Douglas Justice, at September in the Garden 2023 - UBC Botanical Garden, says that "summer-blooming plants often continue pumping out their flowers as long as the sun shines", and yes, they're still doing it. The blog starts with the Fuchsia magellanica "prominently displayed" next to the welcome sign on the entrance plaza. Here is the welcome sign, with Hesperantha coccinea in front. Nearby is Fuchsia 'Little Giant', an F. magellanica hybrid. Mentioned as a fuchsia look-alike, hence its common name California fuchsia, here is Epilobium canum subsp. latifolium, in the Pacific Slope garden and in the Alpine Garden North American section. Here are Epilobium canum subsp. canum - I was surprised by the feathery seeds on this and Epilobium canum subsp. canum 'Sir Cedric Morris'.
Back to the entrance plaza for a bit, as well as just past the garden entrance, Hylotelephium are in bloom now here and all over the city. If you want to keep calling these sedums, you're in luck, because that's one of the common names (stonecrop is another), so no-one will ever be the wiser. If you want to want to be au courant, Douglas gave the pronunciation one year as "high-low-tell-eff-ee-um" (Featured Plants in August 2020 in the Neighbourhood - UBC Botanical Garden), and my mnemonic to remember it has been "hi-low-telephone". Hylotelephium spectabile are supposed to have opposite leaves, but this is supposed to be H. spectabile. These are H. spectabile Brilliant Group. These more clearly have opposite leaves. Hylotelephium ‘Herbstfreude’-autumn joy have alternate leaves. From the neighbourhood blog linked to above, "autumn joy is a hybrid of H. spectabile and H. telephium. Hylotelephium telephium (orpine) is native from Europe to Japan and is known for a number of purple-green-leaved mauve-pink-flowered cultivars such as ‘Matrona’." Presumably the autumn joy alternate leaves come from the orpine side of the cross, so that got me a little confused looking at this H. telephium 'Matrona'; Douglas tells me it's easy to oversimplify things in this genus. Anyway, here is the 'Matrona' in the Contemporary Garden, with great pink stems. I found a label on this white flowered Hylotelephium erythrostichum and got excited thinking it would be the name for the white-flowered plant above, just on the east side of the same plot, but that one seems to be H. spectabile and not the same as this.
Here are some millets from the food garden, and the sign again. Linda Layne reminded me that there are several plants in totally different genera that are called millet. They are all in the Poaceae family though. Proso, Panicum miliaceum - it's the droopy one in this photo The upright one in the above photo is White millet - Echinochloa frumentacea Pearl millet - Pennisetum glaucum and P. glaucum 'Purple Majesty' Foxtail millet - Setaria italica
Douglas's list included Kniphofia, in the African section of the Alpine Garden. Ones he mentioned may be the ones shown here: Kniphofia linearifolia on the left, Kniphofia triangularis subsp. obtusifolia on the right. This little one is Kniphofia albescens I only found one flower spike of Watsonia fourcadei In the same section are these good-sized Helichrysum trilineatum, with such tiny ray flowers that they're hardly noticeable, even though several flower heads are bundled together. On the first photo you can see three linear veins on the leaves, which I'm assuming is what the trilineatum attribute in the name is about. In the same section is Felicia drakensbergensis, blue daisy bush, making its first appearance in this forum, though others of this genus have appeared elsewhere. Here is another blue-flowered Asteraceae, Erigeron glaucus, from California/Oregon, in the Pacific Slope Garden. Back in the Asian Garden, I've mentioned before that the Kirengeshoma palmata on the north side of Upper Asian Way open later than the Kirengeshoma palmata Koreana Group on the south side of the path, though if there is any difference in amount of sun hitting the plants, I would think the ones on the north side would get a bit more sun. Here is the plant on the north side, with only flowers: and Kirengeshoma palmata Koreana Group on the south side, all fruits.
I forgot one mentioned in the blog - Verbena bonariensis, looking beautiful in the food garden with Amaranthus 'Hop Red Dye'.
@Daniel Mosquin posted Ceratotheca triloba, South African foxglove, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10160632577860781&set=a.10150652226110781, which reminded me that I saw it last week too but forgot to include it here. Daniel wrote that it's in the Pedaliaceae family, same as sesame seeds (Sesamum indicum, which has flowers similar in shape and fuzziness). It's not expected to be winter-hardy, but the garden is hoping to regrow it from harvested seeds. Here's my photo.
Ha-ha, is that what Douglas Justice meant by his reference to the "expansive patch" of it? I see it's on the watch list for Washington State. South American plant. The article doesn't mention BC, maybe we still need to warm up a bit before it's a problem here.
OK, re: Verbena bonariensis, "Weed in gaps in cement steps around courtyard sculpture, with Geranium robertianum..." at the UBC Music Building. And there is a "Several appearing in recent topsoil used for landscaping". Nine mainland and one Vancouver Island listings. E-Flora BC Atlas Page (ubc.ca) says "This garden escape shows up from time to time, mostly in soil dumps or near habitations, but does not persist", with status as unlisted and not established.
Notice that although most of the records were for one or a few individuals Record #1 was based on a site with 30 and #10 with 20 present. And in the latter case the collection was made in 2002. So, I think it's well established by now that the Lower Mainland climate is not a problem for the species.
I was shocked to read on Wikipedia that Verbena bonariensis can "grow to 6 ft (180 cm) tall and can spread to 3 ft (90 cm) wide." It grows from seed every year in my garden but never more than 30 inches tall and never more than one single stalk. I wonder what I'm doing wrong (or right).
