Flowers along the path

Many flowers and many paths, actually. For the past couple of weeks, I've been enjoying a stay-at-home, project-oriented, gardening-focused vacation.

Here are a few photographs of my favourite floral finds from recent long walks (another favourite vacation activity):

Orange poppies among the pansies

Spanish Lavender (Lavandula stoechas) at English Bay

Irises soften the concrete & glass skyline

Mystery vine with apple-coloured blossoms weaves its way through the Snowflake Viburnum (below)

 

Snowflake Viburnum (Viburnum opulus) & balcony bokeh

In June as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day. 
No man can heed all of these anniversaries; no man can ignore all of them. 
~Aldo Leopold

Happy June, everyone. What's blooming in your gardens & neighbourhoods now?

Viburnum

Viburnum plicatum 'Mariesii'

I think this cultivar should be called 'Lepidoptera alba' - the bracts look like white butterflies fluttering around tiny yellow flowers.

South Cambie's autumn tones

Three hours, more than 40 city blocks east, north, west and south, hundreds of trees and shrubs (more likely thousands as we also walked through Queen Elizabeth Park), countless shades of autumn colours, and only one, brief rain shower at the end of it all -- a blissful October afternoon.

Sumac (Rhus) rainbow

Prickly, green fruit of the American Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua)

Burning bush (Euonymous alatus)

Another burning bush in a different light

Rich, maroon Viburnum leaves

Deciduous shrub with pink flowers that blooms in late winter

I owe this shrub an apology. For nearly two weeks I've been referring to it by the wrong name: Daphne. Worse, I had titled & tagged my Flickr images incorrectly.  Ack.  So embarrassing. 

Perhaps the safest action would be to identify this as "deciduous shrub with pink flowers that blooms in February" so that I won't make a second taxonomic blunder.  But yesterday & today I consulted several references (1, 2, 3, 4) and the flowers' structure & bloom time are consistent with the images & descriptions of Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn.' So I'm going to tentatively identify it as this.

This particular Viburnum is too large to grow on a balcony. These are photos of shrubs blooming in late January/early February throughout my neighbourhood.

I think Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn' would make a lovely companion for winter-flowering Hamamelis (witch hazel). If I had a large enough space & the right conditions, I'd grow one of each, to add pink & yellow to grey, late-winter days.