Fall at VanDusen Garden

I've made good use of my VanDusen Garden pass this year, as blog-watchers will note. Alone and with my friends Linda and Ros, I have recorded the seasons come and go. In fact, my first blog post in May was about the laburnum trees in golden bloom there. This week, Linda and I were back to see what happens in the garden in the autumn. Here's what we found:

A beautiful explosion of a reddish orange bush was worth having Linda pose beside, but unfortunately we didn't get its name.

The wooden walkway through the lake is always one of my favourite spots. In summer, the waterlilies are pink and white. Now they are yellow and green, matching the foliage of the trees around them.

My friend Linda under her umbrella at a favourite picture-taking location in the garden. I never come away without several shots of this patch of water, this time with a background of red and orange trees.

One of the things I enjoy about visiting the garden is that I always find spots I haven't seen before. We discovered this cave-like avenue -- a little creepy -- just in time for Halloween.

The colourful Japanese maples turn this familiar entrance to the garden into a fall scene.

Water is intriguing any time of year, but the fresh green growth under the water makes this seem more like spring than fall.

I'm not sure what kind of trees create this splash of colour behind Linda, but I wish my garden was big enough for a similar stand.

I've seen coleus in colourful planters all over the city this fall. VanDusen has a few fine specimens at its entrance.

There's a big green patch of rhubarb-like gunnera leaves to the left of the waterway. They don't seem to be shrinking any as the season progresses.

This colourful scene is probably thanks to different types of Japanese maples.

I didn't see any water birds in the ponds this time, but with all this vegetation, there should be lots of food down there for them.

Just a nice tree with red berries, with water in the background. It looks like a scene from an English country estate.

A closer view of those succulent green plants that look like they might be edible. Where are the birds?

And back to my favourite spot, the walkway with the yellowing waterlily leaves.