On Wednesday I heard a story mentioning the day—March 13th—was the 4-year anniversary of COVID-19 declared as a national emergency and lockdowns going into effect. That brought a flood of emotions, but something else sounded familiar about March 13th. Then it hit me! Wednesday was the 15th anniversary of my first danger garden post back in 2009! My blog is 15 years old! Crazy. Today's post is my 3,673rd, wow. Thanks for making this fun and staying with me all these years!
Now back to our regular programing:
Sunday morning of the Study Weekend event in Vancouver BC I skipped the lectures and took off for
VanDusen Botanical Garden.
It was a beautiful late June morning and I hadn't been to VanDusen since 2010. It seemed criminal to sit indoors, although I later heard that I missed a really inspiring talk.
After a quick pass thru the gift shop I emerged from the visitors center and stopped to admire these low planters. What an interesting planting scheme.
The first one planted exclusively with agaves...
Yes, mangaves are now considered agaves—and that's just the tip of the iceberg as far as
the agave family tree and how it all fits together.
The second full of colorful begonias.
And the third showing off the very different looks of the senecios.
Well done!
Pseudotsuga menziesii 'Pendula' (weeping Douglas fir)
Looking across to a peninsula that is home to the Southern Hemisphere gardens...
Before crossing over to the peninsula there was a seasonal planting that included several fine agaves.
Happy gunnera backed by monkey puzzle trees, Araucaria araucana.
Close-up of the Araucaria araucana's spiky branches.
Acaena inermis 'Purpurea' and something that I swear was signed as
Veronica lyallii, which it's obviously not if you look up that name.
Wollemia nobilis with mounds of Muehlenbeckia complexa (maidenhair vine), that I wanted to call wire vine but is not. Wire vine is Muehlenbeckia axillaris.
A lovely leucadendron, I wonder if they lift it over the winter or just leave it to see what happens? (cause there's no way that's hardy there).
Onward!
There were may groups of people posing for photos here, all dressed up in their Sunday best. This shot was taken just before 10am, I imagine the crowds get much thicker as the day goes on.
In case you forgot where you were...
Okay, time for some ferns and other shady characters.
And a waterfall with something very rare in the pond. Can you spot it?
Ah yes, the rare floating plastic water bottle! (or really not so rare, ugh)
Arisaema ringens foliage...
...and flower.
Arisaema tortuosum
Close up
Blechnum penna-marina (aka Austroblechnum penna-marina)
Dryopteris cycadina, shaggy shield fern
Dryopteris sieboldii
Polystichum setiferum 'Dahlem'
Dicksonia antarctica
Dead tree ferns as edging?
There was a pyrrosia! Sad as it was.
And ostrich ferns, Matteuccia struthiopteris. I love them so much, but they don't love my garden (too dry).
All material © 2009-2024 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.
