What do phormium and yellow-eyed penguins have in common? Travel to New Zealand with UW Botanic Gardens to find out!

Busy gardeners appreciate the early spring flowers and minimal care required of evergreen perennials such as epimediums and hellebores. They don’t need dividing or staking or fertilizing, they just do their thing without much gardener intervention. Yet a little attention in late winter will improve the appearance and show off newly emerging flowers.
Roy Farrow, one of the UW Botanic Gardens horticulturists, attends to enormous swaths of epimedium and hellebore in the Washington Park Arboretum’s Witt Winter Garden. 

By John A. Wott, Director Emeritus. Recently I was given a copy of the Arboretum Bulletin, Volume VIII , no. 4, Winter 1945, by Lyn Sauter, who was the first librarian for the collection of books that became the Miller Library.

During our November potluck, Josh Furman demonstrated how to make all sorts of delicious things with squash, because, well, it’s that time of year. Here are his recipes, as promised:
Roasted Winter Squash Salad

2-3 winter squash sliced
1 onion sliced into wedges
1/2 tablespoon sumac and 1/2 tablespoon nigella seeds (optional)
2 tablespoons sliced almonds or other crushed nuts such as pistachios. 

An historic document connected to the early “life” of the Washington Park Arboretum has been found. It is the (believed) first design for the Arboretum, prepared in 1934 by Frederick Leissler, landscape architect in the Seattle Department of Parks.

UW Botanic Gardens Horticulturist Neal Bonham has been gardening at the Washington Park Arboretum for years. When asked if he had any rules for home gardeners for optimal tool use he grew philosophical, “I’m reminded of the anecdote of someone asking a Taoist butcher how often he sharpened his knife. He answered ‘I never sharpen it. I only cut between the joints.'”

The Fragrance Garden at the Center for Urban Horticulture is being refreshed with help from partner the Seattle Garden Club. The declining stripe bark maple will be removed and new scented plants will be added.
Manager of Horticulture David Zuckerman said the Acer capillipes has been declining for years. David explained: “it may have verticillium wilt, but more likely to be causing the decline are symptoms of over exposure (sun, temps) during the course of its life in the entry garden. 

Looking nondescript throughout most of the year, the “Christmas cactus” puts on a tremendous show during the holiday season with little care.

1)    Araucaria araucana      (Monkey Puzzle)

Native to Chile, no other conifer quite like it!
Seeds are used to make an alcoholic ceremonial drink called mudai.

2)   Picea glauca      (White Spruce)

Native to northern temperate forests of North America.
Captain Cook made a spruce beer, possibly curing his crew from scurvy.

3)   Pinus cembra      (Swiss Stone Pine)

Native to Alps of Central Europe. 

Reflections on the essence of Fiddleheads and experiential, nature-based learning.