Meet our spring intern, Amanda Fairbanks, as she learns and grows with the horticulture staff at the Arboretum!

Sit in on one of the horticulture staff’s check-in meetings and you’ll quickly notice Kathleen Glasman because she’s game for everything: another team member needs some help running a volunteer opportunity in the Arboretum? She raises her hand. Someone else needs help clearing brush out of their area? She’s available and ready to help. She’s been in the horticulture game for more than 30 years, and her expertise shines through whenever you talk to her. 

The UW Farm highlights the humble strawberry this month! Managed organically, the campus farm will add a sweet, culturally significant sustainable crop to its curriculum and production.

Cyndy Smith-Kuebel was indoctrinated into the outdoor life from day one. Growing up in Western WA, her father found Cyndy an eager student of scientific plant names and quizzed her up and down trails as they hiked in the Cascade Mountains. This sparked a life-long interest in botany and plant ecology that she pursued at the US Forest Service Cle Elum Ranger District. 

Showy stickseed (Hackelia venusta) is one of Washington’s most imperiled plants. Its only known population occurs in sandy soils on steep, sliding slopes in Tumwater Canyon near Leavenworth, WA. With only a few hundred individuals left, it is at significant risk of extinction without tenacious attention and stewardship. To that end, Rare Care recently completed a recovery project funded by US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) to (1) introduce plants at a new site and (2) install permanent monitoring plots in the natural population. 

Naomi Reibold is Rare Care’s new Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator. Hailing from Indiana, she has slowly made her way further west over the past five years following federal public land jobs as a botany technician. She has worked in Missouri, Idaho, Utah and Oregon. For the past two years, Naomi has spent her field seasons in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest learning and falling in love with our native, endemic and rare plants. 

Pacific lanceleaf springbeauty (Claytonia multiscapa ssp. pacifica) is a tiny plant for such a big name! Though seldom seen, it can be found in the Olympic Mountains, Vancouver Island and the North Cascade Range of British Columbia. A surveyor would need to look for it early in the season just after snowmelt in wet subalpine and alpine meadows at elevations above 4,100 feet. 

Springtime has us thinking about the magic of seeds. They hold all the material needed to start a new plant—DNA, food and the start of new leaves and a root—all within a convenient, compact package. For many species, their durable coat offers them protection from the elements while they await suitable conditions to set down roots. Some seeds can withstand fire, icy winters, or the highly acidic environment of an animal’s digestive system. 

Rare Care is fortunate to partner with several land trusts in the state to conserve rare plants. One such organization is the Columbia Land Trust, who works across five ecosystems from the mouth of the Columbia River to approximately 200 miles inland and 50 miles north and south of the river in Washington and Oregon. We reached out to Nate Ulrich, Conservation Manager, to find out more about their work. 

Skunk cabbage is a sure harbinger of spring in the maritime Northwest.  Among the earliest native species to flower, its bright color, large size and local abundance are easy to spot and promise warmer days ahead after the long dark of winter.