Some Incredible Sights

     While out and about on cool days I often come across beautiful gardens and incredible plants, here are a few of my favourites. Above a hillside garden filled with evergreens and perennials, I don't know if I've ever seen so many high grafted and bonsai'd evergreens in one place. This garden should be the cover of a magazine, truly one of the best in Calgary!

Here a pair of two unusual trees in our area both around 20 feet tall or more, on the left a walnut and on the right a silver maple doing very well.

The walnut from above.

Above what appears to be Honey Locust has grown to a height of about 15 feet. I've never seen one growing in Calgary at all so was very surprised.

Another rarity in our zone, Fir, I've never seen a Fir exactly like this before and after looking at the literature is most likely Blue Fir as most other varieties are zone 5 or higher. In a city where a majority of our trees are spruce Fir is such a nice soft contrast, they should be planted much more!

What looks like a Nest Spruce that is very old, I was impressed by the size of this one and wonder if it was planted 50 or more years ago? Truly the largest of this variety I have ever seen.

I remember Korean Maple from my Garden Store days, no one could ever tell me for sure if they really grew here though. Years later I spotted this one growing quite happily which answers my question. In a zone where Japanese Maples do not grow this is as close as we can get, beautiful specimen trees that should definitely be planted more!

I found this quite amusing, it is the Calgary Emergency Centre in the Centre Street Park, and they have used Egyptian Onions (sometimes Walking Onions) in a public mass planting. I thought I was the only proponent of this plant in the world so was quite pleased to see this. Why not? These plants spread willingly, need zero care, have zero pests and are interesting year round.

     There are many beautiful and amazing gardens all over this city, I love being able to see as many as possible in our short season. These gardens are also useful resources to see how plants grow and what can be grown, these pictures bolster my theory that many plants should be tried as you never know what can take root here!