There is much happening in mid-May.
Even closer, we can see the sterile flowers attracting pollinators to the tiny fertile flowers.
From both afar and close up, these climbing purple clematis flowers are truly gorgeous.
Is this what they call a double blue?
Roedde House Museum at 1415 Barclay Street in Vancouver has a triangular plot of land edged–hedged, really–by a live willow hedge.
Another climber hides this fence: Japanese wisteria. This plant is in Fabaceae,
Yellow and pink seem to be the colours of shrub and tree flowers in the first half of May. For instance, this boulevard tree is a Yellow Bird magnolia (Magnolia × brooklynensis ‘Yellow Bird’). Yes, the × means it is a cultivated variety (a cultivar) and brooklynensis means it was created by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. This tree is on Comox Street in Vancouver’s West End.
Nearby is a honeysuckle vine I’ve been watching. In early May, the unopened flowers were
I led a tree-identification walk in Chaldecott Park on May 16 during Dunbar’s annual Salmonberry Days, May 11 to 31st, 2026.
Salmonberry is a native shrub, its flower is bright pink, and its berry is orange. Rufous hummingbirds fly all the way from Mexico to Canada to enjoy salmonberry flower’s nectar.
We looked at trees in the dual carriageway of West King Edward Avenue, sidewalk trees on Crown Street and West 27th Avenue, and finally the trees in Chaldecott Park’s
On the first of May, that is on May Day, while walking to Brock House in West Point Grey to lead a tree-identification walk in their grounds, I came across a lily-of-the-valley shrub, scientifically known as Pieris japonica.
The leaves are green and oval with a paler-green central vein; the flowers are white and urn-shaped, several hanging in clusters from one bud.
In Vancouver’s West End, lilac trees, Syringa vulgaris, are abloom. These trees have an opposite