UBC Botanical Garden

Immerse yourself in a world of wild plants from around the world, experience the history of 16th-century European herbal medicine, and walk above the ground among giant cedars of the UBC Botanical Gardens.

I love the UBC area of Vancouver. I walk there quite often, but this was the first time I’ve been to Botanical Gardens. It turned out to be the oldest in the province! It was founded as early as In 1916, under the direction of British Columbia’s first botanist, John Davidson. The garden’s collection numbers 120,000 plant specimens from all over the world: flowers, shrubs, trees, mosses… It took me about two hours to get around them all! So don’t skimp on parking..

Book your ticket and time to visit the garden in advance on the website. The cost is 10CAD. You pay for parking on the spot, at the machine: 1 hour – 1.5CAD

Asian Garden

Immediately after the entrance, the trail turns left. So far, the usual Vancouver woods: with knee-high ferns and sky-high cedars soaking up the scents of recent downpours. Because of the proximity to the ocean, Vancouver almost never snows and it rains half the year. Take a step to the side and you’ll find something interesting in the depths: tree vines encircling tree trunks in bows, a small pond with lanterns, green rhododendron bushes (I have not counted myself, but the official website claims that there are 400 species there!) This is the Asian Garden. Not the typical, well-groomed, but a variation on the theme: what the wild forests of the Himalayas, Japan, and China look like. I wanted to run through the thicket faster to get to an even more unusual place.

GreenHeart Treewalk

In one part of the garden, there are several suspension bridges – the Green Heart Treewalk. They are hanging between giant spruces and cedars at a height of 20-23 meters. When you step into this airy alley, it sways from side to side and up and down! Not like a rope park, of course, but to walk from the beginning to an end (310 meters) without hands and without a smile– is not easy.

Somewhere in the middle of the route on the platform you can go up to the observation deck and look around, breathing in the scents of rain and autumn. The paths are strewn with colourful maple leaves. And the lush green forest seems to embrace you from all sides. The only point: after Green Heart Treewalk, even on hard ground, I was a little wobbly.

For the Greeheart Treewalk, select “with treewalk” ticket type on the website; the cost in 2021 is 23CAD (garden+hanging bridges)

Moon Gate

On the way back from Greenheart Treewalk along the parallel alley of the Asian Garden there is a tunnel to another part. Its entrance is decorated with Chinese red moon gates with a tiled roof – hard to miss. Before stepping into the gray concrete tunnel, I wanted to pause and admire the play of light and the green ivy on the gate.

After a few meters, I came out on completely different ground…

Food Garden

Or rather, in a different climate. This part of the garden is warm, dry, and more like a regular arboretum. Miracle!

The trail goes through a vegetable garden with cabbage, carrots, lettuce… The vegetables are grown by professionals in environmentally friendly ways, without synthetic pesticides. When the crops ripen, they are harvested by volunteers, packed and sent to a charity for the homeless and hungry.

Around the beds on the wall are educational stands about plants, ecology, and consumption. Did you know that ⅓ of all food gets lost or spoiled on the way from the farm to your fork?

I was distracted from the pictures and statistics by the long wooden gazebo behind the vegetable garden. The 60-meter-long corridor, covered with burgundy ivy, glowed in the sun like a lantern. Sometimes beautiful weddings are played here. But more often the tourists wander back and forth here, trying to find a narrow passageway to the Physic Garden.

Physic Garden

The Apothecary Orchard is a small one. Consists of 12 beds with brick borders arranged in a circle. In the center is an engraved bronze sundial. The vegetable garden was built in the 16th century Dutch style, based on an old engraving. I think it would be quite suitable for the filming of “Perfumer” in terms of atmosphere.

Grasses here are planted with real, traditional European ones. I do not recommend anything to pluck and chew, as there are some poisonous plants. It is better to look at them during the flowering period – from May to early fall. At the end of October I had only the withered inflorescences and yellowed leaves to admire.

Apothecary gardens were usually built near universities for the training and experimentation of doctors and pharmacists. The first such vegetable gardens were created in Italy in the 16th century.

Cactus House

To the right of the apothecary’s vegetable garden is a small greenhouse. This is my favorite place in the Botanical Gardens – the house of cacti. Plants and succulents are grown on special mounds under a roof, ensuring proper drainage during the rainy season and ventilation. There aren’t many species of cacti here, but they’re all colorful and interesting (and prickly!)

Next to the cactus greenhouse there are several other neat beds of succulents. These are apparently survivable, because there is no roof on top.

Walk a few steps to the right – at the entrance to the rain forest there is a stunning maple tree and a huge white spiral on the ground – an art object. The Botanical Gardens website has no information about this place other than the name “Majestic Maple and Timeless” and that there are informational sessions. By the way, you can book a tour around the gardens! Sign up by this link.

Alpine GardenAlpine Garden)

Perhaps the coolest part of the garden is the alpine hill. Despite the fact that it occupies only 3% of the total area, 40% of all species of plants of the garden are collected here. A meter apart are eucalyptus trees from Australia, Argentine cedar, European spruce, New Zealand palm… What a geographic spread!

Plants for this garden were obtained with the help of private collectors, from local and international nurseries and expeditions. And at any time of the year, something blooms and smells here.

My personal favorite is the barberry bush. A plant from my childhood, from the wrappers of my favorite caramels. For some reason, I always wanted to see it with my own eyes these red beaded berries. Recognized it very simply – by the label with the description. Almost every plant in the garden is signed (if not, then look for it on the website )

Carolina Forest

Coming down the alpine slide, I looked into the tiered green amphitheater for the performances. I rustled my shoes in a pile of fallen leaves under a giant yellow oak tree. I counted the reeds on the pond and finally got to the last part of the garden, the carolina forest.

According to Wikipedia, Carolina forest – is the largest ecological and endangered (up to 80% destroyed) hardwood forest region in eastern North America. Ash trees, birches, chestnuts, oaks…

Outwardly, to be honest, it looks very much like an ordinary forest somewhere in the suburbs.

I walked through the tall, wet grass, watching the leaves tear off in the wind and fall nearby. I thought about how beautiful our Planet is and how great it is that there are such botanical gardens where they try to preserve all this unique beauty. And then the timer sounded – the parking expired, and I had to rush to the exit.

Nitobe Memorial Garden

If you think that’s the end of my adventures, you’re wrong! University’s territory is so vast and rich that they have not only one garden. A few minutes away, near the very university’s buildings, there is another park. Nitobe Memorial Garden, which is considered one of the best traditional gardens outside of Japan. Officially it has a general management and website with the Botanical Garden, so I’ll tell you about it here, too.

Already at the gates of Nitobe, it’s like being teleported into another world. Where it’s beautiful, calm, meaningful. In the spirit of Japanese tradition, every toro (lantern), stone, bush, and leaf here is no accident. The paths are perfectly aligned, the moss on the sides is green and soft, the water in the pond is calm, black and like a mirror, reflects the world around inside out. You just watch, listen, breathe and are filled to the brim with harmony, beauty and love.

This magical oasis was built on the campus of UBC University in memory of the politician and philosopher Nitobe Inadzo, who supported the development of Japan’s spiritual ties with foreign countries. His dream: “to become a bridge over the Pacific,” you’ll find in the heart of the garden. And be sure to check out the tea house. In the good old non-coronavirus days, you could take part in a tea ceremony there. Now it’s just sighing at the open doors and counting tatami on the floor.

Admission to Nitobe Memorial Garden – costs about 7CAD. January through March – by donation.