Vancouver – Last Day

The Horticulture Centre of the Pacific.

Our last day of gardens on Vancouver Island turned out to be a high point.  We started the day at the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific.  This educational garden is maintained by 10 month student interns who learn how to garden as a trade before spreading out to work in the many gardens around Vancouver Island (Victoria touts itself as “City of Gardens”).  The gardens were quite lovely with about 30 theme gardens from bogs to Japanese gardens, vegetables, and fuchsia collections.  The garden art was quite nice throughout the grounds.

The luscious bog garden.

Iron Allium christophii flowers at the Hort. Center of the Pacific.

The final garden was The Butchart Gardens, a must-see for any visitor to the island.  The hanging baskets, color plantings, and general exuberance of the gardens make this a great place to visit for both gardeners and non-gardeners alike.  I appreciated some of the more understated areas like the Japanese Garden where moss and ferns gave a serene, green look.

Brilliant hanging baskets are everywhere.

Bright color in the Quarry Garden at Butchart.

Apparently tours are not allowed at Butchart Gardens (they even explicitly prohibit guided tours on the tickets) but the JC Raulston name once again paid off.  We were given a private tour by Rick Gordon who has been working at Butchart for 30 years.  Despite his length of service, this was Rick’s very first tour – which he led excellently I should add.  He told us that they will give maybe 10 or so guided tours a year.  We even got to peak into the greenhouses where they produce their fantastic plants.

A serene break from all the exuberant color.

Massive maidenhair ferns in the Japanese Garden.

Our Great 70 Degree British Columbia Getaway has been a phenomenal trip with a great group of people, exquisite gardens, and knowledgeable guides.  I can’t wait for the next trip.

Follow me at @jcramark because life is too short for boring plants.

A great trip with a great group.

Check out all the happenings at http://www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum

Vancouver – Day 5

Thanlictrum delavayi anchoring one end of a Government House Border.

The bustling harbor just outside our hotel starts early in the morning much like our crew.  Seaplanes were getting ready for tourists, sailboats were heading out, and ferries were preparing for crowds.  We left for Hatley Castle Gardens on what is now the grounds of the Royal Roads University.  The house was originally built by the man who owned all the coal mines on the island who decided he needed a castle.  It was eventually sold to the Canadian navy who used it as a naval academy before it ultimately turned into a university.

Hatley Castle

Barrie showing us around Hatley Castle.

Our guide Barrie, the head gardener, was a wealth of information about the house and grounds.  There were incredibly well-maintained and interesting formal gardens, a Japanese garden, rose and walled gardens and woodland ferneries.  The diversity was really quite nice and while some of the gardens are in need of renovation, the majority were quite beautiful and filled with fantastic plants.

Part of the sub-tropical border.

A formal Italianate garden at Abkhazi.

After a quick lunch we were on our way to the Abkhazi Garden which is a wonderful oasis in a surburban neighborhood.  The house and garden are built among and on solid stone outcrops where paths and plants blend seamlessly with the rock.  The garden combines 100 year-old rhododendron with unusual plants from around the world including new cultivars and unusual species.

Nancy and Claire exploring Abkhazi.

A pond nestled into the rock outcrop at Abkhazi.

The winding turf lawn at Abkhazi represents the Yangtze river.

Our plan was to finish the day at Beacon Hill Park, a public park near our hotel.  Based on a tip from a couple of Abkhazi volunteers, we instead headed to Government House – the residence of the Lieutenant Governor, the official representative of England when she (or he) is in town.  The grounds are open to the public and were simply spectacular.  The house is on top of a hill over Victoria and has lush borders, rock gardens, herb and rose gardens, and quite a few acres of endangered Garry oak (Quercus garryana) ecosystem.

One of the lovely borders at Government House.

Part of the dry garden at Government House.

A newly planted heath garden below the rock garden.

 

Vancouver – Day 4

The 500′ ferry to Vancouver Island.

