Vancouver (Day 6)

The start of our tour day included stops at three local nurseries in the Vancouver area.  There were four buses touring and arrivals were staggered at each site.  I've included just a couple shots from each nursery.  I took many pictures at the nurseries and found interesting plants that I hadn't seen yet.  With an earlier flight tomorrow, I'm heading to bed soon but am looking forward to getting home, sorting my photos and coming up with more ideas for RPG.  Overall, the PPA Synposium was lots of fun in a great setting.  Next year the PPA National Conference is in Cincinnati which should be interesting.

Part of the tour today included the visit to five home gardens that were all very unique and beautiful.  Included directly above and below are just a smattering of the images that I took today at these gardens.  With 75 attendees cramming in to each garden, photography was challenging but not impossible.  In most cases, the home owners were there to welcome the group and share their gardens.  All of the gardens were also at quite expensive residences but again, the color and detail in these spaces were amazing.

We had lunch at the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden which was quite large and had thousands of different plants.  I visited this garden over 13 years ago and was happy to repeat my visit.  Ed and I hit the ground running and saw a good portion of the property right after lunch (see Ed further below in a patch of giant Petasites).  The gardens were beautiful and included a massive alpine garden and Asiatic woodland garden as well.  The gardens overlooked the bay and we saw many bald eagles circling overhead.  We ended the day at Van Dusen Botanical Garden which was also difficult to see in our allotted time.  However, Ed and I went through the gardens and below are just some of the images from that gardens (seen beneath the images with the flag today.  It was beautiful and a nice garden to end our trip with in style.