Plants have a complex maturation process that sometimes means leaving the home meadow, heading to the big forest, and moonlighting as a hotel-lobby decoration to make ends meet. View a more sheltered variety of shrub with today’s Groupon: for $9, adult admission for two to the UBC Botanical Garden at the University of British Columbia's Point Grey campus on Southwest Marine Drive (a $17.92 value, including HST).

As Canada's oldest continuously operating university botanical garden, UBC Botanical Garden showcases the natural elegance of more than 12,000 plants while researching biodiversity on more than 30 hectares (78 acres) of grounds ranging from an Asian garden to a Carolinian forest. Tickets include access to select gardens such as the E. H. Lohbrunner Alpine Garden, which eradicates the need for costly backpacking trips with beds representing the mountains of Asia, Africa, North America, Europe, South America, and Australasia. The British Columbia Rainforest Garden features homegrown plants that create a leafy roof with their high-reaching branches, sheltering the amphibians, reptiles, and insects that call the garden home and throw pool parties when the botanists are out of town. The living collections on display include temperate forest plants and diverse flora, surrounding visitors with an eclectic ensemble of mosses, lichens, birds, and Ewoks.