November in the Garden 2024

Sorbus ‘Joseph Rock’

November is usually considered one of our dreariest months, but in UBC Botanical Garden, the list of plants with colourful foliage, berries and flowers is substantial. In some cases, it may be fragrance, rather than a visual cue that indicates a floral presence. Take smooth oleaster, Elaeagnus glabra, for example. This evergreen climber from western China has tiny white tubular flowers that pack a powerful gardenia-and-orange blossom fragrance in the David C. Lam Asian Garden. The oleaster drapes itself high into a large western red cedar near the foot of Campbell Trail. A more accessible oleaster, where Kingdon Ward Way meets Lower Asian Way, is Elaeagnus macrophylla, the broad-leafed oleaster. Both are scandent climbers from Asia, but E. macrophylla normally flowers at least a month earlier and bears silvery reflective scales, compared with the bronzy ones of E. glabra (all Elaeagnus species have reflective scales on their stems, leaves, flowers and fruits).

Not all flowers smell sweet, of course. The miniscule but strangely attractive, spidery red flowers of the redbud hazel, Disanthus cercidifolius, emit an odd semi-metallic aroma—a fragrance more unusual than unpleasant. The redbud hazel’s usual claim to fame is its spectacular autumn leaf display, which comes to an end in early November, as its flowers open. We have a couple of specimens, one by the Forrest Trail bridge (now under construction), and the other on the west side of Delavay Trail close to Upper Asian Way. Still, there are several plants with truly showy flowers that appear in November. In flower at the garden’s entrance, for example, is Hesperantha coccinea (river lily). This aggressively spreading iris relative will often, barring hard frosts, continue to bloom into December. Its knee-high spikes of large, lipstick-red flowers always cause a sensation. Another aggressive spreader—this one in drier soil—is Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii, the remarkably long-blooming orange coneflower. We have plants in the Contemporary Garden and the Carolinian Forest Garden that have been blooming since June. They will continue until frost.

As noted, a significant number of trees and shrubs show off their fruits in November. The duration of the display depends on a number of factors, including the appetites of foraging birds and squirrels, but there is usually a good parade of colourful berries at this time of year. In the Asian Garden, the berries (technically, pomes) of the oft-mentioned Yunnan whitebeam, Aria yuana (Upper Asian Way and Campbell Trail, and by the Forrest Trail Bridge), are darkening attractively with the falling leaves. Once freed from their leafy concealment, the birds will begin to notice them. The small red fruits of the Korean Christmas berry, Pourthiaea villosa (Lower Asian Way near Wilson Glade), stand out in their glossy abundance. But don’t believe the common name. These fruits seldom remain past early December. A second pourthiaea, the larger, more arborescent (tree-like) Pourthiaea arguta is native across much of east Asia. Our single specimen, near Delavay Trail and Upper Asian Way, manages to produce a smattering of marble-sized bright red fruits. These are striking against the tardily deciduous dark green leaves, but note that the fruits are really only visible from Upper Asian Way. Pourthiaea species are all deciduous, but were, until recently, thought to belong with the evergreen photinias.

More colourful fruits await in the gardens surrounding the Roseline Sturdy Amphitheatre. Those who recall the short-lived yellow-fruited mountain ash, Sorbus ‘Joseph Rock’ at the front entrance may not know that a much older specimen was planted in what was once the Winter Garden. That tree, at more than 40 years old, is regularly bedecked with long-lasting golden fruits. Around it, a number of mountain ash relatives compete for “largest crimson fruits.” A pair of Hedlundia hybrida (Finnish whitebeam), planted at the same time as ‘Joseph Rock’, stand on either side, while a number of individuals of Scandosorbus intermedia (Swedish whitebeam) were installed on the slope overlooking the Amphitheatre in 2010.

Even in November, it’s hard to beat the E. H. Lohbrunner Alpine Garden for flower appeal. The list of flowers here is impressive, and includes several kinds of evergreen daisies to flashy South African monocots (lily and iris relatives), such as nerines, dieramas, kniphofias and moraeas. Even as leaves are falling, South American Fuchsia magellanica continues to attract hummingbirds. You can see this species and the F. magellanica hybrid Fuchsia ‘Little Giant’ going strong (barring frost) at the Garden Entrance, as well. Hummingbirds also favour the various shrubby, vermillion-flowered Epilobium canum (California fuchsia) variants and selections scattered around the Alpine Garden’s North American section and Pacific Slope Garden. A particularly fine Epilobium canum cultivar with silver-grey leaves is ‘Olbrich Silver’. There is a spectacular patch just below the trough Courtyard. And as a fitting nod to the colder weather to come, the low, carpeting Himalayan bistort, Bistorta affinis, and especially its lusher selection ‘Border Jewel’ (next to the path that separates the African section and the Asian Woodland), both now with sturdy spikes of soft pink flowers, will increasingly, and especially with frost, adopt an autumnal rusty hue.