Self Guided Tour: July/August 2026
A Summer Stroll
Contributor: Susan Lee, VanDusen Volunteer Guide
*Please follow the black and white directional arrows and numbers for this tour. Not all of the tour is wheelchair accessible.
VanDusen Botanical Garden welcomes you. This self-guided tour will take you through a selection of our 22-hectare garden. It is home to over 7,500 kinds of plants from around the world and the tour will point out a few of these. A botanical garden is a living museum with its collections scientifically organized and labeled. Botanical gardens allow the public to experience and learn about plants they otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to see, and through ex situ conservation they help to conserve plant species for future generations.
Leave the atrium and walk across the patio towards Livingstone Lake. Turn to admire the sculptural roof lines of the splendid Visitor Centre. The leaf-like curves were inspired by the shape of a native orchid and offer a fitting botanical overture to the delights which lie ahead within this garden.
Follow the path to the left which crosses a wooden bridge then proceed up a slight incline until you can see a large green boulder on your left which forms the base of a water fountain. This is BC nephrite jade, mined in Northern British Columbia and used locally for carving and jewelry. Continue up the incline towards the Bentall Pool and note the low pots in front of the flowerbed on the right. These house our collection of carnivorous plants whose habitat in wetlands and bogs is threatened. Look for plants that are tall, yellow-green tube-like pitchers with round ‘mouths’ topped with raised lids, often with red veins. The strikingly odd 1 – yellow pitcher plant (Sarracenia flava), produces a toxin in a nectar-like secretion on the lip of the pitcher. Once insects are lured inside to sample the nectar, they become paralyzed and fall into the pitcher to be digested. Since bogs lack certain essential plant nutrients, carnivorous plants have evolved this amazing ability to collect these missing nutrients by capturing and digesting small insects!
Turn and note the golden yellow foliage providing dappled shade to the left of this area of the garden. It belongs to a pair of 2 – golden false acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia ‘Frisia’). The species was named after Jean Robin, a botanist employed by King Henry IV of France. The luminous foliage of other golden-leaved trees can be seen if you scan the wooded horizon from this vantage point. These splashes of brilliant colour highlight the handsome and varied collection of trees in this botanical garden.
Retrace your steps to the jade water fountain and take the bark mulched path on your left which leads along the top of a rise overlooking Livingstone Lake. This area illustrates the varied textures and hues that can be achieved with the imaginative use of drought tolerant grasses. Such plantings survive well through the warm, dry days of summer and demand little of our precious water supply at this time of year. On the left and the right side of the path, note the attractive shade of 3 – little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium ‘Itasca’), a tufted perennial grass that does well in dry, sunny locations. Nearby, on the left you will notice a small tree 4 – Glastonbury thorn (Crataegus monogyna ‘Biflora’). The cultivar name refers to the fact that the tree can bloom twice in one year: once in spring and again in winter. This much-revered form of the common hawthorn is associated with Glastonbury Abbey in England and with many ancient myths and legends which you may wish to investigate later.
Pause to take in the view across the lake. On a sunny day you will see many turtles basking on the warm rocks around the lake. These semi-aquatic turtles are red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta subsp. elegans), some of the many creatures who find a home in this garden. Move along the path between the grasses, passing, on the right, the gnarled structure of 5 – common quince (Cydonia oblonga). This tree produces the down-covered yellow fruit used to make delicious quince paste, much loved in Europe and Australia. On the opposite side of the path are two fragrant young 6 – western redcedars (Thuja plicata). This tree, which can grow to over 35 m in height is the cornerstone of West Coast First Nations’ culture. Used for healing and spiritual purposes, it is also used to make canoes, totem poles, masks, bentwood boxes, hats and house posts.
Follow the path to the steps and you will be in the Black and Gold Garden. From the steps, follow this path to the left where this colour scheme continues, featuring many familiar plants dressed in brightly contrasting hues. At the crossroads turn around and retrace your steps and continue along this path until the lake comes into view again. You will notice at the water’s edge a spectacular plant 7 – giant rhubarb (Gunnera) with huge, sharply toothed, deep green leaves borne on prickly stalks which can reach up to 2.5 m in length, with one of the largest leaves of any plant in the world! This is another interesting plant that has adapted to grow in wet, nutrient-poor locations. Gunnera has a close symbiotic relationship with cyanobacteria, which live in glands located along the stems and provide the plant with essential nitrogen. Everything about Gunnera is impressive, even the small greenish-red flowers which appear on enormous spikes, clearly visible beneath the leaves. It is also an ancient plant, one quite familiar to dinosaurs!
