Walking in the Magnolias

The Ted and Mary Greig Rhododendron Garden
in Stanley Park

March 26, 2007 - The flowering Magnolias near the Beach Avenue entrance to Stanley Park are starting to bloom this week. Many of these much looked-forward-to bloomers take as long as two decades to reach flowering age so when they put on a show, everyone wants to see it. Read on for all the details of a delightful tour of this magnificent site.

(The following is an excerpt from a guided tour by retired Park Board Gardener Alleyne Cook and his wife Barbara Cook.)

It's hard to believe but just four decades ago the glorious Ted & Mary Greig Garden that rings the Stanley Park Pitch & Putt golf course, did not exist. A few shrubs among native trees, gave a sparse showing around the Park Board Offices and along the high-rise frontage. Around the par 3 course wound a 5-strand wire fence through little but wild grasses. The gardens that you see today have begun their edifying glory and the flowering goes on until late summer.

From the Pitch & Putt office - across the parking lot from the Fish House Restaurant, proceed clockwise. Suggested time for a leisurely stroll is 1 hour, or for a brisk walk, 30 minutes.

In the immediate garden you are confronted by a white flowered Magnolia kobus. You will pass some 30 of these beauties which will link all of the many beds. Unless there is a reason to explain further, you can assume that any small, white flowered tree is a Magnolia kobus. Close by is an 8' Magnolia globosa. This species is one of four in the park which first get their foliage and then the flowers, but you must wait until May. The others are M. wilsonii, M. seiboldii and M. wiesneri.

The second bed shows a group of the pink-barked birch or, Betula albosinensis septentrionalis. Beyond them is M. seiboldii and directly opposite M. Kewensis.

To your right and over the cedar snake-fence is the pale pink Rhododendron 'Robin Hood' and the deep pink Rhododendron 'Harry Carter'. Both are stunning very early rhododendrons, but now are fading. Beside the path is the second M. seiboldii.

You are now in the Camellia Walk. Most of these beautiful, mature specimens were saved from old gardens slated for development. Enjoy that which might have been lost! Right at the beginning was the white M. Kewensis. Then, opposite the big cedar stump is the 'leaf-first' M. wiesneri. Between the red-barked cherry Prunus serrula and the roadway is the most beautiful available of all the pink exotics - M. Sprengeri Diva. Below it enjoy the single, bright, pink Camellia 'Aunt Mavis'. Near the path is yet another large M. seiboldii. Just behind you is the well-loved pink and white M. × soulangiana. Continue past the gateway and above is the evergreen M. virginiana, a small tree that is a summer-blooming white.

Now bear right past #12 tee and enter the next bed on a narrow gravel path. Over the fence is a magnificent pink Camellia 'Donation'. Next to it is one of the linking M. kobus. Its top is now a veritable forest of new shoots. It is the result of a falling hemlock damaging the magnolia as it crashed. So does nature regenerate. In the same bed is a wonderful M. sargentiana robusta var. Briar. This magnolia has the largest flowers of any species - some 10"-12" across. It was named because of its unique foliage, which will follow 6 weeks later.

This side of the fence, beside the walk is half of a huge M. sargentiana robusta. It was sawn in half vertically at the base and the other one is near the Pooh Corner Play School. Both grew on well!

Further on you will come to the roots of an upturned cedar and pool - making its own dramatic landscape design. Over the fence here show the small white flowers of M. salicifolia. On your left and right beside the path is M. hypoleuca, another of the summer bloomers.

Keep bearing right and continue past another service gate to where the chipped Azalea Walk beckons. In the centre of the left bed is M. liliiflora which blooms later and is a deep, satisfying wine-red. This has been a parent of a number of good rich pink hybrids. On the right and ahead is a recovering M. dawsoniana 'Barbara Cook'. This pink beauty was named for me! It was also hit by a falling hemlock. Near it is a small multi-stemmed M. stellata. Another finer specimen of M. 'Barbara Cook' with its vibrant, pink hanging flowers is in the left-hand bed near the archway. Further to the left is another M. seiboldii.

Now pass out of the Azalea Walk, through the rustic archway and ahead is M. Wada's Memory, quite the best of the 'whites' in that category. Look along the garden's edge to find the bronze plaque and tribute to bb, whose nursery plants began these quite wonderful gardens.

Lean on the next service gate and see M. liliiflora to the right. Directly ahead, beyond Rhododendron augustinii is a pure white hybrid - the 30' M. Merrill.

As you return to the service road, you next walk under the mystical suspended nuts of Davidia involucrata. Look beyond 100 yards to where the service road branches to the right and into the trees. Standing majestically alone is a 60' M. dawsoniana. It is reputed to be the largest of any magnolia in Vancouver.

Leave the service road and go right into the incline of the Magnolia Walk. On your left first comes M. hypaleuca - with more to tell of it later. Further along is yet another M. dawsoniana 'Barbara Cook'. Up on the right of the path comes M. tripetala, sturdily propped. Then a M. wilsonii and yet another M.dawsoniana 'Barbara Cook'. By the fence is M. proctoriana with starry white flowers. Continuing up beyond the large hemlock is the parent M. hypaleuca. Once it had two suckers and they were sawn vertically down through the roots. One of these flourishes in the bed opposite and the other you saw at the bottom of this path. At the top of the path is the largest and great spreading M. seiboldii. Planted in 1966 it has never been pruned.

You are now on Lagoon Drive again. To both left and right are several more M. kobus. Cross the road and there is a smaller M. × soulangiana in the left hand bed. Off to the right by the tennis courts is another group of M. kobus.

Cross diagonally over the parking lot to the grass area and straight ahead against the apartments is M. sprengeri diva. Over the first path to the right and on the point of the right-hand bed is white M. kewensis with straight ahead, M. tripetala.

On the next path, turn right and beside the road on the left is pink M. veitchii, a 40' tree. On the northwest corner of the Park Board office is M. iolanthe, a pink New Zealand hybrid. Beside the road is M. × soulangeana at one end of the bed. At the other is a tall, green flowering M. cordata.

From March through to August, various magnolias will be found in flower. This is a wonderful and wonderfully fragrant genus with roots, branches, leaves and flowers each giving off a distinctive smell.

• Top