We were up early to make it to the ferry from Vancouver to Vancouver Island and on to Victoria, our base for the next several days.  The ferry ride is an amazing trip with incredible views as you weave between rocky islands covered with madrone (Arbutus menziesii) and conifers.  The ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay is about 550′ feet long and holds over 2000 people and 400 cars so it isn’t a small vessel and seems much too big to wind its way between the islands.  Despite a constant look-out no whales, otters, or seals were seen.

Part of the narrow passage for the ferry.

Nice view.

This was one of our few free afternoons so after we arrived at the hotel a bit before lunch, folks split up to explore Victoria, visit some provincial parks, and even golf.  Unfortunately a free afternoon means I get to sit in a hotel room and do work.  Whale watching is on the agenda for later for some of the group but I will get to continue to do work.  I suppose the view of the harbor makes up for it.

The view of the harbor outside my window – not bad.

Follow me at @jcramark because life is too short for boring plants.

Check out all the happenings at http://www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum

Vancouver – Day 3

Part of a great art display at Van Dusen called Touch Wood.

Day 3 of the JC Raulston Arboretum excursion to British Columbia lived up to the high bar set by our first couple of days with incredible gardens and fantastic tours.  We started early with a visit to Van Dusen Botanical Garden.  On my last trip to the area (almost a decade ago now!) this garden really blew me away.  There were some big changes including a 22 million dollar, LEED certified visitor center.  Beryl, curator for Van Dusen, took us on a tour of the grounds with some of her colleagues and treated us to a 2 hour in-depth look at the collections.  The grounds were spectacular, much as I remembered them.  The mixed borders of perennials and subtropicals were especially showy.

Barred owl at Van Dusen.

Beryl, the curator at Van Dusen, gave a fantastic tour with a couple of colleagues.

The heath surprised me with flowers in August.

A lovely container at Van Dusen.

The dome of the Bloedel Conservatory.

After a quick lunch we headed the short distance to Queen Elizabeth Park and Bloedel Conservatory.  Vancouver has way more than its fair share of parks and botanic gardens and our 2 garden visits were only a half mile apart.  The tour of the conservatory was given by a parks intern named Dan.  Dan had not been working in the conservatory for long but gave a great tour anyway.  The internship program is a highly competitive one that lasts 4 years giving the interns a chance to work throughout the parks system.

The obligatory Gunnera shot that us east coasters can’t resist.

The surrounding Queen Elizabeth Park has a great arboretum but their quarry garden is the real showstopper.  Since it can be viewed from above.  The colorful annuals, perennials, and conifers combine combine for a breathtaking display.

The color and texture is great.

The incredible quarry garden at Queen Elizabeth Park viewed from above.

I’m not sure the bike dates to the Ming dynasty.

The final garden for the day was the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden and Museum.  Unlike the other gardens, our guide was not a plants-person instead Sue explained to us the life in a Ming dynasty (~1350-1750) scholar’s household.

Our guide Sue was fascinating describing the symbolism of the garden and house.

Perhaps my favorite thing Sue told us was an old Chinese proverb:

If you want to be happy for 1 hour, get drunk.

If you want to be happy for 1 year, get married.

If you want to be happy for a lifetime, get a garden.

Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden is surrounded by the city.

Stone, plants, water, and man-made structures are the four elements of a classical Ming dynasty garden.

Since we were already in Chinatown, a dinner at a dim sum restaurant was a no-brainer.  The Jade Dynasty served us a mountain of dim sum, barbequed duck, Chinese broccoli, mushrooms, and beef with tangerine rind.  A fantastic end to a great day.

Dried gecko in Chinatown – no, they don’t eat it like a lollypop, it is used to make a tea.

Follow me at @jcramark because life is too short for boring plants.

Check out all the happenings at http://www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum

Vancouver – Day 2

Douglas Justice educating our group about botany, geology, history, and even our own North Carolina plants.

One of my absolute favorite gardens in the world is the fantastic collection at the University of British Columbia Botanic Garden.  The heart of the garden is the Asian collection which is presented as a woodland garden with plants growing naturally and a fantastic display of vines climbing through the trees.  Our group was very lucky that Douglas Justice, associate director, was available and willing to give us a tour.

