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Self-Guided QR Tours at UBC Botanical Garden

UBC Botanical Garden is Canada's oldest continuously operating university botanical garden. The original mission of the garden was research into the native flora of British Columbia.

UBC Botanical Garden is Canada's oldest continuously operating university botanical garden. The original mission of the garden was research into the native flora of British Columbia. Over the past nine decades, our mission has broadened to include research, conservation, teaching and public display of temperate plants from around the world, particularly Asian, alpine and native plants. We’re also home to the Greenheart Canopy Walkway.Come visit us - we’re located at 6804 SW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC. You can find more info at botanicalgarden.ubc.ca
Photo: Rhododendron wiltonii

April is an exceptional month for flowers at the Botanical Garden. Magnolias are in their ascendancy now, and daffodils and cherry blossoms are everywhere bringing cheer to Vancouver’s April showers. This is also definitely the month to see rhododendrons in the Garden. Every day brings another few species into bloom. Some of the most beautiful of these rhododendrons are in the David C. Lam Asian Garden, many from wild collections made in exotic locations in Asia.

Indeed, there are hundreds of different species here, and every one has a story to tell. One of the ways we tell those stories is through our smart phone tours. If you haven’t been in the garden lately, you might not have noticed small signs in a variety of colours that indicate the various self-guided tours we’ve compiled for visitors. One of these, the Rhododendron Study Tour, which will be completed before the end of this month, was made possible by a donation from the Vancouver Rhododendron Society.

Each of the tour stops is clearly numbered and has a graphical QR (quick response) code on the sign. Using a smart phone QR code reader (a number of different ones are available free on the Internet), one merely has to point the smart phone at the QR code, and the smart phone does the rest. For each stop on the tour is a short descriptive write up and a corresponding sound file. Tapping the play button allows you to hear the description read aloud.

Along with the Rhododendron Tour, visitors can listen to (or read) a Garden Introduction Tour (yellow signs), Prehistoric Plants Tour (beige signs), Vine Study Tour (light green signs), Plant Explorers in Asia Tour (black signs) and our newest, the Magnolia Tour (dark blue signs). Ask at the Gatehouse for maps of each of the tours.