The John A. Wott Botanic Gardens Endowed Student Award was awarded this spring to Kyra Matin, a second-year Master of Environmental Horticulture student at the University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.
As part of her masters project, Kyra is working on several aspects of the New Zealand Forest display in the Pacific Connections Garden at the Washington Park Arboretum. 

1)  Castanea dentata                          American Chestnut

The American Chestnut, once an important and substantial member of the East Coast hardwood forests, is now all but extinct in the wild due to the chestnut blight that likely arrived from Japan in the 1890s.
Chestnuts are sweet and edible, though hidden inside a prickly burr.
Blight resistant cultivars are still being developed in order to bring back this majestic tree. 

1)   Lagerstroemia indica ‘Muskogee’                          Crapemyrtle

Crapemyrtles are beautiful late summer flowering trees with attractive mottled and smooth bark.
This genus has long been popular in southern gardens and is gaining popularity in our urban environment.
This tree can be enjoyed a short walk down Azalea Way from the Graham Visitors Center.

2)   Leptospermum lanigerum                          Wooly Tea-Tree

This common Australian small tree or bush can be found in our Australian collections near the southern end of Arboretum Drive. 

1)  Rubus armeniacus, Himalayan blackberry

This notorious invasive species was introduced to Washington in the late 1800s for its delicious and prolific berries.
It is often found in disturbed areas and has adapted to wet, dry, sunny, and shady conditions.

2)  Rubus leucodermis, blackcap raspberry

This species, native to the West Coast, is known for the dusty white/blue coating on older stems and its arching habit. 

1)   Fuchsia magellanica

This is the hardiest of the fuchsia species, and the parent of most hardy fuchsia hybrids.
F. magellanica is native to Chile and Argentina and can reach ten feet in height in moist, frost-protected areas.
This and all featured fuchsias can be found in the Chilean Entry Garden, part of the Pacific Connections Gardens at the southern end of the Washington Park Arboretum. 

The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries (CBHL) announced the 2019 Annual Literature Awards on May 17th at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.  The winners are:

Annual Literature Award: Seeking Eden: A Collection of Georgia’s Historic Gardens
Award of Excellence in Botanical Art and Illustration: Joseph Banks’ Florilegium: Botanical Treasures from Cook’s First Voyage
Award of Excellence in Botany and Floras: Flora of the Chicago Region: A Floristic and Ecological Synthesis
Award of Excellence in Children and Young Adults Literature: The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian’s Art Changed Science
Award of Excellence in Gardening and Gardens: Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener’s Guide to Planting, Seed Saving, and Cultural History
Award of Excellence in History: Gardens of the Roman Empire

Several UW Botanic Gardens current and former staff had a role in these awards.  

1)   Acer palmatum ‘Beni otake’                          “Big Red Bamboo”

This linearilobum type of Japanese maple has long, strap-like lobes to its leaves and an upright-layered form.
Fall color of this maple is deep crimson and can be seen next to parking lot 11 in the Woodland Garden.

2)   Acer palmatum ’Shigitatsu sawa’        “Snipes, quacking, flying up from a swamp”

This variegated Japanese maple of the Amoenum type has a pale yellow blade, divided by deep green veins with a pale pinkish blush at the lobe tips. 

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.