UBC’s famous specimen of Carpinus fangiana, newly christened ‘Wharton’s Choice’.

Douglas led us through the Asian collection, Carolinian forest, Alpine garden, and Edible garden.  His 3-hour tour was one of the best I’ve ever had and the rest of the group echoed that sentiment.  The collection, as always, was an education for me with new plants around every corner and all displayed under majestic native conifers.

Ilex elmerrilliana was new to me.

Paris polyphylla var. polyphylla growing lusher than I’ve ever seen it before.

After a leisurely lunch at Vancouver’s famous Fish House, we explored Stanley Park which is situated just north of the hotel on a point of land.  Stanley Park is celebrating its 125th anniversary and the gardens looked great.  There were some surprisingly spectacular perennial and mixed borders as well as some fantastic annual displays.

Gorgeous borders at Stanley Park.

Stanley Park is celebrating its 125th anniversary.

The backdrop of conifers makes every view even better.

Marty Howard standing beneath a weeping Sequoiadendron.

First Nations totem poles

One of the highlights of the park are some authentic First Nations totems.  Each carving tells a story or describes a lineage of a family.

Follow me at @jcramark because life is too short for boring plants.

A good looking group at the First Nations totem poles.

Check out all the happenings at http://www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum

Vancouver – Day 1

Totems at Capilano Suspension Bridge.

One of the meccas for plant lovers has to be the beautiful region around Vancouver where you can find the rare temperate rain forest, diverse botanic gardens, and beautiful displays.  I’m currently leading a trip with a group of JC Raulston Arboretum members here to soak up the sights and we got off to a great beginning.

Despite a very early start, our first day turned out to be a great one with a visit to the Capilano Suspension Bridge.  The old growth Douglas firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii), western redcedar (Thuja plicata), and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) with its carpet of western sword fern (Polystichum munitum) and salal (Gaultheria shallon) was absolutely stunning in this extremely busy park.

Old growth conifers.

Nancy checking out some huge Douglas firs.

Part of the group entering the tree canopy walk.

The gorge and suspension bridge.

A close-up of the crowds.

While the plants and scenery were gorgeous at the bridge, the crowds were a bit off-putting as were the $18 hamburgers.  It is certainly worth a visit but I’d save it for a weekday rather than a beautiful Sunday.  We took off for a small park in a residential area to see Cypress Falls.  A short hike brought us to the falls and the deep ravine where it flowed down.

A short hike brought us to the small but beautiful Cypress Falls.

Moss covered log spanning the ravine over the falls.

Monotropa uniflora is also known as Indian pipe or corpse flower.

The day for the group ended with a visit to Lighthouse Park.  The scenery overlooking English Bay and back towards Vancouver was the perfect punctuation to a gorgeous day.

The lighthouse at Lighthouse Park.

A great view of Vancouver to end the first day.

I couldn’t convince anyone to join me for an evening run on Vancouver’s sea wall along False Creek and English Bay and they all missed out on a beautiful sunset over the coast.  The sea wall was pretty impressive with big crowds of hipsters, hippies, retirees, young couples, families, homeless folks (although a few of them might just be hipsters), artists, and musicians.

Follow me at @jcramark because life is too short for boring plants.

Check out all the happenings at http://www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum

UK Travel 2013 – Part 8, Getting It All Back Home

Shipping plants around the world involves much more than sticking them in a box.

The hardest part of a plant buying/collecting trip is getting everything back home safely.  Whenever I give a talk about my travels the topic of importing the plants is always the first to come up – followed of course by “when will you propagate and distribute them?”  We’ve had quite a lot of experience with this but the targets always seem to be moving.

