April in the Garden 2026

Dodecatheon hendersonii

April is such an amazing month, it’s worth asking, “what’s not in bloom?” Clearly, many plants do not flower in April, but at UBC Botanical Garden there are probably more plants in bloom this month than any other. Magnolias, rhododendrons, camellias and flowering cherries lead the charge with their lavish blooms, but a closer look around the Garden reveals an extraordinary array of flowers of all shapes and sizes, colours and fragrances.

A number of local native plants vie for our attention, and prominent among them is the common salmonberry, Rubus spectabilis, whose brilliant magenta blooms are a preferred nectar source for migratory rufous hummingbirds, returning now from their winter feeding grounds. Salmonberry is a common plant throughout the wilder and wetter parts of the Botanical Garden. Another on the hummingbird’s menu is the red flowering currant, Ribes sanguineum, a species that naturally inhabits sloping ground where winter moisture is more readily drained away. Although red forms are most common in gardens, pink- and white-flowered selections are equally attractive and the hummingbirds feed on all of them with equal enthusiasm.

Our locally native Lysichiton americanus (skunk cabbage) displays its striking yellow spathes in April in the BC Rainforest Garden, but so too does its Asian, creamy-white-spathed counterpart, Lysichiton camtschatcensis, in the boggiest areas of the David C. Lam Asian Garden. There is a somewhat more constrained, but no less beautiful specimen beside the Asian pond in the E. H. Lohbrunner Alpine Garden. Also in the damper parts of the David Lam Garden, look for rafts of flowering Chrysosplenium davidianum (golden saxifrage). There are too many blooming primulas to mention, but the drumstick primula, Primula denticulata, is a standout. The diminutive rose-purple-flowered Julia primrose, Primula juliae, is more likely to be found on drier ground—there are several patches in the Asian Minor section of the Alpine Garden. Epimedium species (fairy wings and barrenworts) with their attractive jester’s cap flowers, are valued perennials for even drier and shadier locations and it’s difficult to go far without encountering at least a few of the more than fifty evergreen and deciduous kinds that mark the Asian Garden’s forest pathways.

Native woodland perennials in flower at this time include the lovely pink bleeding heart, Dicentra formosa. In the sunnier spots, particularly along the path in the Garry Oak Meadow and Woodland Garden, look for Primula (Dodecatheon) hendersonii (shooting stars) in early April, and later, Lomatium utriculatum (spring gold) among the carpets of the annual, light purple-flowered sea blush, Valeriana congesta (formerly Plectritis congesta). Spring having come early this year, you may see early flower-bearing spears of the normally May-blooming common camas, Camassia leichtlinii subsp. suksdorfii here.

There are plenty of non-native April-blooming perennials in the beds surrounding the Roseline Sturdy Amphitheatre, and among the loveliest is the blue-flowered, Turkish navelwort, Omphalodes cappadocica. Different sorts of Narcissus (daffodils) have been blooming since early March, but many of the dwarf sorts are starting to bloom now in the Alpine Garden. Among the most attractive is the hoop-petticoat daffodil, Narcissus bulbocodium. Nearby in the South American section, look for the South American Berberis darwinii with its bright apricot-orange flowers.

Take some time to visit the other areas of the Botanical Garden, such as the Food Garden, where early spring greens are growing apace and apple and pear trees (and blossoms) surround the beds. Plants are exuberantly bursting into bloom, birds are foraging and nest building and the scent of spring is everywhere.