Making My Rounds

Bruce called me one morning, asking if I were making my rounds, among other things. How DID you guess? Yesterday, it was finally super cloudy, meaning, a good day for photographing flowers of which I knew there would be copious amounts at Van Dusen Gardens. Taking the #17 bus, from the corner of Cambie and Nelson, I did just that. Is there such a thing as too MANY flowers? Maybe. Talking to a couple from Texas on the azalea walk, we both agreed that the colors here are so intense as to almost seem fake. Bright orange azaleas? Why yes, they exist. I'm still mentally processing what I saw and will show you some highlights in another post, but what Bruce meant when he asked about my rounds, is the flowers grown by my new friends in the neighborhood. Plus the park. With something new everyday, I really need walk but a few blocks to not only see amazing things, but also to have some folks to chat with, and we all know how much I like chatting.

All of last week, I'd been watching the giant poppy buds. Jackie had to tell me what they were, otherwise, I am clueless. Imagine my surprise, well more like astonishment, when I saw what I missed by not going yesterday.

Above is Jackie digging a hole to replant an hydrangea. As well, now you can actually see where the garden is adjacent to steps leading up to the Burrard Bridge. Now that I've gotten to know them better, I've learned quite a bit about these two guerrilla gardeners. Jackie is not from Vancouver, however, she and her husband have lived here for more than ten years, moving here from a very cold part of Canada. Moving from a house, condo life, with no garden, was not in the least to her liking, so she started gardening where she could, which just so happens to be, behind and beside, her building. Did I tell you she is 81???? And then there is Dale, aged 71, a former school teacher who has been helping Jackie for 11 years. Also, he owns neither a computer, nor a mobile phone and seems to be happy as can be without either.

This is not easy work my friends; watering along a steep path like this is not for the unfit. Somehow they make it all work for the love of plants. Apparently, this path along the fence will soon have loads of daisies and I can't wait! So not only were there the stunning red poppies today, but two beautiful orangish ones as well.

So, they have the upper garden, the pathway, and two lower ones, all of them hand watered. Below is Jackie heading back over to the upper garden with shovel and hydrangea in hand while facing lower garden #2.

I asked her about all the stuff on the fence, thinking it did not seem quite their style. She told me there is a homeless man who buys that stuff, hanging it on the fence. Once there is just too much of it, she and Dale take the liberty of curating his finds.

The irises are blooming, and oh my, are they fantastic. I showed you one in the purple post, but now there are others, including this beauty,

as well as a new super deep purple one that showed up today.

Here's a partial look at lower garden #1.

While I could go on and on about these two, there is Trevor to discuss. A pianist his whole life, he lives in the West End, tending the spots near me because he loves gardening so much. He, too, has to hand water everything and not with a hose! Here he is doing just that, having carried those buckets for quite a distance.

Not just this patch, but three others nearby, including this round about island,

where today I discovered a shade of poppy that is so soft and beautiful. Not to mention BIG.

His gardening advice is to buy the plants the nursery wants to discard and bring them back to life, something I've had success with in the past. Irises are blooming in his patch as well, and surprisingly, at least to me, they are not purple, rather sort of a rust color.

He's also planted these crazy looking flowers in yet another garden area. No doubt, the horticulturally minded amongst you know what they are.

The handkerchief tree has pretty much shed all of the, well, handkerchiefs.

I walk along Beach Avenue (taken from the bridge) to get to most of these spots,

whereas, other spots are along the seawall which is beyond the trees and buildings on the right.

I just threw in the above because it pretty much fits the theme of COLOR.

How the azaleas have so many blooms, is completely beyond me.

I love both the pot and the flowers below, not too mention the beautiful spring green of the tree!

Rhododendrons, where have you been my whole life?

I have no knowledge of who tends this little garden, but perhaps one day I will.  Better get to it as the days are speeding by.

And then there is the park which does have a flower garden that at present is filled with mystery plants as far as I'm concerned. These, well what is there left to say about this color?

Not to be confused with the other giant shrub covered in purplish-blue flowers, this is a California Lilac, or so I learned from some fellows I was talking to in another part of town. Another woman was involved in the conversation, she was looking for bees on the plant, however she claimed it was something else, but even I knew that the flowers were shaped like their larger cousin.

According to this information, they seem to be an ideal plant.

And then there is this beauty, covered with flowers, and I do mean covered, that began as light pink, and are now turning hot pink.

Talk about showy, I can see it from the 20th floor it is so bright.

Even the pine trees look cool.

I remember when Angela showed me her photographs from her visit to the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, my reaction was that it was so intense as to seem almost artificial. Same here folks. Unreal intensity, but I've told you that like a million times already, haven't I? Always keep in mind that I do not use photoshop, editing very little, probably because I never learned how. The mayor had a goal of making Vancouver one of the greenest cities in North America, and he may be onto something because it would be hard to be any greener than our park right now.

And I thought fall and winter were great! What did I know?

yours truly,

Gail