UBC Botanical Garden Blog

Back to wet, rainy weather and some garden clean up.

In between the various major project work that is being done to add extraordinary new collections to the UBC Botanical Garden, we are working hard to get on top of the usual upkeep that all gardens require. The surprising amount of snow that we received this winter really did a number on the yew hedge (taxus x media 'Hicksii') that encloses the Physic Garden. So much snow collected on parts of this hedge that the branches bent completely over, nearly touching the ground. The hedge bounced back quite well (much better that many other plants in the garden that were very badly damaged) but was still looking pretty scruffy until Brendan came along and tidied it up beautifully.

The Physic Garden is filled with interpretive signs that explain some of the medicinal or traditional uses of the plants. Here is what yew hedge sign says:

"The hedge around the Physic Garden is a hybrid between the English yew (Taxus baccata) and Japanese yew (T. cuspidata). The English yew was considered a useful ingredient in witches brews and was planted in graveyards, possibly because the great age of the tree was thought to give immortality. The wood was used for making bows by the Anglo-Saxons. The generic name Taxus comes from taxos, meaning bow. Taxol from the bark of the Pacific yew (T. brevifolia) is now being used to fight certain types of cancer."