The Garden welcomes Celeste Snowber as our new Artist in Residence
UBC Botanical Garden is thrilled to welcome Dr. Celeste Snowber as our new Artist in Residence. This position is both important and exciting because it enhances our mission to connect the community to our plant collection through new and creative avenues. Celeste is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. As a dancer, poet, scholar and educator, her work focuses on arts-based research methods which unite scholarly inquiry with the creative process.
Expedition to Northern Vietnam
Since the 1970s, the living plants collections of the David C. Lam Asian Garden have grown through the botanical fieldwork of an international network of explorers. My predecessor, Peter Wharton, participated in over 15 expeditions throughout Asia. I have continued this tradition and have participated in collecting trips to China and Vietnam. For the next […]
Celebrating the apple
There was a day not so long ago that you weren’t able to find Pink Lady or Ambrosia apples in your average grocery store in Vancouver. If you couldn’t make your way to Granville Island, or trek to a grower in the Valley, you only had the pick of very few apples available in grocery stores. UBC Botanical Garden’s Apple Festival helped change that.
Founding of the Friends of the Garden
Today, there are approximately 150 active members of the FOGs. They play a critical role in as ambassadors to the garden, fundraising and generating new membership for the Garden through their organizing efforts behind key Garden events such as the Apple Festival, the operation of the Shop in the Garden, and much more. Learn more about their history.
How the Garden began
In 1916, the closure of the Office of the Provincial Botanist led to the relocation of thousands of plants and shrubs. John Davidson, BC’s first provincial botanist and director of the Garden, Mary Jane Gruchy, I. Van der Bom, and James A. Wattie hauled thousands of plants and shrubs on a 40-kilometre trip from the original Essondale location of the botanical garden in a truck on rough roads to UBC’s Point Grey campus. At the time, the Point Grey campus only had three buildings, with classes taking place in the Fairview neighbourhood where Vancouver General Hospital now stands. From his office on Pender Street in Vancouver, Davidson began his work.
The living legacy of Peter Wharton
Walk down almost any path in UBC Botanical Garden’s Asian Garden and you’re experiencing the living legacy of Peter Wharton. As you explore the signature garden named for David C. Lam , you may find yourself thinking about how natural it feels, as if the maples and rhododendrons have always grown there together. That was Wharton’s intention.
Collecting native plants with Al Rose
Al Rose was the first curator-horticulturalist of the Native Garden and a prolific collector of BC’s native plants. Between 1975 and 1979, Rose collected approximately 1000 specimens per year for the British Columbia Native Garden in order to establish the collections.