While I was checking out a dragon lily, I saw several Martagon lilies, but the flowers were maybe half the size of the ones I posted above. And they're almost entirely finished blooming. These are in the rock garden area near the Stanley Park Pavilion. Here is the Dracunculus vulgaris. There is a group of six of these in the adjacent bed, which were the ones I went to check on, had entirely missed seeing this one before, and it's the only one that's open.
ROSES The Stanley Park Rose Garden is looking excellent now - everything seems to be open. This is Rosa 'Ballerina', a Musk rose. Speaking of single-flowered roses, here are two from the street outside the Southlands Nursery. Mr. Southlands (Thomas Hobbs) told me the names, and he called the first one Rosa gentiliana. The page at https://www.trevorwhiteroses.co.uk/shop/rambling-roses/rosa-gentiliana says Rosa gentiliana a.k.a Rosa polyantha 'Grandiflora'. Rosa gentiliana - Wikispecies gives as homotypic Rosa multiflora var. gentiliana, says R. gentiliana is "[a] dubious name and not fully understood. Plants in cultivation under this name belong to the cultivar 'Polyantha Grandiflora', and does not fit the original description. The original description mention semidouble flowers, but when Léveille (1818) publish an illustration 10 years later, the flowers are single." These flowers were around 6 cm in diameter. Around the corner on 49th is Rosa filipes 'Kiftsgate', with smaller flowers, around 4 cm in diameter. Here is a very different rose, and I don't remember where I came up with the name; I think I was told it. The flowers don't really interest me much, but I'm in love with the shiny red-margined leaves. So I think this is Rosa 'MEIkrotal', sold under the trade name Scarlet Meidiland. These are in front of an apartment building across from English Bay, near Stanley Park.
You must be enjoying a lunchtime walk amongst the perfume right now. Something to put in the memory bank for Winter. Whoops, did I say the word Winter, Sorry for that Wendy !! I love the perfume of musk Rose's but my wife does not. Might be a man woman thing !!????
Here is a little street scene with Crocosmia. Denman Street, one of the major streets in the West End, and Eihu Lane. All lanes in this neighbourhood were named around a year ago. I'm finding it really hard to learn the names. There are only 10 of them. Vancouver West End Lane Namesakes
Acerholic posted a Liquidambar styraciflua 'Slender Silhouette' in the Virtual Garden Tour forum. I photographed a pair of these flanking the entrance to the Eugenia condo building on Beach Avenue, wasn't sure of the name, though I also photographed them last year and that's the name I guessed at the time. I took these photos a week ago, hadn't got around to figuring out the name again. Thanks, Acerholic.
I am so far behind, and I've just imagined doing postings. I told Stanley Park Rose Garden gardener Frankie that I posted her photo last month, and it doesn't even seem to be true, so here is the Allium giganteum bed she was working on on June 19! Rosa 'Garden Delight' delighted me that day, when it was one of the few roses in bloom. I saw Frankie again today, and all her alliums have finished blooming and have been topped. I didn't even ask her what she was tending there now. :( I did post something from the Rose Garden last week. It still looks excellent today, with flowers on everything. Today's picks were 'South Africa' and Rosa 'About Face'.
@wcutler good morning Wendy. It doesn't take very long at all to get behind on these forums, especially with the PM's. The maples forum is so active atm, now on page 102 on the cheering ourselves up with maples thread. Lovely at work photos you have just posted, gives some idea of what it takes to put something like this together.
@wcutler - I can't tell you how much I enjoy the photographs you share of your botanical discoveries in Vancouver. I feel very regretful now, having been born and having lived for 60 years in Vancouver and Burnaby to have so seldom sought out such treasures myself. Vancouverites truly live in a botanical paradise! If I still resided in the Lower Mainland, I would make the effort to find the wonderful plants you have pointed out but seeing them in your pictures is the next best thing. Thank you so much.
@wcutler, can I second that from @Margot, we will never see the wonderful places and plants you are photographing, but your postings are the best chance for my wife and I to experience and appreciate these. Thankyou.
The Rose Garden at Queen Elizabeth Park is an entirely different affair from the tidy beds in Stanley Park. It's actually wildly attractive, and has lots of infill plants. There seem to be labels, but they're hard to find. It's plenty colourful. I don't know most herbaceous plants, have posted a couple for ID. I had no trouble identifying the Chitalpa tashkentensis in the middle of this bed, flowers just in bud. I recognized the Arctium minus, Burdock, at the edge of the garden. This looked deliberately planted, and there seemed to be just one of it. So some care is being given to this place. I think the esthetic is just different here from the Stanley Park garden. Here's a photo of the unmowed grass around the 'Akebono' cherries that are so popular in the spring. I've never seen it unmowed like this, thought it looked wonderful.
