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. 

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.