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Shop in the Garden & Garden Centre
After a flurry of floor renovations and cleaning the Shop in the Garden is preparing for an influx of new merchandise. Our buyers have just returned from a buying trip and have picked out lots of new items that are now on their way to our shelves!
 
Seeds will be arriving mid-February and the Garden Centre has begun to stock-up on plants for the spring. Already, we have an array of early-spring flowering trees, shrubs and plants including hellebores, camellias, hammelis and native plants. We also have a selection of attractive containers planted up with fragrant spring bulbs to place on your patio,give as a gift, or perk up the inside of your home.
 
In the tools section we have everything you need to prepare your garden for spring including adjustable rakes, and popular straw brooms. Straw brooms are wonderful for raking leaves in the garden and on pathways. 

And our Book section offers the best selection of Botanical books in the Lower Mainland. Our simple observations of nature inevitably arouse our curiosity about the science behind the beauty and often unpredictable behaviour of the plants that we tend. The Shop has a great selection of books for the non-scientist that are guaranteed to satisfy your curiosity and inspire you to learn more.

In The Forest Unseen, David Haskell, who is both a biologist and a published poet, visits almost daily for a year a single square meter of forest, and in elegant prose brings to life a secret, invisible world. Daniel Chamovitz succeeds in making complex science fascinating and entertaining in What a Plant Knows.  In a series of interesting experiments he shows that the plant and animal kingdoms share genomes that enable both to respond to their environments,  giving us insight into what a plant’s life is like and our own place in nature. Steven Vogel’s The Life of a Leaf is a more serious but still accessible study of this same subject, focusing on the leaf as a model.
 
All proceeds raised in the shop support UBC Botanical Garden.
Membership
 The best way to enjoy everything the gardens at UBC have to offer is through a membership, which includes admission to both UBC Botanical Garden and Nitobe Memorial Garden. Membership is an investment in your community and a valuable way of supporting the future of the gardens.
We've just revamped our membership program and have great new benefits to offer. Visit our website for more details.
Horticulture Training Program - accepting applications for 2015
Next Info Session: 
Wednesday February 26th at 7pm
Students will be introduced to principles and techniques of landscape construction and design, garden ecology, plant biology and plant health, the nature and role of soil in natural and constructed landscapes, aspects of ornamental and food crop management, as well as practical, hands-on landscape and garden management.
To learn more about the program visit our website 
About the Garden
Established in 1916,  UBC Botanical Garden curates a collection of ca. 12,000 plants, representing approximately 8,000 taxa from temperate regions around the world. The Greenheart Canopy Walkway offers an umparalleled aerial view of the west coast forest canopy ecosystem 15 metres above ground.
Dana Cromie exhibit on now at the Beaty Museum
Remnants: A Visual Survey of Human Progress
January 31-April 20, 2014
An exciting new exhibit by Artist In Residence Dana Cromie is on now at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.

This series of portraits is Cromie's reaction to the ongoing reduction by human activity of natural habitat. Built using the small pieces of the contemporary viewing pane, these collage quilts pay homage to traditional home economics and to the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century. The vertical format reflects the traditional portrait proportions of influential individuals. The repeated use of small pieces relates to how we build our impression of the world without experiencing it.
Twenty-six original drawings have been letterpress printed, hand cut into 1,500 pieces and glued into five portraits. The sources for the nature drawings are mostly archival, some from the internet, some from the cabinets of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, and a few from nature. What is always missing is context. The design of the man-made elements in the style of traditional wallpaper is Cromie's response to the appropriation of ‘Green’ currently utilized to promote everything from gasoline to urban towers. Humans are absent in the portraits because as individuals we do not see our relationship to the changes in the environment.
Talk & Tour with Dana Cromie 
Saturday, February 8 | Wednesday, March 19 | Saturday, March 22
1:00 p.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:00 p.m., and 2:30 p.m.
Meet at the exhibition entry, under the blue whale’s tail 
Join Dana Cromie for a talk and tour of Remnants: A Visual Survey of Human Progress. Learn about the artwork, tour the exhibition, and chat with the artist. 
Meet the Artist 
Sunday, March 2 | Sunday, April 6
12:30 – 2:30 p.m. 
Stop by the Beaty Biodiversity Museum for a chance to meet and chat with Dana Cromie, UBC Botanical Garden Artist in Residence 2012-2014 and the artist behind Remnants: A Visual Survey of Human Progress.
Visit the  Beaty Biodiversity Museum website for more information about this special exhibit. 
May 8-22, 2014 
with Brent Hine
Registration deadline: February 7, 2014 - Today!
In this unique tour, Brent Hine will guide you through the natural and civilized delights of spring on northern Honshu island. We will visit mountain resorts and encounter stunning vistas and wildflowers as we wander verdant hillsides. Every evening, savour fine cuisines and splendid accommodations. And at each day’s end, soak up one of the finer points of Japanese culture as you let a hot spring bath melt away your cares.
Travelling by escorted coach, we include essential stops at several national parks, Morioka (birthplace of Inazo Nitobe), Fuji-san (Mt. Fuji), UNESCO world heritage village of Shirakawa-go, Hakone, and of course the wonderful exuberance that defines Tokyo. In between, take a river gorge cruise, dropping by two botanical gardens, ride the Kurobe gorge railway, even visit a sake brewery for a taste of the famous Japanese spirit.
Springtime in Japan especially means burgeoning displays of nature in a country where its charming people rejoice in their relationship with it. You too will be smitten and treasure your experiences.
Click here for more information and booking details on the Springtime in the Mountains of Japan tour.
Garden Feature: Early Rhododendrons
Out of the 450 different kinds of rhododendrons at UBC Botanical Garden, a handful of species stand out for the exceptional earliness of their flowers. Visitors to the garden in winter are often amazed by these rhododendrons, their vivid blooms shining like beacons through drizzly rain, or jauntily capped with a dusting of snow. The great bell rhododendron, Rhododendron ririei, often starts into flower as early as January, but it really comes into its own in February. It is a robust species, growing tall and handsome with large, glossy dark green leaves that are backed silver-white. The sizeable flowers are funnel-shaped, mauve-purple with crimson-black nectar pouches and borne in flattened trusses (clusters) of 5 to 10 flowers. The species has a habit of producing its flowers over an exceptionally long period and this is accentuated when multiple plants are grouped together, as they are in the David C. Lam Asian Garden. Hard frost or heavy snow destroys flowers that have opened, but unopened trusses don’t appear to suffer. Rhododendron ririei was introduced by Ernest Wilson, who collected it in 1904 from Emeishan (Mt. Omei), in Sichuan, China, and named for his friend the Reverend B. Ririe. Visitors can see numerous plants along Farges Trail.