The first step is to apply for import permits from the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).  There are several types of permits so it’s a good idea to know what types of things will be imported. You should also know what is and is not allowed into the US from whatever country you are visiting.  A constantly expanding list of plants not allowed for import is online and new regulations like the Not Approved Pending Pest Risk Analysis has created new lists and made it even easier to ban plants without real information on whether the plants pose a true risk.  The only way off that list is for the USDA to perform a pest risk analysis on the plant in question.  Somehow I don’t see that in the foreseeable budget of the USDA.

In whatever country you are visiting whether it is Canada or Mongolia, all plants must be inspected and receive a phytosanitary certificate (phyto in the importer’s lingo) from the country of origin.  Plants and any plant parts must be free of insects and diseases (try explaining to an inspector that the variegated, contorted thing you got in Japan is really not diseased) and free of all soil.  They must also be less than 2 years old and under 3 feet in height.

Seed in small quantities – fewer than 50 seeds each of no more than 50 different types of plants – can be shipped into the US without a phyto as long as you have the correct permit.  Many countries do not give phyto’s so this is the only option for some regions.

When you get everything together, plants and seed must all be shipped to a USDA inspection station like Atlanta, New York, Miami, or Seattle.  After a clean bill of health they are shipped on to you.  If all goes as planned, from the post office in the other country to your door can be as little as 4-5 days.  It can also be 4 weeks if the package gets held up somewhere.  Of course if the APHIS inspectors find a problem with your shipment they can destroy all or part of the plant shipment.

Finding plants is easy, getting them by the bureaucracy legally, through the post safely, and growing at home successfully is the difficult part of the process.

Follow me at @jcramark because life is too short for boring plants.

Check out all the happenings at http://www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum

UK Travel 2013 – Part 7, Roy Lancaster & Sir Harold Hillier Gardens

The view into the Winter Garden at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens is pretty good in summer with the Rubus cockburnianus ‘Goldenvale’ showing bright color. It’s white winter stems over the black mondo grass should be amazing.

Few people’s work has inspired me as much as Roy Lancaster’s.  His book Plantsman’s Paradise, Travels in China inspired me to travel the world to collect plants and see them growing in their native habitats – 1 trip to Ecuador, 2 to Taiwan, 3 to Japan, 3 to China, 1 to Mexico, and several in the mountains of VA and NC, the southeastern US, and Texas so far with another to Taiwan and New Zealand this fall.  I’ve been lucky enough to meet Roy a few times, the first when I was working as a gardener at the Atlanta Botanical Garden in the mid-90’s.  I still remember him coming by the conifer garden where I was working and telling a story about Sequoia sempervirens ‘Adpressa’ which will send up vertical shoots that give rise to a tall tree with very broad bluish needles.  He named that form ‘Cantab’ although ‘Concorde’ was almost the name to denote how fast it shot skyward.  Many references say ‘Cantab’ is a prostrate plant but in reality, ‘Adpressa’ is the low growing form and ‘Cantab’ is the vertical phase of the same clone.

The original Sequoia sempervirens ‘Cantab’ is not a low growing plant.

Roy met me at the gates of the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens the collection that he helped shape into one of the world’s foremost collections of plants.  After a quick tea with Roy and the current Hillier’s head of collections, David Jewell and John Hillier, we set off to explore the collections.  The collections are extensive and very well maintained.  The oaks in particular I find intriguing but at every turn is a species or cultivar new to me.

The small evergreen oak, Quercus guajavifolia was beautiful with leathery green leaves and rusty orange backs.

David Jewell’s background at Wisley is quickly becoming evident with beautiful displays incorporating herbaceous perennials to highlight the woody displays.  On my last visit a couple of years ago, prep was underway for new borders.  I was thrilled to see the borders in place and looking luscious and of course packed with plants with which I was only vaguely familiar.

The new perennial border with a backdrop of woodies.

The display in front of Jermyn House with a shrubby heath and conifers in the background.

Roy Lancaster with his introduction of Aucuba himalaica var. dolichophylla.

