There is no missing these gorgeous flowering trees currently in bloom around Vancouver. No, I'm not talking about cherry blossoms. These are Magnolias! They bloom almost same time as the cherry blossoms but have huge flowers that are drop-dead gorgeous. Every time I see a Magnolia tree, I'm always in awe. They are my favourite flowering tree!

UBC Botanical Gardens hosted a couple "Magnolia Magic" walking tours on Saturday and I was pretty excited to see the trees in the garden. This was actually my first time entering the UBC Botantical Gardens!

Tree expert, Douglas Justice was our guide for the one hour tour around the UBC Botanical Gardens. He has been at UBC Botanical Garden since January 2000 and also teaches horticulture and plant identification at UBC.

Even before we entered the garden, we were able to see several flowering magnolia trees. These have been flowering for a few weeks already so lost a lot of their tepals. Because of the differences in the microclimates between the outside and inside the garden, the further in, the later the blooms even though they may be the same species. The above photo shows three difference species: magnolia sprengeri, magnolia amoena and magnolia sargentiana.

Magnolia trees flower before their leaves come in. The "petals" are actually called tepals unlike normal flowers which have distinct sepals and petals. They also pollenated by ubiquitous tiny beetles and all the trees can cross-pollinate.

Someone made some art with the magnolia tepals earlier in the morning.

There were so many species of magnolia I couldn't keep track of them all. The magnolias in the garden comes from China or Japan and are very large - a lot of them are over 10m tall! So Douglas doesn't recommend getting some varieties for your residential garden unless you have the space! They need space and sun otherwise they do a very poor job of flowering!




 These blooms were as big as my head!

One problem with magnolias is that if they get damaged, their extensive root system goes into overdrive to repairing itself and grows missing branches at turbospeed - sacrificing flower production on those branches. So you might see bare branches with only a few flowers and you can't prune it because that'll only make it worse!

I think this small one is Star Magnolia? It comes from Japan.



Peer inside the magnolia flower and you'll see the stamens and stigmas, which have a certain beauty to themselves!









If somehow you haven't seen the magnolias yet, go outside and take a walk! You'll probably encounter one growing in someone's garden. Or go to UBC Botanical Garden to see these huge, beautiful trees in bloom!

Gorgeous.

Fall flowering crocus (Colchicum autumnale)

Yay! Flowers are again showing up in the garden! These fall flowering bulbs are bringing me great joy. Hopefully they brighten up your day as well!

Colchicum autumnale Alboplenum

Colchicum Waterlily

Looks like I still have some flowers growing in my garden! I don't know what type it is anymore. I think it maybe a clematis? It's a vine and has already climbed up the bush I planted it under to almost the roof covering it with masses of tiny white flowers. Anyone know what type of flowering vine this is?

My Japanese Anemone is blooming! This is the first time I've seen blooms since I've planted it the year before. Maybe because it's too much in the shade?


Another one blooming is Pink Double Delight Coneflower. This one's petals are already falling off. But there are more blooms on the way!


One thing I really need to do is rearrange the plants in my garden and add some more fall blooming plants. I find that I have a lot of bare space right now.

On the edible side, these orange cherry tomatoes are ready for picking! They are very sweet! We also have a lot of zucchinis.


Found this little guy on one of the tomato plants. I wish I had a macro lens!

These are one of my favourite lilies. Casablanca oriental lily. It's something about the whiteness of it. They have huge blooms and smell heavenly!

This is the only Gladiolus that survived the winter. I should plant them deeper next time.

Some green figs in my garden are ready for harvest!

Daylilies! I should plant more of these. I don't know what types they are. I think I got them from the VanDusen Garden Plant sale earlier this year.

'Miss Lucy' double flowered Oriental lily. This lily has a very strong fragrance, which wafts up to the front entrance much to my delight.





Some of my daylilies are starting to bloom. Can't wait to see how they look like!

Yesterday I went to the plant sale at UBC Botanical Garden. A Growing Affair replaces the Perennial Plant sale which was held annually at the Garden for 22 years. I was intrigued and was debating whether to go but curiosity got the better of me and I ended up checking it out. There were various plants for sale, demonstrations to see, there were also vegetables, pies and apple chips to buy! I had a blackberry pocket pie and also a bag of apple chips.

Honey Bee display

I can't leave a plant sale empty handed so here's what I bought:
It's a herb pot. It has chives, sage, thyme and...er I don't know what the 4th plant is. Anyone know? It's the plant in the bottom right.