Jim Olsen receiving his award the greenhouse’s monthly potluck on Halloween. Congratulations to Jim Olsen, winner of our 2023 Volunteer of the Year Award! Our volunteer programs manager, Lily King, presented the award to Jim at the Pat Calvert Greenhouse’s monthly pot luck this Halloween (which explains her costume above). Jim has volunteered at the greenhouse for almost a decade, helping propagate plants from the Arboretum collection that are then sold to the public to raise important funds for our core programs. Jim commutes three hours from and back to Enumclaw multiple times a week to ..read more

The current Crabapple Meadow is usable in summer but waterlogged for much of the year. The Woodland Meadow Project reimagines the current Crabapple Meadow (site of the Arboretum’s original field nursery) as a year-round gathering and celebration space. While the meadow’s large lawn is used in the driest part of the summer months, poor drainage makes it unusable the rest of the year. The new Woodland Meadow will be designed to accommodate more active, year-round uses, with gardens and hardscape that allows for a range of activities, such as educational programming, community events, fundrai ..read more

 Photo of “Union” by David Rosen In late August 2023, renowned Seattle-based environmental sculptor John Grade installed his latest work outdoors at the Washington Park Arboretum. Entitled “Union,” it is comprised of 6300 individual cast-resin parts suspended from two large nets spanning 100 feet between eight trees—mostly western red cedars—at a trail junction southwest of the Magnolia Collection. As Grade explains on his website, “The sculpture was inspired by a fallen western red cedar in Seattle’s Discovery Park. The top of the trunk of the fallen tree was divided into two slender l ..read more

In partnership with Seattle Parks and Recreation, the Arboretum Foundation is developing a plan to reconstruct the stone wall at the north end of the Seattle Japanese Garden pond, modify the pathways in this area to improve accessibility, and add a new garden structure that was originally envisioned by designer Juki Iida but never realized. Preliminary design concepts and plans will be presented at a community meeting on Thursday, November 16, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Graham Visitors Center. Arboretum staff and the design team will be available to discuss potential uses for the structure, ways ..read more

With its dramatic topograpy, water features, and multilayered tree canopy, the Woodland Garden is one of the Arboretum’s most iconic displays. It’s also a huge draw in autumn, when foliage enthusiasts come from all around the region to admire the fall color, especially of the garden’s Japanese maples. The Woodland Garden houses one of the largest collections of Japanese maples (Acer palmatum) in North America, with more than 70 cultivars represented. The concept of the Garden—including its upper and lower ponds—was marked in the original 1936 Olmsted Brothers’ plan for the Arboretum. In his ..read more

With its dramatic topograpy, water features, and multilayered tree canopy, the Woodland Garden is one of the Arboretum’s most iconic displays. It’s also a huge draw in autumn, when foliage enthusiasts come from all around the region to admire the fall color, especially of the garden’s Japanese maples. The Woodland Garden houses one of the largest collections of Japanese maples (Acer palmatum) in North America, with more than 70 cultivars represented. The Garden was conceived by James Dawson for the Olmsted Brothers’ original 1936 design of the Arboretum. Dawson recognized the potential of th ..read more

Gardening is a scary pastime, or so writer Barbara Blossom Ashmun claims in her article in the latest  Arboretum Bulletin. In her many years as a garden professional and hobbiest, she has been attacked by bald-faced hornets, poisoned by plant sap, sent to ER because of exploding seed pods, and much more. And yet, gardening is also the “most joyful adventure” in her life. Read the full, hilarious piece, and also enjoy some of Barbara’s horticultural haiku, excerpted from her latest book. CLICK TO READ ARTICLE The post Humor: The Garden is a Dangerous Place appeared first on Arboretum F ..read more

As the warmth of summer fills our days, the canopy cover of trees provides welcome respite from the heat. With a spreading crown and thick branches covered with a profusion of foliage, mosses, lichens and ferns, the bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) stands out as a true gem among shade trees. In the latest Arboretum Bulletin, nature educator Theodore Hoss profiles this majestic native species, discussing its natural and cultural history (including its use by Native Americans and its potential as a source of maple syrup), and its importance to our urban forest. CLICK TO READ ARTICLE The pos ..read more

The mint family, Lamiaceae, is a familiar one for gardeners. We plant lots of low-growing herbaceous plants from this group – such as salvias, basil, and bee balm – in our kitchen gardens and ornamental borders. But you may be surprised to learn that the family also contains a number of shrubs, such as rose glory bower (pictured above), and even small trees, including harlequin glory bower. In the latest Arboretum Bulletin, garden writer and designer Phil Wood profiles some of the enchanting, summer-blooming, woody mints growing in the Arboretum collection and tells you where to find them ..read more

Lots of toddlers and their caregivers attended our July 19 event celebrating the renovation of the “Tot Lot” playground at the Lynn Street entrance to the Arboretum. They enjoyed the beautiful new woodland-wildlife-themed play structure, plus live music by violinist Pasquale Santos, a bubble machine, sidewalk chalk, and free lemonade and cookies. The publicly funded, $118,000 Arboretum renovation project—conceived by Seattle Parks and Recreation, the UW Botanic Gardens, and Arboretum Foundation—is aimed at enhancing safety and providing easier accessibility for children ages 2 to 5 Thanks to ..read more