Each year, the Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation Program (Rare Care) designates a handful of species as focus species – species that we are attempting to monitor all known populations on public lands within a three to five year period. This year, we added snow cinquefoil (Potentilla nivea) to our list of focus species.
In Washington, snow cinquefoil is a relic of a much colder period, when glaciers covered the northern part of the state. 

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. 

There are a few hundred books left over after a very successful Garden Lovers’ Book Sale and now most are free or $1.00!

The Beauty Japanese plum first entices bees in early spring with sweet-smelling flowers and then temps humans with luscious red fruit in mid summer.

The April Plant Profile is the stunning Cornus purpurea-flavus, also known as the Purple and Gold Dawgwood. Native to Western Washington, this shrub has the potential to be boundless, so don’t try and fence it in. It can tolerate a lot of rain, but can be affected by heavy snowfall. These Dawgwoods can flower at any time of the year, but blooms are most prolific in June. 

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. 

If you’ve been dreaming of escaping our cold, snowy Pacific Northwest, to a sunny and warm Mediterranean climate, dream no more! The ‘Frantoio’ is one of the most successful olive trees for the Pacific Northwest. Touted as the hardiest olive for our climate, 10° F or below and apparently gains cold hardiness the older it gets. Beautiful silvery foliage is attractive year-round.