Between the last two and a half weeks of defective hard drives and electronic camera shutters, I was nearly shut out of the blogosphere. In the next several days I’ll try to catch up on posts and photos our members have been sending.
Gail sent a series of photos from Butchart Gardens in Vancouver. The colors in the photos are all from foliage – there are no flowers! I looked up the climate in Vancouver – it is very mild (up to zone 8!) but can actually be droughty in the summer months. Gail, if you have information about what some of these plant species are, please send us the information in a comment.
Monroe County Master Gardener Association 
Gail, these photo are just beautiful. Such wonderful color from foliage.
hello and happy new year. I have a response from the Butchart Gardens. I need to let you know, that i personally haven’t been to these gardens. I just found the colors so stunning. as stated, they are zone 8 (i think it must be a micro climate this garden is in Canada.) the trees per Daphne are mostly Japanese Maples (acer palmatum), unnamed seedlings and the small mounding are cut leaf Japanese Maples (acer palmatum dissectum). the purple (my favorite) are Persian Plums (prunus cerasifera pissardii) she says that they look purple in photos but are more of a burgandy than a true purple. they have a web site, butchart gardens.com but any questions specifically can be emailed to DaphneFraser@butchartgardens.com desperately waiting for spring gail