On 4th April 2017 I visited the University of British Columbia botanical garden in Vancouver, Canada. It was more dfficult to find by public transport as I had imagined and smaller, but nevertheless an interesting garden with, in particular, a good collection of Asiatic plants. I’ve known of this garden for many years as I was a member of their garden forums, one of the most active on the net before Facebook: http://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca
Here’s an album of pictures I took, mostly, but not all, edible plants…and there’s not many gardens you can find breeding eagles!
Lilium henryi var. citrinum is one of the Asiatic lilies used for food!
Lilium martagon, another edible lily
Thalictrum spp. – T. aquilegifolium is eaten in Japan, presumably cooked to detoxicate as this plant is in the buttercup family
Trachystemon orientalis, an edible woodlander from SE Europe I’ve blogged about this one before..
Actinidia spp.
Chinese Rosa mulligannii (I consider all rose shoots as edible)
Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus
Chinese Bergenia emeiensis
Acer mandschuricum was noted as the most hardy maple, from Korea and Northern China, one of a collection of 100 species in the garden
Ostrich fern, Matteuccia
Polygonatum odoratum, shoots eaten in the Far East
Saxifraga stolonifera is eaten in tempura in Japan
Chinese Sorbus megalocarpa has large inflorescences
I was asked if it is possible to grow papaws (Asimina triloba) in Norway. I don’t think it’s impossible, but I suspect they need warmer summers than most parts of Norway can offer. I have seen good size trees in Malmø (Southern Sweden) with one fruit at the end of July in Åke Truedssons garden and a good size tree in the Gøteborg Botanical, pictures in both sites are from 29th-30th July 2008. I don’t know how these trees are doing today. I’ve tried a couple of times. I’ve managed to germinate seed, but the plants hardly grow in my cold summers! See more about papaw (which is not the same as the better known tropical pawpaw or papaya) on the wiki page here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimina_triloba
1) In Åke Truedsson’s garden in Malmø with a fruit!
2) In the Gothenburg Botanical Garden
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden