Volume 2, Issue 10
Miller Library 30th Anniversary Celebration 

This year marks thirty years of service for the Elisabeth C. Miller Library! Stop by Wednesday, October 14, anytime between 3 and 7pm for refreshments and a chance to hear clips from our oral history collection. We'll also be featuring a display of rare books, a sneak peak at new titles in our children's collection, and a tour of our web resources.

Please say you'll come! RSVP to hortlib@uw.edu or (206)543-0415.

Ask the Plant Answer Line:
Can I move my Embothrium coccineum?

Q: Last year we had our beloved Embothrium coccineum removed and the stump ground after the wind blew over the tree. Now I have six new starts of Chilean Fire Bush ranging in size from one to three feet, which I assume are growing off a live root. I'd like to transplant them to more appropriate places in my yard, but the buyer at a local nursery advised against moving them. What can you advise me about transplanting?

A: The people at the nursery may be thinking of Embothrium's reputation for resenting transplanting. According to Graham Stuart Thomas's book, Ornamental Shrubs, Climbers, and Bamboos (Timber Press, 1992), Embothrium coccineum seldom thrives when transplanted. However, I think he is talking about the difficulty of transplanting a mature tree, not a small seedling. Simon Toomer's Trees for the Small Garden (Timber Press, 2005) confirms this: "It has a reputation for being difficult to transplant when large and so container-grown plants of moderate size should be used."

Local gardening expert Ciscoe Morris has said of Embothrium: "Only buy it if it's a small seedling. They hate pots and if they are pot-bound for very long, won't survive transplanting.” Since you have several starts, why not try transplanting at least one or two of them to an ideal spot in your garden? Try to get as much root system as you can when digging them up, and if more than one start comes up, don't try to cut them apart if it means you will lose any roots. (Read the full question and answer on our website.)

Hidden Gems of the Miller Library, Part I:
A Guide to the Wild Flowers (1899) and
Southern Wild Flowers and Trees (1901)
reviewed by Brian Thompson

In this ongoing series, Library staff share favorite finds from among the many diverse resources found here. 

Alice Lounsberry and Ellis Rowan were a formidable botanist/botanical artist team at the turn of the twentieth century, exploring much of the east coast of America, describing and drawing their findings based on observations in situ. The Miller Library has two of their books, A Guide to the Wild Flowers (1899) and Southern Wild Flowers & Trees (1901). In the preface of the latter book, Lounsberry describes their methodology:

 “To learn something of the history, the folk-lore and the uses of southern plants and to see rare ones growing in their natural surroundings, Mrs. Rowan and I travelled in many parts of the south, exercising always our best blandishments to get the people of the section to talk with us. Through the mountainous region we drove from cabin to cabin, and nowhere could we have met with greater kindness and hospitality.”

New to the Library September 2015

Pollinator sampling and habitat restoration / by Cameron John Newell. THESIS NEWELL 2015