My wife and I love white Clematis, here are two from the Mottisfont Gardens very near us. Clematis 'Arctic Queen' and 'Sylria Denny'.
Another plant that drew our attention at Mottisfont Abbey Gardens was the Echinops sphaerocephalus ' Great globe thistle'. This really stood out on it's own and also had lovely lush green foliage. Height approx 18 inches.
Eryngium giganteum 'Miss Willmott's ghost' is my last offering from Mottisfont Abbey today. I have tried to show that green and white can not just be relaxing, but so very interesting. These two colours, or variables of, are used a lot in our own garden to compliment our maples.
I love trees and when they have been arranged as these pleached Limes have been at Mottisfont Abbey in England, they give a different perspective, leading your eyes further and further along the path to a distant well placed garden ornament.
Just started raining here, so the weeding stops for a while at least. Time to share some English Rose's in Summer from Mottisfont Abbey. First is a rambler unknown name I'm afraid and second photo is of course roses around an English bothy/cottage at the same location. I said the other day that it is lovely to see the photos from Wendy @wcutler, as we will never go there, so thought I would return the kindness.
Over the past 42 years my wife and I have visited a great many gardens around the UK. Most beautiful and some not so. Certain memories stick in the mind and after my posting earlier about Mottisfont and the pleached Lime path, I thought I would show a clever trick at National Trust's Hidcote Manor. This walkway leads the eye further along as it cleverly narrows very slightly from start to finish, giving the impression that it is longer than it actually is. The Beech hedge was immaculate btw.
I have just done four separate postings on shrubs on Rose Garden Lane, so of course, I was at the Rose Garden. I picked just one to post, this Rosa 'Winter Sun', in the Lower Rose Garden this time. Then I saw this group of what seemed like would be called blue roses. The colour varied from grey to pale lavender, but there was hardly any colour variation on a single flower. Really, I favour roses that do have colour that varies from new to old petals, but this was strange enough that I had to capture it. I did not find a tag or label. I think the cultivar might be 'Blue Moon' - the red buds and leaf margins seem to be wrong for 'Blue Bajou'. I didn't find any other blue rose names. I think the photo colour here is a little too pink. Edited August 29, 2020 - There was a label today - Poseidon, a Floribunda rose. That would be Poseidon™ ('KORfriedhar') A few miscellaneous flowers from Stanley Park: Bletilla striata, Chinese Ground Orchid, showed up on the forums posted recently for ID. An Astilbe, very colourful. I saw that Astilbe when I was checking on the Dracunculus vulgaris, of which I have taken way too many photos.
Good morning Wendy, my wife is the rose person in our family and she believes it is the Blue Moon rose. This is the true colour compared to catalogues selling these that have been computer enhanced. My wife has missed the rose gardens this year due to a lot of these being closed, so she thanks you for posting these, just needs technology to allow the perfume now. Still look at the Dracunculus vulgaris as something seen in a Dinasaur movie. I can see why you gravitate towards it to take more photos.
Yesterday @Arlette on another thread posted Claude Monet's wonderful garden. This reminded me of a visit to the Mottisfont Abbey gardens in Hampshire England, when my wife and I enjoyed the beautiful Weeping Willow hanging serenely above the River Test. An arched footbridge was just behind. I wonder what Monet would have thought of it. These are my photos.
What a show!!!! @Acerholic Monet would have been enchanted by it and would have painted it as many times as the Japanese bridge depending on how the light illuminated it! How many fairy places there are to visit, too bad that there is not enough time for everyone! This is why I like virtual travel because we can exchange each other that beauty that maybe we won't happen to see personally. With these beautiful images in my eyes, I say you goodnight !!
I finally remembered to take my camera with me when we took the dog to Crowley Park. It's such a shame that COVID has prevented the volunteers from keeping the park cleared - its more of a nature park than a picnic park but still the morning glories and invasives are starting to smother everything. And even though they may be invasive I still managed to get a nice mix of photos.
@pmurphy, lovely photos P. Particularly like the Clematis. I'm surprised the volunteers have been kept away from the park. My wife and I do this for footpaths near us and have managed to keep on top of some walking areas. The community service offenders have not been used since the start of Covid, so the footpaths are becoming over grown rapidly at this time of year. Hopefully all will return to normality next year and your park will be back to normal.
@pmurphy Oh how beautiful !!! I love plants that meet when walking: the Eschscholzia are beautiful, they seem like small rays of sun! The lilac "duvets" of the Cirsium arvense !!!! The other yellow mistake or is it Achillea tomentosa? Thanks, a nice show at the end of the evening!
