This photo is of a native Thuja Plicata (common name; Western Red Cedar) and shows the great J-arm branches that these trees feature. Although the Puget Mill Company logged most trees on the site by 1900, this particular Thuja was perhaps overlooked by the loggers and is therefore one of the oldest and largest specimens in the arboretum. It is located between the Witt Winter Garden and Azalea Way. 

Seattle Parks and the Northwest
Artist Kathleen Wolfe celebrates her love of nature with oil paintings on canvas featuring poppies, water lilies and landscape with majestic trees. Her paintings will be on display in the Miller Library from August 5th to September 16th.
Meet the artist at a free reception at the Elisabeth C. Miller Library on Wednesday, August 13th from 5:00 to 7:00pm. 

“Sporting Wood”
1)    White Ash    (Fraxinus americana)

Tough, plentiful, and easily bent into curves, Ash is used in tennis racquets, billiard cues, skis, and baseball bats.
White Ash is native to eastern and central North America.
This cutting is from the cultivar ‘Rose Hill’, located in grid 47-3E near the Lagoons.

2)   Common Box    (Buxus sempervirens)

Used for crocquet balls because of its hardness. 

This photograph taken in April 1976, shows Joseph A. Witt inspecting seed flats and cuttings in the “pit houses” of the University of Washington Greenhouses at Washington Park Arboretum.

A strange, but beautifully bizarre climbing hydrangea is beginning to bloom at the Center for Urban Horticulture.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1)   Erhetia dicksonii

Ornamental tree from Asia with corky bark and fragrant white terminal cymes.
Located along path heading up to Rhododendron Glen from Azalea Way, grid 15-1E.
Go to link below for thorough description and uses.
http://www.arthurleej.com/p-o-m-July07.html

2)   Holodiscus discolor      (Ocean Spray)

My favorite summer flowering Pacific Northwest native deciduous shrub. 

UW Information School graduates researched and designed a mobile app to enrich the experience of Arboretum visitors. Team member Sarai Dominguez reflects on discovering visitors’ information needs .

Leveraging the recently developed interactive map of the Arboretum’s plant collection UW Information School graduates researched and designed a mobile app. Team member Loryn Lestz shares her experience.

1)  Hydrangea macrophylla   ‘Madame Emile Mouillere’

A blizzard white beauty all summer, long considered the best white mop head.
A charming companion to evergreen shrubs.
A beautiful 70-year old specimen graces the Hydrangea Collection along the Arboretum Drive.

2)  Leucothoe davisiae      (Sierra Laurel)

Native to the mountains of northern California and southern Oregon.
One of 4,000 species in the Ericaceae family. 

Most have us have been stung by a wasp or bee at some point in our lives, and many of us have an innate fear of flying insects with stingers. Personally, I was stung almost every year of my life between about the ages of 5 and 18. It never swayed me from spending all my free time outside, but I did cower at the familiar buzzing sound of nearby wasps.