrance plaza. Phygelius x rectus 'Salmon Leap'. I thought that the common name "cape fuchsia" would at least keep these on topic with the fuchsias Douglas mentioned, but no, they are not even in the same family (they are Scrophulariaceae, not Onagraceae - evening primrose family where Fuchsia belong). Symphyotrichum oblongifolium 'Raydon's Favorite' Gomphocarpus physocarpus
Douglas Justice did start his November blog mentioning spectacular foliage displays. I didn't photograph the ones he mentioned, but I was plenty wowed by what I saw. Here is the Ginkgo biloba at the admission gate. Enkianthus campanulatus var. palibini Liquidambar styraciflua 'Lane Roberts' Cercis occidentalis Acer griseum Acer palmatum 'Seiryu' Cotinus coggygria and Cotinus coggygria 'Velvet Cloak' Young Juglans cinerea with startlingly long leaves.
I think Douglas usually does fruits in November. Here were a couple of shiny fruits that attracted me. Aronia melanocarpa. There used to be one with larger, tastier fruits just across from this one. The fruit I tasted yesterday had no taste whatsoever. The birds don't even seem to be interested in this, but maybe the taste improves in the next month or maybe the birds will get hungry enough. Crataegus x grignonensis, Grignon hawthorn. I'll finish off with a flower on the entrance plaza, Geranium 'Rozanne'. Whoever cares for a "Green Streets" intersection near me has planted these, so I was excited to learn the name. The flowers are unusually large for geraniums, making them super-visible even though they are such a dark colour that I would not expect them to be showy, or to even still be in bloom. I cheer them on every morning.
