Here we are, back at the
UBC Botanical Garden for the second installment of UBC Monday's (find
part one here). Today's post begins with a little background on the garden: "The UBC Botanical Garden is Canada’s oldest university botanic garden, established in 1916 under the directorship of John Davidson, British Columbia’s first provincial botanist. The original mission of the garden was research into the native flora of British Columbia. Over the past 100 years, the mission of UBC Botanical Garden has broadened to include education, research, conservation, community outreach, and public display of temperate plants from around the world." (
source)
I stood here looking at this plant (Skunk cabbage, I believe) wishing there was something for scale, so you'd know just how huge it was.
Magically that's when this adult female walked up and stood right where I could take a photo!
Ha! But seriously, it was quite large.
Lonicera crassifolia, growing in a stump.
Magnolia sargentiana
Skeletonized leaves and aborted fruit...
Yes, I brought one of the leaves home with me.
They're building a willow arbor—my friend
Ann did it first.
Oh!
That's not your grandma's willow! (check out the
Far Reaches Farm description)
Another fabulous rhododendron that I can't name...
We venture on...
Hydrangea in the center...
But which one?
Rodgersia below.
Big wall-o-foliage!
These would annoy me in my own garden, but here they were like little suns that fell from the sky.
I lost track of all the ginormous slugs I almost stepped on.
Seriously. Please excuse the close up of my toes, but I came so close!
Thankfully this one was sliming up the side of a mossy tree, not in the pathway.
As agreeable as the flowers? What?
Some people might say there are no flowers needed!
Whoa! That's an RV sized Schefflera delavayi (yes I know, name change, I'm ignoring it)...
More rhododendron goodness...
Part three of this fantastic garden next Monday!
All material © 2009-2023 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.
I love the idea of being enveloped by that mass of greenery in all its variations. That black slug with what looked like a shiny plume of a tail made me think of it as the peacock of slugs - seriously, for a slug, it was much better looking than the one in the next photo.
ReplyDeleteI don't ever see either of those slug species in my garden so I thought they were both pretty interesting.
DeleteWhat a foliage paradise. These photos practically had me moaning.
ReplyDeleteIt really is!
DeleteHydrangea aspera. Lovely photos! As a Rhodoholic, the leaves have to work for me, no matter how good the flowers are; the leaves are what you see all year round.
ReplyDeleteThanks! And yes, it really amazes (and frustrates) me that the focus is the flowers when they're so fleeting.
DeleteThose Skunk cabbage leaves are massive... maybe that's where babies come from.
ReplyDeleteMany Rhodies are stunning without flowers. Even those with amazing blooms, have an ugly phase right after they fade. I never have the time to pinch them all off even though it could be quite meditative.
I hope someone can ID that Hydrangea. It looks so different...
Chavli
Dana (above) says Hydrangea aspera, which I guess I knew, but I was doubting myself.
Delete(Oh and Adam adds that it maybe maybe Hydrangea aspera macrophylla)
DeleteLovely leaves. I never appreciated rhodos until I couldn't grow them. The giant yellow daisies are Telekia speciosa which are super hardy. People get very excited when they flower here (zone3/4) as they are rather prehistoric looking. What have they changed Schefflera to now?
ReplyDeleteHeptapleurum, just rolls off the tongue doesn't it?
DeleteJust my kind of garden. Whoa. So lush and varied. I'm with you on the Schefflera name change. Bah humbug.
ReplyDeleteI'm ignoring it (the new name), maybe they'll change it back!
DeleteGreat photos again.
ReplyDeleteThe adult beside the Skunk plant made me chuckle!
I have one of those Salix magnificas. It has been growing in my back garden for about 10 years and is almost 20 foot tall now. It is a good doer. The leaves are lovely and it puts out these lovely big catkins as well. The only downside is that the leaves flush in May and can sometimes be susceptible to late frosts.
The unknown Hydrangea is a beauty. It looks a bit like a Hydrangea aspera macrophylla.
Hydrangea aspera macrophylla... thank you! I thought the leaves looked a little different than a usual aspera.
DeleteYay for the banana slug (at least I think that’s what the pale one is)! I rarely see them anymore.
ReplyDeleteSame!
Delete