By John A. Wott, Director Emeritus
Managing a large garden requires large equipment. Often tractors and trucks can be kept in great working order for many years, but eventually they too will need to be replaced. Shredders, mowers, and machinery with many working parts need to be replaced every few years. Machinery costs were once totally covered in state and city budgets. 

1)  Acer mandshuricum                Manchurian Maple

The Manchurian Maple is native from Eastern Siberia into China and strongly resembles Acer griseum and Acer triflorum.
This species is located in the Asian Maples Collection.

2)  Distylium racemosum                Isu Tree

The flowers of Distylium racemosum are petalless, but have attractive red calyces (whorl of sepals) and purple stamens.
The Isu tree is native to southern Japan, but can be found in the Witt Winter Garden and in our Hamamelidaceae Collection, east of Arboretum Drive near the Pacific Connections gardens. 

Spring is not typically known for its subtlety around these parts, but upon its early awakening many plants warrant a closer look. Enjoy!
1)  Acer palmatum ‘Katsura’                     Katsura Maple

One of the first Japanese maples to leaf out each spring. The small, five-lobed leaves emerge pale yellow-orange, with brighter orange margins.
Found in the semi-dwarf group of Japanese maples.
Specimen 19-10*A is located in grid 30-4E. 

Almost no one is aware that the Washington Park Arboretum is the location of two kames. “Kames, what is that?” everyone asks. Wikipedia tells us that “a kame is a geomorphological feature, an irregularly shaped hill or mound composed of sand, gravel and till that accumulates in a depression on a retreating glacier.”
Located just east of Lake Washington Boulevard E. 

The Arboretum Loop Trail is a jewel of the master plan approved in 2001.

Our native grand fir … “is usually left in the forest to make music and distill incense.”

1)  Chaenomeles cathayensis                   Chinese Quince

This deciduous shrub is native to slopes and forest margins in western Hubei Province.
Light pink flowers in spring are followed by large oblong fruit which are unpalatable raw, but make fragrant jams and jellies when cooked.
Like other quince, Chaenomeles cathayensis’ arching branches are armed with stiff thorns.
Two specimens can be seen in the old field nursery south of the Crab Apple Meadow near Arboretum Drive. 

1)  Pinus greggii

This three-needle pine from northeastern Mexico is closely akin to P. patula but less ornamental.  Its oval-conical cone clusters stay closed on the branch for several years.  This specimen and the others described here can be found within Crabapple Meadow, along the east side of Arboretum Drive.

2)  Pinus jeffreyi

Native mainly of California in the Sierra Nevada and Siskiyous, this lofty tree is said to grow to 200 feet in the wild.  

by John A. Wott, Director Emeritus
Last month we discussed how rapidly trees grow and change the landscape.  It is interesting how physical landscapes also change and often actually shift and move due to changes in temperatures. Visitors to the Pacific Connection Gardens, specifically the New Zealand Forest, have seen the renovation of the Lookout which restored its former shape and size. 

Sleeping Beauties
1)  Oemleria cerasiformis                Indian Plum

The Indian Plum adheres to Benjamin Franklin’s advice in Poor Richards Almanac: “Early to bed, early to rise. . . .”  This shrub goes to sleep early, beginning to slowly defoliate in late summer.  However, it is one of the first to leaf out, and flowers early in the spring.  It can be found throughout the Arboretum, and is just beginning to awaken.