As a Vancouver Park Board gardener shared with me the other day, all plants are now showing some form of stress because of the ongoing heat, relentless sunshine, and drought. “I’m tired of only watering,” he said. Plants have various ways of protecting themselves from relentless sun: having leaves with waxy surfaces; closing their leaf and stem stomata to stop the loss of moisture; turning away from the sun; growing as part of the understory. And then there are some plants that are so bold, they seem to relish the heat, such as this colourful floral gathering of native hardhack (Spiraea douglasii), bloomingaround the shores of Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park.
While we are thinking of spirea, here is its cousin from Japan, Japanese spirea (S. japonica), with some of its corymbs in white, some in pink, and some mixtures on the very same plant. The honeybee doesn’t mind that the plant is an import.
Hydrangeas are now blooming everywhere. Their genus name means these plants love water so keep them well watered during this ongoing hot spell. Particularly appealing are oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) with their heavy nodding cream-coloured heads, panicle hydrangea (H.paniculata), smooth hydrangea (H. arborescens) with their white pompom heads, and lacecap hydrangea (H. macrophylla ssp. serrata), often known in a nursery simply as H. serrata. That’s the one with the sterile flowers circling the fertile flowers. It comes in a range of colours from white to pink and deep purple.
Most familiar is bigleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla). Here’s a formal planting of two deep purple-flowered shrubs, one either side of a cherry tree.
If you have difficulty differentiating between a panicle inflorescence and an umbel or a raceme, just check out the flowers of panicle hydrangea and oakleaf hydrangea. Both grow panicle inflorescences, much-branched collections of small flowers growing together.
Talking of panicles, I have been waiting for heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) to flower. This evergreen shrub can look glorious with its airy leafiness accentuated with panicles of red berries. The airiness comes from its spiky bi- and tri-pinnately compound leaves. Finally now in the month of July, the flowers are opening from white to yellow.
Make sure this plant is well-established before it is allowed to go without a good watering. It also does well in groups, near a wall so it stays warm.
Hardy fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica) is another lovely shrub that can soften the look of a building corner. The man for whom the plant and the colour were named is Leonhart Fuchs, born in Germany in 1501. He was the founder of the first German botanical garden and reputed to be the third founding father of “Botany, after Otto Brunfels and Jerome Bock.” The plant itself was given its name two hundred years after Fuchs’ birth, in 1703, “by the French scientist Dom Charles Plumier.” The elegance of these fuchsia-coloured flowers is always appealing.
Tucked into a quiet, shady place up against a fence in a local garden is star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), a climber. Its leathery winter-green evergreen leaves create a dark backdrop for the botanically perfect white flowers whose five petals spin a pinwheel around itsreproductive organs. The blossoms smell good too.
Three shrubs of hibiscus (Hibiscus syriacus) grow on three of the corners where Thurlow Street meets Davie Street; they are now coming into bloom. Also known as the Rose of Sharon, hibiscus flowers are always single, large, and showy. In a word, stunning. These particular flowers have pink petals and a deep pink circle around the protruding male and female reproductive organs so as to attract pollinators. Flower calyces, leaves, and fruit of hibiscus (which looks more like a bud than a fruit) are all edible. A pink tisane of the flowers is available from many tea manufacturers. Or you could make your own.
On boulevards, in gardens, and in medians between parking lots, flowers are blooming: hollyhocks, poppies, montbretia, and bear’s breeches.
The best-smelling lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) I know has found a home in front of a stone fence above a parkade wall. There it has the driest and hottest of conditions and barely any soil. This shrub is loved by bees, for instance, by this golden yellow bumblebee, perhaps a golden northern bumblebee (Bombus fervidus).
And then I found a couple of volunteer sunflowers (Helianthus spp.) growing between a rock and a hard place. Nature will adapt and plants will grow wherever they find a toehold.
What’s blooming in your yard?
text & photos VMG Nina S.