Follow the path to the left down to the water and across the Zig Zag bridge to the Southern Hemisphere Garden, dominated by the spiny silhouettes of 8 – monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana). The tree is native to central and southern Chile and western Argentina and is named after the Araucanía Region in central Chile. The starchy, edible seeds of this tree are an important traditional food for the Mapuche people. Monkey puzzle is the national tree of Chile but severe forest fires in 2001-02 drastically reduced their numbers and the tree is now classified as endangered.
Follow the path up a slight incline and take the steps to the right. Here you are surrounded by many fine specimens of this tree, as well as other plants from the same region. Pause and look back across the lake for a fine view of some of the garden you have just explored. Retrace your path back down the steps and walk towards the western redcedar with which you are now quite familiar! On the left in the centre of this bed stands a small 9 – Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis) from south-eastern Australia. This species was known only through fossils until living specimens were discovered in 1994 by David Noble, a ‘bushwalker’ with considerable botanical knowledge, in the Blue Mountains just 200 kms west of Sydney. With less than 100 adult trees now known to exist in the wild, botanical gardens around the world help secure the survival of this exciting find by nurturing specimens such as the one you see here. Wollemia is part of the Araucariaceae, a family that includes Araucaria (monkey puzzle and Norfolk Island pine) and Agathis (kauri trees), with ancestry dating from a time when Australia, South America and Antarctica were linked as a supercontinent known as ‘Gondwana’ many millions of years ago.
Return to the main path and follow the sign to “The Giant Redwoods”. Ahead of you on the left is a magnificent stand of young 10 – giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) planted in the 1970s and 1980s when they were about 2 m tall. They are now over 21 m tall and can grow to be the largest trees by volume in the world. The trees you see here are especially attractive with their huge lower limbs dipping gracefully to the ground. As they mature, these lower branches are gradually lost, significantly changing their appearance. Walk into the centre of the grove; it is cool and quite awe-inspiring.
Continue along the main path with a view of Heron Lake to your left. Ahead are beds of summer flowers and shrubs with a backdrop of many-hued Japanese maples. At the far end of the left flower bed there is a bark mulched path which leads toward the water’s edge. Follow this path and you will notice a bench on your left with a much-photographed view across the lake. Pause here for a moment to notice the elegantly branching small trees in various colours and shapes that soften the banks on both sides of the lake. These 11 – Japanese maples (Acer palmatum) are native to Japan, China and Korea but they are now popular all over the world, appreciated for their delicate foliage, graceful shape and compact habit. They are one of the most widely cultivated trees and centuries of breeding have produced hundreds of different cultivars. Leave the bench and turn right, following the edge of the lake, passing further examples from the Japanese maple collection to a small stone bridge across a tiny stream which feeds into Heron Lake. Take the steps up for another striking vista.
Directly ahead is a grove of tall, dark 12 – Douglas-firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii). For a closer look, cross the lawn to see these magnificent trees with their deeply furrowed, fire-resistant bark. The trees here are about 100 years old; some specimens in the Old Growth forests on Vancouver Island are over 500 years old. The commercially valuable wood from the Douglas-fir played a significant role in the early prosperity of British Columbia. See if you can find on the ground any of the decorative, soft cones from these trees. They will seem small and dainty for such large, majestic trees.
Leave the grove and proceed up the lawn between beds of young conifers and join the main path. Turn left and walk down the path towards Heather Pond on the left. You cannot fail to notice the strange, draping branches of a multi-limbed tree on the left of the path. This towering 13 – snakebranch spruce (Picea abies ‘Virgata’) is a variant of Norway spruce. Pause for a moment to read the fascinating information about this tree on the interpretive panel beside the path. Look up to see the long, curved cones that this tree produces.
Take the path straight ahead to the cross-roads. Ahead of you is the Perennial Garden featuring a formal border bed on the left and island beds on your right. You can now decide to admire these or take the right-hand path to the Great Lawn to visit the Sino-Himalayan Garden, Maze, Vegetable and Learning Garden with its new interactive signage, Alma VanDusen Garden and so much more. Or you can take the left-hand path leading to the Rose Gardens and head back to the Plaza via the Fragrance Garden and the Bentall Reflecting Pool. Hopefully you will have time to do both to appreciate the variety our botanical garden has to offer.