A little later to flower, usually toward the end of February, is the Himalayan Rhododendron barbatum, one of the most impressive of all early flowering species. Its compact, rounded trusses of flowers are impossibly deep red and waxy, and its elegant stems a beautiful cinnamon red with peeling papery bark. A less noticeable feature is the one that gives the plant its name, R. barbatum, which means “bearded.” This refers to the presence of long, bristly hairs on the petioles (leaf stems). In some years at UBC, R. barbatum individuals have been known to open their flowers over a period of more than two months. When opening later in the season, trusses are quicker to expand, and the translucent, cherry-red, ribbon-likes bud scales are a more prominent feature. The largest specimens in the Botanical Garden are about 30 years old and nearly 4.5 m tall. Look for them along Lower Asian Way at Stearn Trail.

Botanical Watercolour Painting Workshop
Saturday, April, 5 & Sunday April 6, 2014, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. 
Join botanical painter Alison Watt in the Garden Pavilion for this two day introductory course to Botanical Painting. The class will cover watercolour materials (brushes, paints, and paper) and basic watercolour techniques (mixing, glazing, wet-in-wet, masking). Special attention will be given to the concerns of plant painting. Learn more.

The Art of Basketry: Using Local Natural Materials
Saturday, April 12, or Sunday April 13, 2014, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 

Learn the art of basketry using local natural material in the one day workshop. This workshop will introduce participants to weaving with western red cedar bark, yellow cedar bark, west coast sweetgrass, willow bark and beargrass. Choose Saturday or Sunday. Learn more.

Year Round Harvest
Saturday May 24th, 2014, 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Gardeners in the mild climate of the West Coast can enjoy fresh vegetables and fruit all year around. Learn how to grow a healthy, bountiful supply of food in your own backyard, with all of the benefits to your health and to the environment. Learn more.

December 26, 2013 – January 5, 2014
9:30 am – 4:30 pm

$5 Suggested DonatiTree chipping is generously supported by UBC Plant Operations.

Questions? Please call 604.822.3928.

*Funds may be used for other school garden purposes as needed. - See more at: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/tree-chipping#sthash.0lkavkgw.dpuf

Tree-chipping fundraiser great success!
Thank you to the community members who dropped off their Christmas trees for recycling at UBC Botanical Garden. Trees were chipped into mulch and used on garden trails throughout the garden. 
Thanks to your generosity we raised $765.00. The proceeds from this fundraiser are being donated to General Brock Elementary School to support an expansion of their food garden so that even more students can participate. The food garden at General Brock Elementary School is a Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC) school garden project. spec.bc.ca

Tree chipping fundraiser benefitting General Brock Elementary School

December 26, 2013 – January 5, 2014
9:30 am – 4:30 pm

$5 Suggested DonatiTree chipping is generously supported by UBC Plant Operations.

Questions? Please call 604.822.3928.

*Funds may be used for other school garden purposes as needed. - See more at: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/tree-chipping#sthash.0lkavkgw.dpuf



6804 SW Marine Drive | Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4 CA


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