UBC Botanical Garden Mondays—two of three

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!