Laura Caddy The Lohbrunner Alpine Garden in the UBC Botanical Garden

The Lohbrunner Alpine Garden in the UBC Botanical Garden

The Lohbrunner Alpine Garden in the UBC Botanical Garden is known for its high diversity of plants, representing a wide array of family, genera, and species as it holds 40% of the plant species grown at the UBC Botanical Gardens in Vancouver. Laura Caddy, the horticulturist and curator of the Alpine Garden will talk about its history, design, and her role and approach to managing the landscape and collection of montane and alpine plants it contains.

Laura works as Curator-Horticulturist of the EH Lohbrunner Alpine Garden for the University of British Columbia. In her role, Laura also manages the institutional seed exchange Index Seminum, overseeing the collection, packaging and distribution of seeds collected in the garden and in the wild. Laura is the former Bulletin Editor and current President of the Alpine Garden Club of British Columbia.

Member’s Showcase: Adventures in Boulevard Gardening – Gail Bebee
In her ongoing campaign to explore environmentally superior lawn alternatives, one of our members, Gail Bebee, is trialing various candidate plants to occupy the “hell strip” between the sidewalk and the street in front of our house. I’ll discuss the success of phase 1 which began two years ago with various grasses, low-growing juniper, lavender, ground covers etc. I will also provide an overview of phase 2 which began this summer with a boulevard patch of 15 grasses and sedges and rushes.

Gail has many years of hands on experience growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees and shrubs in her own garden in Toronto. Her academic background (undergrad in biology, masters in environmental engineering) and past experience as a plant taxonomy technician compliment her practical gardening knowledge. In 2020, Gail graduated as a certified Master Gardener in Ontario.