Garden Photo of the Day

GPOD on the Road: VanDusen Botanical Garden

Incredible early flower displays

close up of deep purple crocus flowers

Cherry Ong is taking us along to a see early spring bloomers at VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver, British Columbia, on a perfectly sunny spring day.

clump of bright yellow crocusNow that is a happy clump of crocus. I think it might be Crocus ancyrensis ‘Golden Bunch’ (Zones 4–8), but I’m not sure.

a naturalized planting of light purple crocus and snowdropsBig drifts of crocuses, mostly Crocus tommasinianus (Zones 4–8) it looks like, are taking over as snowdrops (Galanthus, Zones 3–8) finish up.

mass plantings of snowdrops under bare treesSweeps of snowdrops are still in bloom along the Rhododendron Garden Path.

close up of deep purple crocus flowersCrocus tommasinianus ‘Ruby Giant’ (Zones 4–8) is known for its vigor and relative squirrel resistance. It has extra-large, extra-showy flowers and blooms with abandon.

shrubs with bright red and purple foliage next to large conifersCalluna vulgaris ‘Zoe’ (Zones 4–8) is putting on a fiery show in the Heather Garden. That intense red color is from the foliage, not the flowers. A yellow-green in the summer, it blushes this red color in the winter months.

close up of peeling and multicolored Stewartia monodelpha barkStewartia monodelpha (Zones 6–8) has incredible bark. Cherry says that she has not forgotten this tree since her first visit and always looks for it in the garden.

larger clump of spreading yellow crocusMore gorgeous crocuses spreading and showing off.

light yellow crocus growing amongst mossThe mossy setting shows off these crocuses beautifully, and it won’t need to be mowed like a lawn does. This will allow the crocus foliage to mature naturally and store up energy for next year’s bloom.

bowl of floating hellebore flowersCherry says she came specifically to see these bowls of floating hellebore (Helleborus hybrids, Zones 4 – 9) blooms because she loves hellebores so much!

view of floating hellebore flowers from aboveBecause hellebore blooms hang down, displaying them this way allows you to really appreciate all their beauty and diversity.

 

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Comments

  1. User avater
    treasuresmom 04/14/2023

    Thank you for sharing, Cherry. Everything is so pretty.

    1. perenniallycrazy 04/14/2023

      You’re welcome. Spring is my favourite time of the year.

  2. User avater
    simplesue 04/14/2023

    Those bowls of floating hellebore are a pretty flower arrangement! Love the Crocus tommasinianus also, great photos!

    1. User avater
      cynthia2020 04/14/2023

      I agree!

  3. jos29803 04/14/2023

    Cherry, I love and look forward to your garden travels. So interesting and fun!

  4. user-7007672 04/14/2023

    As always, Cherry, thank you for your beautiful photographs. You have such a great eye for capturing the beauty that you see.
    Chris N

  5. btucker9675 04/14/2023

    That bowl of hellebores is so beautiful... and that Heather Garden!

  6. John_Seagle 04/15/2023

    This is really beautiful and awesome. Thank you seo marketing

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