Vandusen Gardens


Places of Interest, Plant Material / Sunday, July 10th, 2016

White lilies-8393Vandusen GardensChocolate cosmos-8359

Purple poppy-8395

While down in Vancouver entertaining friends visiting from the UK, we were fortunate to end up in Vandusen Gardens.  It has been a while since I last visited these botanical gardens and as ever I am in awe of the majestic trees to the perennial flower beds and rose gardens.   It is always a good opportunity to refresh my memory on some of the more unusual perennials.  First up “Bears Breeches” (acanthus mollis) with its striking spires of flowers.

Bears Breeches-8403
Bears Breeches

 Another plant that caught my attention with its spiky silvery leaves was “Sea Holly” (eryngium ); a good drought resistant plant that can survive in areas of poor soil.

Eryngium (sea holly)-8367
Sea Holly

Eryngium (sea holly)2-8369

There were many different variety of poppies but I particularly liked the red and purple veined one as well as the ruffled pink poppy.

Deep red poppy-8396 Deep red & purple poppies-8400

Ruffled pink poppy-8407

There were arrays of heliopsis as well as verbascum (muellin) that radiated in the sunlight.  

Yellow unnamed flower Van Dusen-8353
Heliopsis
Yellow muellin-8406
Verbascum

I was pleased to discover too some old favourites, i.e. the blue cornflower, larkspur and crocosmia (which flowers well along the coast).

Crocosmia-8408
Crocosmia
Blue cornflowers-8405
Blue cornflower
Larkspur-8397
Larkspur

 

 

 

 

 

I could ramble on further as there were so many different types of both perennial and annual flowers in bloom.  So I will finish off with a couple photos of astrantia major and a photo of a bee happily feeding on a drumstick primula.

 Deep purple astanita-8385

Pale pink astrantia-8362
Astrantia Major
Drumstick primula with bee-8388
Drumstick primula

 

Even if  you are not a keen gardener Vandusen is certainly a lovely spot to visit where you can have a quiet moment in the bustling metropolis of Greater Vancouver.  Very worthwhile.

 

 

 

 

 

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