1)   Amelanchier X spicata                          Serviceberry

This shrubby, multi-stemmed tree, native to United States and Canada, has an impressive spring display of white flowers.
We have lost a couple of our Amelanchier due to past winters; the remaining collections reside south of the Centennial Garden on Azalea Way.
Amelanchier are being planted more frequently in the urban environment for beauty and the value for wildlife. 

The Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation program (Rare Care) is beginning a new initiative with the National Park Service to monitor rare plant species in alpine communities and bank their seeds in the Miller Seed Vault. This work will occur over the next three years at: Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks (NP). The primary goals are to improve our understanding of the vulnerabilities of sensitive alpine plants to climate change and to develop management strategies to alleviate impacts of a warming climate. 

1)   Corylus maxima  ‘Atropurpurea Superba’                          Purple Leaf Filbert

This very large growing European filbert shrub is festooned with catkins before the purple leaves form, giving an impression of a pendulous curtain of 3-inch mauve spikes.
Its size can be controlled by thinning out the oldest stems in spring.
This cutting is from a mature specimen located at the service entrance to the Broadmoor Golf Course. 

We are excited to recognize Dr. John Wott, Director Emeritus of UW Botanic Gardens, who has been awarded the 2019 American Horticultural Society Professional Award for his many contributions to the horticultural field throughout his career. We also extend our enthusiastic congratulations to Riz Reyes, UW graduate, former UW Botanic Gardens horticulturist, and current UW Farm volunteer, who was honored with the 2019 Emerging Horticultural Professional Award. 

Despite a harsh winter, a large amount of work was accomplished restoring wildlife habitat in the Union Bay Natural Area this Winter Quarter 2019!

1)   Camellia japonica  ‘Willmeta’

This light pink Camellia is reminiscent of an apple blossom.
Will and Meta Jensen brought this cultivar with them as a seedling from Holland and the specific epithet is a combination of their first names.

2)   Camellia japonica  ‘Amabilis’

This white Camellia has impressively large single blossoms.
‘Amabilis’ is a French cultivar originating in Nantes in the 1820s. 

Here’s a sampling of some of the Arboretum trees that sustained some damage from the recent snow. Luckily most of the cuttings were taking from plants that will survive!

The record cold temperatures and snow that fell in Washington Park Arboretum between Feb 3 and Feb 11 will be one for the record books when it comes to accounting for all the plant collections damage and total losses.

UW Botanic Gardens facilities will be closed beginning at 12:30pm on Friday, February 8, and continuing through Sunday, February 10. Our facilities and programs are being impacted by anticipated inclement weather. Please check back on our Facebook and Twitter pages for updates going into next week.
Washington Park Arboretum impacts:
The Graham Visitors Center will be closed starting at 12:30pm Fri., Feb. 

1)  Rhododendron arboretum hybrid

This Rhododendron, located in the Joseph A. Witt Winter Garden, dutifully produces its blooms of bright rose in the dark of winter.
The UW Botanic Gardens’ database has records of it blooming in December, January, and February.

2)  Rhododendron floribundum

Native to the southern central area of China, and was first described by Adrien René Franchet.
Franchet was a French botanist who was noted for his extensive work describing the flora of China and Japan, based on the collections made by French Catholic missionaries in China – Armand David, Pierre Jean Marie Delavay, Paul Guillaume Farges, Jean-André Soulié, and others.