The park is so well-maintained. And they have a great collection of conifers and other trees and plants that make a beautiful contrast in this season. Outside the "Jardin à la française" : A great oak. Some of the lower branches are maintained with cables so they don't fall : (to be continued : "Arboretum asiatique"...)
PS : when I saw this one... I was sure it was neither a Larch, a Taxodium or a Metasequoia, the leaves werre much too long. I was sure it was a Pseudolarix amabilis. It was one of the few trees that had a tag on it. It's the first time I"ve seen one in the ground, not a 15-cm "bonsai" in a garden centre ;-) It was engraved by hand on an aluminium tag, but I could hardly read it, turning it to the right light, so I couldn't take a readable photo of it :
These large mushrooms are starting to pop up in the neighborhood; very pretty but poisonous as they contain neurotoxins that will cause inebriation and delirium. Fly Agaric Mushrooms (second image has a cap almost 15cm across; its growing beside a fire hydrant)
Eating them raw will give you tummy-ache. Some of my friend tried it and they just got sick. It must be dried before being used as a"door to perception". And a good proportion of the psychedelic components are eliminated through the urine : in some places in Siberia, people would drink the urine of the shamans. Never tried it though. It's funny to see how people, or even animals, like to use drugs... And use bodhran or drums and recite mumble fumble songs, with profound meanings of course ;0) PS : playing the two songs together is quite a psychedelic experience. Really. ;%)
Went for a walk in "Parc Floral de la Source". Apparently, no damage from the storm.There are blankets of Cyclamens under the trees. Autumnal compositions, one that looks a bit like a cenotaph ;-) I spotted this root that runs along the paving stones from one side to the other, at least for 6 metres. It probably comes from one of the trees behind the 4-metre wall : They also have aviaries. I head a concert of bird songs, it was from budgerigars :
Last week I posted a photo of Viburnum x bodnantense in a Talk About UBCBG thread, with almost no open flowers but lots of buds. Here is one on the boulevard outside Barclay Heritage Square, on the Haro side. This is a Parks Board planting, so is possibly some fancy cultivar. Nearby in the park is Hamemelis mollis in bloom. Edited, wrong name: Hamamelis x intermedia, see below. I've replaced the photos to change the name.
There's only a few selections of Viburnum x bodnantense. So if something seems different it might be a different species. Speaking of different the witch hazel is Hamamelis x intermedia.
Thank you. I looked at photos, photo dates, thought I had a reasonable chance on that. What should I be noticing?
I like that article. Thanks. The bit of interest would be 3a. Petals crinkled; flowers faintly fragrant H. X intermedia. 3b. Petals not crinkled; flowers strongly fragrant H. mollis. I've tried testing myself on my old photos from UBCBG, got at least half of them right.
I'm following somebody on Facebook whose work seems to entail visiting gardens and posting photos. He's posting photos right now from Maui. I'm smelling his photos, don't know why I can't smell my own.
I went for a walk to a place that is special to me: in the late sixties my late sister rented her first flat there when she got married. At that time the owner of the "Chateau" was broke and had divided it into several appartments. The buildings and the park were then bought by the town council and it's now a park, the "chateau" being used for art exhibitions (when there's no covid ^_^) and the "winter garden", the greenhouse for venues. I hadn't been back there until a couple of years ago. It's typical of these places that were planted with "exotic" trees from America, or elsewhere. There's of course Cedrus libani, Taxodiums and a multiple-trunk Sequoia sempervirens. Many of the Sequoia sempervirens of a venerable age are multi-trunk like this one. I think it's about 30 metres tall. There's also what I think is a Sequoiadendron giganteum 'pendulum' (?...) next to the stables, but it's probably much more recent. There's also this conifer that you can see at the left of the photo showing the Libanese cedar (أرز لبناني). The close-up of the leaves is blurred, but I wanted to show one of the very few fruit that I could see on a low branch. Any idea what it is ?...
PS : though the buildings probably date back to the late 19th century/early 20th century, it's based on the typical Renaissance buildings of the region : Limestone for the doors and windows, most of the time with bas-reliefs, brick walls with black patterns. This is the "Hôtel Groslot", early 16th century. It used to be the city council (I got married there!) :
What a romantic-looking house and setting! And that conservatory - they obviously had their priorities straight.
First snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) in my garden. Rather early. There's a place by the river where they form real blankets of white flowers, I'll post photos in a few days...
