Flowering Annuals August 2007 - at Stanley Park's Rose Garden and the Pavillion

For those deep in the throws of winter you've probably had enough of the cold, snow and wind. I recently was able to download a batch of 1095 photos from my Sony camera. Here are some taken last August (2007) of the annual flowers at Stanley Park's Rosegarden and the nearby Pavillion. There are annuals in flower beds, in hanging baskets and other places. These pics should cheer you up and have you thinking of the spring and summer to come with warmer, more pleasant weather! You'll find cleome, dahlias, nicotianas and various other interesting plants.

It's not only flowers that seems to attract attention but our furry friends as well, such as the black squirrel above and the grey squirrel below.

And perhaps after all that viewing a nice cold beer and some munchies are in order. I hope you've enjoyed these photos (and perhaps forgotten about winter for a bit). There will be many more coming soon!

The Douglas' Squirrel

The Douglas' Squirrel, or Tamiasciurus douglasii, is also known as the Chickaree. It's a cute little squirrel I've seen on many visits to Vancouver's Stanley Park. Some have even followed along behind me on forest trails. It's a pine squirrel native to the Pacific Northwest from the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California to coastal British Columbia west of the Cascade Mountains. This animal, a member of the Rodentia family, varies in length from 25-35 cm (including the tail) and weighs from 150-275 grams. It lives in coniferous forests preferring old-growth and mature second growth forests. In the summer time they sleep in ball-shaped nests in trees but in winter use holes in trees as nests. Their diet consists mostly of seeds from various coniferous trees such as Douglas Fir, Sitka Spruce and Pine but they also eat acorns, berries, mushrooms and the eggs of the Yellow Warbler, Dendroica petechia. They bury their food in a single place called a 'midden.' The Douglas' Squirrel does have predators such as American Martins, Bobcats, domestic cats, Northern Goshawks and Owls. The human threat is from the destruction of old-growth forests though they are unaffected by commercial thinning of forests. This is a cute little animal that you are sure to spot if you ever visit Stanley Park in Vancouver, BC.

Stanley Park's Rose Garden

A visit to Vancouver's Stanley Park isn't complete without seeing the rose garden. If you come along from the Second Beach on English Bay, along Lost Lagoon and underneath West Georgia Street to Pipeline Road or from downtown Vancouver directly via West Georgia Street, the rose garden is fairly easy to find. Of course, you could also take a tour of the park on a horse-drawn trolley such as the one above and get your bearings that way. Below is a close-up shot of the team drawing the trolley for those horse lovers out there.

There are many kinds of roses but there are other kinds of flowers too, such as this tree-form Fuchsia below.

The rose shown in the photo above is called 'Alexander' found to the right along Pipeline Road when entering the rose garden from the south. Then below are featured two climbing roses. In the foreground is a red climber from Germany called 'Dortmund', developed by the rose breeder Kordes in 1955, whose parentage is a seedling x Rosa 'Kordesii' and has a very slight apple scent. The flowers have 5-10 petals. This is one of the climbers I had in my garden back in southwestern Ontario. The canes were about eight feet high the first year. Its a rose well worth having and the bumblebees love the flowers too. The rose in the background is called 'Westerland' and also a Kordes rose. It has been available since 1969. The flowers with 18-25 petals are orange-pink with some yellow in the centre. One of the parents is the rose 'Friedrich Worlein' crossed with another parent.

The image above shows the rose 'Westerland' looking skyward. Below is a close-up shot of the flower.

Above is a palm tree in the centre of a flower bed and below is another colourful planting along Pipeline Road. So it's not all roses but plenty of other flowers as well.

The above photos shows one of the administrative buildings in the park. Below is a Grey Squirrel, a familiar sight in many parks across Canada.

A visit to any park cannot be complete without a surprise, so learn to expect the unexpected. Two elderly ladies entred the rose garden area from the north coming from an area where the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) have their park head quarters and stables for their horses (mounted police). The ladies walked along completely oblivious to the entourage of peafowl following behind them. I tried to get their attention but either they didn't understand me or they thought I was crazy. The Indian Peafowl (blue neck), Pavo cristatus, is native to India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The other one, the Green Peafowl or Pavo muticus, is native to Myanmar east to Java (Indonesia). The peacock (male) in the meantime was up on the roof of another building nearby at the northend of a parking lot crying out each time a car horn sounded or an auto alarm went off. I'll let the remaining photos speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Beaver Lake in Stanley Park

Three weeks ago Thursday, the day I was in Vancouver on errands and then had lunch at English Bay Beach, I proceeded on to Stanley Park. One of my stops was Beaver Lake located a short walk northwest of the rose garden. There are many trails throughout the park which includes a trail going around the lake. They are suitable for walking or cycling. You never know what you might see. It could be a little Douglas' Squirrel, Tamiasciurus douglasii, such as this one found on a bridge running over a small stream that flows into Beaver Lake. Or it might be the many waterlilies that cover most of the lake. You might even find a Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias, out fishing amongst the lilies. It's certainly worth a visit!