It’s always a pleasure to visit my pal Umberto Garbuio at his home in Burnaby Heights and to see how his beautiful garden is doing.
The white wrought-iron entrance gate beyond the row of clerodendron trees still has its quaint, swivel wooden sign saying “Hi”on one side and “Bye” on the other and the way into the garden is still through a vine-smothered arch.
There are clusters of yellow brugmansia nearby along with dense, waist-high clumps of dahlias and a tall rose of Sharon bush.
Steps to the front door are still loaded with pots spilling over with begonias, fuchsias and pelargoniums. This has always been one of Umberto’s specialties; he is very good at growing these particular plants to perfection.
Now in his 80s, Umberto (Bert to his friends), says he didn’t have time or the energy last winter to wrap his long-established clumps of hardy banana trees to protect them from the cold and thereby safeguard their stature for another season.
So, instead of them soaring as usual to more than 15 or 16 feet, this summer they are shorter, maybe six or seven feet tall, but they still sport their large, impressive, floppy, tropical-looking leaves.
Pelargonium 
Pelargonium 
Pelargonium
Bert competed again in the BC Fuchsia and Begonia Club’s annual show at the weekend and once again came home with an arm full of ribbons and trophies.
This is not new territory for Bert. In his basement, there are boxes containing dozens of trophies and ribbons won over the years. One wall is covered with framed newspaper articles featuring him and stories about his talents as a gardener and his taste for horticultural rarities.
Shelves and walls are also filled with plaques, awards and commendations for his skills as a master winemaker.
Most Italian immigrants living in this area of Burnaby have a wine-making operation in their basement with hundreds of litres of wine either undergoing fermentation in huge demi-jars or already racked and bottled and stored in temperature-controlled wine-ceilars.
But Bert’s No.1 passion is gardening and he especially loves to win prizes for his exquisitely grown trophy specimens. He’s been one of BC’s top exhibitors of fuchsias, geraniums and begonias for years.
By the end of July, his garden is a lush jungle of exotic plants and dazzling flowers: roses, hydrangeas, fuchsias, exotic Queen of the Night and all sorts of specialty plants, such as calycanthus, Congo cockatoo (parrot impatiens), donkey-tail sedum, hardy orchids, gingers, cacti and succulents.
In the backyard, towering over the garage, his massive Italian fig tree is still thriving and producing an abundance of fruit.
It has got to be the biggest fig tree in Canada, having been planted about 40 years ago.
The trunk and branches are immense and in August it will again produce a startling amount of delicious fruit.
Elsewhere, there are pear and apple trees and a grape vine burgeoning with fruit, while on an upper deck, there’s a neat row of carnivorous pitcher plants, a collection belonging to Bert’s son, Ronny.
Two years ago, Umberto’s lovely wife, Cecilia, died. The anniversary of her passing will be in September. They had been married 56 years.
Cecilia’s death was a heartbreaking loss for all who knew and loved her. Umberto still soldiers on in his home, which is immaculately kept and many of Cecilia’s humorous decorative pieces are still in place in the kitchen.
Bert continues to fill his days by working in the garden. He still keeps it in great shape, doing an amazing amount for work, moving tender plants in and out of winter quarters in spring and back inside at the end of summer.
Brugmansia are still planted in the ground rather than left in containers, allowing them to grow taller and become almost tree-like by mid-summer.
Bert has stopped making the wonderful wine for which he was famous, although he still finds time to take a small glass with a friend to celebrate the garden.
What an inspiration Umberto is: One of Canada’s great gardeners and horticultural champions.
