Devonian Gardens Calgary

The Devonian Gardens in Calgary have been undergoing a facelift for some time.  They just reopened last week and are located downtown in The CORE shopping centre (essentially a big mall).  They are on the fourth level right beside the food court and will provide a much needed oasis during Calgary's cold winters.  I took a bunch of photos, so I hope you enjoy the virtual tour below.

Exotic Bird of Paradise

Although our Bird of Paradise plants bloom regularly they usually only have one or two flowers at a time.  Lately the plants have had a minimum of around five flowers at a time.  I'm not a huge fan of the foliage itself, but the flowers really do have a unique and exotic look.  It took me a few minutes but I finally got what I think is a great angle for a picture.  My only complaint is the metal rod behind the flower in the front of the image.  Other than that I think it look great and might use it as a desktop wallpaper for a while.

Topical Flowers

There are many flowering plants in the greenhouse that bloom throughout the year. I figured I'd include some of them in this post. There are many more and I'll update every few weeks with the newest blooms.

This first image is of a large Spathiphyllum.

The next two pictures are of Flamingo Flower (Anthurium). They have been flowering for several months now.

I had originally thought that this plant was a subspecies or at least related to the Cast Iron plant. However when it started to flower I realized it was something different. The plant is called Eucharis. There aren't very many flowers but they have a very simple and elegant beauty to them.

About three days ago our first Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia) opened it's first flower of the summer. We have three large plants all grouped together, but I haven't seen any other buds yet.

I'll end this post with a very interested plant that I didn't know about until I noticed it flowering about two weeks ago. The name of the plant is Tibouchina urvilleana. When allowed to grow naturally it will develop into a large bush covered with these beautiful purple flowers.