Roy had kindly invited me to stay with he and his wife Sue and I was looking forward to getting back to his garden with more time to poke around than on my last visit.  Roy’s suburban garden is packed with more amazing plants than any small garden has the right to display.  Roy shares many of my plant passions like Aucuba and Mahonia but he obviously hasn’t met a plant he doesn’t like.  We spent the afternoon and evening checking out everything but especially discussing the many species of mahonia that he is growing.

Mahonia shenii

The plants are fantastic in Roy’s garden but he and Sue’s generosity, delightful company, and fascinating conversation were even better.  I woke early to explore the garden a bit more before joining Roy as he thumbed through Plantsman’s Paradise reminiscing about old friends and remembered adventures.  Definitely a fan-boy moment for me.

Mahonia ogisui named for the Japanese plant collector, Mikinori Ogisu, a close friend of Roy’s.

Roy and I in front of a huge Aucuba omiense.

Follow me at @jcramark because life is too short for boring plants.

One final Mahonia from Roy’s garden, M. microphylla.

Check out all the happenings at http://www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum

UK Travel 2013 – Part 6, Crûg Farm Nursery

The display gardens around the nursery would set any botanic garden to shame with rare plants displayed in a beautiful setting.

Few nurseries hold quite the allure for the certified plant nut as Crûg Farm Nursery in Wales.  Alas, they do not ship to the US so if the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, etc., etc.  A visit with Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones of Crûg Farms was one of the primary purposes of my trip to the UK and if I had realized quite what an education their garden and greenhouses would be, I would have scheduled a few more days to spend there poking into all the corners.

Part of the nursery where liners and herbaceous plants are grown.

Bleddyn and Sue have spent the past years traveling the world collecting unusual plants and making them available to the public.  They have discovered quite a few new species and introduced even more to cultivation.  They have concentrated on a wide swath of genera including hardy Schefflera and Daphniphyllum, 2 groups I was especially keen to get my hands on to trial at the JC Raulston Arboretum and of course I found myself unable to resist some of their Sarcococca and the incredible collection of woodland lilies – Disporum, Polygonatum, and Maianthemum.

The gorgeous foliage of Acer tonkinense subsp. liquidambarifolium is drool-worthy but unfortunately regulations prohited me from bringing it to the US.

Bleddyn spent the better part of 2 days showing me through the greenhouses and teasing me with plants I either can’t bring into the US or with plants that he wouldn’t part with yet.  He concentrates on wild collected plants and doesn’t share my love of variegated plants but still wouldn’t give me cuttings of his Schefflera taiwaniana variegated sport.  If anyone reads this and manages to get a piece of that plant – I’ve got dibs on your first propagules!

Bleddyn’s generosity stopped at the variegated sport of S. taiwaniana.

The garden is situated on top of an old Roman lookout near the coast along a road that has been used since the earliest days in Wales.  Bleddyn tells me crûg translates to something like overlook and showed me the old Roman site where sentries used to camp now covered by huge rhododendron and other woody plants.  The garden is still growing and has recently been expanded onto the ruins of an old stone barn that suffered a fire but is now providing structure for vines and a backdrop for trees and shrubs.

The hospitality of Bleddyn and Sue was even better than their plants.

The incredible fruit stalk of Maianthemum flexuosum.

Liners of a potentially new genus from Taiwan tentatively named Uocodendron whartonii that resembles the Chinese Disanthus longipes.

Follow me at @jcramark because life is too short for boring plants.

Plants from all over the world populate the garden.

Check out all the happenings at http://www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum

UK Travel 2013 – Part 5, Nurseries – Pan-Global, Junker’s, Notcutt’s

Few nurseries can boast the borrowed scenery of Nick Macer’s Pan-Global Plants at Frampton Court.

I do love a good nursery and am fortunate to live in North Carolina where we have some of the finest, most innovating wholesale and retail nurseries in the world.  Our nurseries grow everything from huge landscape trees to flats of annuals and everything in between.  Nurseries here include the largest single site, heated greenhouse complex in the US (162 acres under glass!), tree liner producers, and world re-known mail-order nurseries but it is always great to see how other folks are doing things.

