Author: Vancouver
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🌱Sustainable Gardening Tips
Sustainable Gardening Tip Sheet HERE Mason Bee Tip Sheet HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION AND ADDITIONAL TIPS ON SUSTAINABLE GARDENING, GO TO: • David Suzuki Foundation Gardening Tips for Beginners • Missouri Botanical Garden Sustainable Gardening • University of California Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County Sustainable Home Gardening • RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) 10 Ways…
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Commonly asked Questions and our Answers
A wealth of Info based on the most commonly asked questions to Vancouver Master Gardeners is contained in these pages by clicking hereCommonly asked Questions and our Answers . Most of these answers relate to the Pacific Northwest Area 1. What plants are good for a shady area? For a sunny area? For a dry…
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Putting Your Garden to Bed
In a tumultuous year of ups and downs, one shining aspect was seeing the number of people around Squamish pick up their trowels and try their hands at gardening. I wanted to share a few tips on how to put your garden to bed. If you’re expecting an excessive clean and overhaul, then hit the…
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Members Morning at VanDusen
Forty or so Vancouver Master Gardeners gathered in the atrium at VanDusen Botanical Garden on Monday, May 30, 2022. At this first official gathering since 2019, members entered the warm and bright room and were almost giddy with excitement to see each other. What a welcome time it was to chat over a coffee with…
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Douglas-Fir ~ Its Features and Its History
I think of the First Nations myth about a Douglas-fir cone’s bracts resembling the rear end of a hiding mouse. The grooves on Douglas-fir’s bark are deep enough to afford a tiny mammal a place to hide from a forest fire. Indeed this thick, corky covering protects Douglas-firs from fire, while also benefitting their fallen…
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Chinese Windmill Palm
When is a tree not a tree? When it’s a palm, a single-stemmed monocotyledon. Along with every other member of the Arecaceae family of palms, the windmill palm is a monocot; its seeds sprout with only one cotyledon; that is the embryonic leaf that grows before the first true leaf. Which is why it isn’t…
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Ginkgo biloba
The tallest Ginkgo biloba I’ve ever seen is growing in the northwest corner of Paulik Neighbourhood Park at 7620 Heather Street in Richmond. Take a look before its leaves fall overnight; that will be any day now. This tree’s ancient heritage takes us back to China at the time of the dinosaurs. Its species name…
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Identifying a Mystery Tree
The tree’s trunk is braided, fluted, and made of sculptured vertical hills and valleys, some thick. The moment I see the photograph of the unusual trunk of this mystery tree and I notice the email’s subject—“Tree Identifying Help?”—I am hooked. This is a mystery I want to solve. The local gardener who wonders which tree…
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Vancouver’s Blossom Parade in the Rosaceae Family
Forty thousand street trees in the Rosaceae Family romance Vancouverites in a blossom parade every year. Rose family trees provide a sensory gift with their aromatic, delicate, white, pale pink, ruby red, and vivid crimson buds and blossoms and their leaves that range from pale green through to forest green. Like so many others, I…