Bluebell creeper, Sollya heterophylla, is a fairly tender plant from Australia that Nick grows.

My quick whirlwind tour of Great Britain included several nurseries that blew my mind with their diversity and high quality plant material and I only wish I could have seen more.  I stopped in for a brief visit at Pan-Global Plants (http://www.panglobalplants.com/) where I was delighted and a bit chagrined to realize I knew owner Nick Macer but hadn’t been aware that this was his nursery.  Nick has been traveling the world collecting plants – Mexico, Morocco, Manipur, and Vietnam – not necessarily where many other plant hunters have gone in recent years.

Sorbus harrowiana is a dwarf Chinese rowan with huge, thick leaves on mature plants – very beautiful and distinctive but probably ungrowable in our humidity.

As his travels might indicate, Nick is not one to pigeonhole himself and is growing everything from bulbs to trees.  His collection was mouth-watering and well worth the trip to his beautiful walled-garden location on the Frampton Court grounds.  I spent a bit of time with Nick checking out some recent introductions and was especially excited to find Styrax shiraianus, a snowbell from Japan that is exceptionally rare in gardens despite having been introduced to the US a century ago.  The long tubed flowers and heavily toothed leaves are quite distinctive for a styrax.

If you don’t have a castle, the backdrop at Junker’s Nursery is the next best thing.

Nick’s plants are mostly smaller sized unusual species while Junker’s Nursery grows larger, landscape sized, field grown plants.  I’ve long wanted to visit and was not sure what to expect since their website (http://www.junker.co.uk/) indicated that they had recently moved.  I was met at the nursery by Karan Junker and her son Torsten.  I shouldn’t have worried about the nursery, they had been establishing it for several years prior to the move and I can’t imagine a more picturesque site with rolling hills and agricultural fields.

Can’t beat the color on this maple at Junker’s, Acer xconspicuum ‘Red Flamingo’.

The nursery consists of quite a few hoop houses, lined out stock plants, rows of nursery stock in the fields, and an arboretum of their trees and a sunken quarry garden as well where Torsten has been taking the lead.  Junker’s grows a very wide variety of material, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 taxa although not all are available at any one time.  They specialize in some material like Acer (maple), Cornus (dogwood), and several other woody trees and shrubs.  I think I counted over 140 different dogwoods – these are definitely my type of people.

Cornus controversa ‘Troya Dwarf’ – a dwarf giant dogwood growing in the arboretum at Junker’s.

Karan took me on a tour of the grounds where I saw some impressive, new (to me at least) plants that set me to drooling.  Folks in the UK are lucky to have growers of quality material so near at hand.  I was especially pleased to see that a new generation of Junker is interested in the nursery and Torsten has been expanding the palette of material growing at the nursery.  Several frames were built to house his growing collections of herbaceous material (120 taxa of Roscoea among others) and the most recent Junker’s availability list includes Agave and Dasylirion that Torsten grew from seed.  I can’t wait to see where the nursery goes as Torsten becomes even more integrated and involved.

I did want to visit at least 1 mainstream garden center so I stopped by one of the Notcutt’s Nursery locations which are scattered around England.  It held a very interesting selection of plant material but was in many ways similar to many of our own better nurseries.  The hard-goods selection was huge with everything from garden decor to outdoor entertaining goods available.  I was impressed at how they funneled visitors through their entire sales area much like Ikea does in their stores.  I’m sure that must be good for impulse buys.

Notcutt’s Nursery has a great selection of plants and garden accessories.

The industry in the UK has certainly suffered like it has in the US over the past several years but it still looks strong to me.  New plant material, excellent quality, and enthusiastic folks should serve the industry well.  If the USDA doesn’t continue to tie our hands on imports of plant material, the UK industry could certainly help us keep our own industry innovating.

Follow me at @jcramark because life is too short for boring plants.

Torsten’s new quarry garden at Junker’s is just getting established and still has plenty of room for some of his 120 different Roscoea, hardy orchids, and other collector’s plants.

Check out all the happenings at http://www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum