Oct 17: Gateway to Chile opening features guided tours & live Chilean music & dance
The Arboretum Foundation, Seattle Parks and Recreation, and UW Botanic Gardens invite you to the free opening celebration and ribbon cutting for the new Gateway to Chile display garden at the south end of Washington Park Arboretum Oct. 17, 1:00-4:00 PM. Part of the Pacific Connections Garden, the half-acre Gateway to Chile features trees such as the monkey puzzle (Araucaria araucana), Chilean wine palm (Jubaea chilensis), winter’s bark (Drimys winteri var. andina) and Chilean fire bush (Embothrium coccineum) planted among the hillside boulders of the restored Holmdahl Rockery. The opening celebration features guided tours, live music by Chilean folk group Sin Fronteras, dance by Chilean folk troupe Violeta Parra and a a ribbon cutting ceremony. For more information, call 206-325-4510.

UW Botanic Gardens full of family delights
Young Gardeners Story Time resumes Sept. 25 in the Miller Library with stories and garden collage-making to inspire your child's imagination, 10:30-11:15 AM, free.

During Park in the Dark Sept. 25, 6:45-8:15 PM, your child will use "deer ears" to hear night sounds in the Arboretum. Register for Park in the Dark: 206-543-8801 or email, $6/adult, children are free.

Free children's activities start at 11:00 AM Oct. 3 on the Graham Visitors Center patio during the Arboretum Foundation's Fall Bulb & Plant Sale.

Image courtesy of Jenn Leach

Brugmansia versicolor,
Copyright Kathleen McKeehen,
All Rights Reserved

Lichens courtesy of FCIT

Would you be likin' lichens, art or gardening?
These classes are at the Center for Urban Horticulture except for Cemetery Lichens. Register online, call 206-685-8033 with a credit card, or mail the registration form.

The small class size of our Digital Photograhy Workshop assures you of receiving individual attention & answers to all your questions as Jenn Leach instructs you through lectures, field practice and reviews Sept. 25, 9:00 AM-4:00 PM. Workshop covers photo processing and editing, too.

In Botanical Drawing I: Introduction to Drawing Botanical Forms, you'll learn how to observe and draw botanical forms under the skilled guidance of Kathleen McKeehen during 5 Thursday classes starting Sept. 30, 7:00–9:30 PM. Kathleen's work is widely published in magazines, children's books and botanical plates for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

So you want to include everything from water features to tomatoes in your small garden and still have a place to sit down? Seattle-based garden writer Marty Wingate will show you how in Small Garden Design Oct. 19, 7:00-8:30 PM. (Early Bird deadline Oct. 12.)

Whether you grow veggies, ornamentals or Northwest natives, the right soil is essential. In Meet Your Garden Soil: Up Close and Personal, WSU Extension Urban Horticulturist Linda Chalker-Scott shows you the characteristics of ideal landscape soils and explains how urban garden soils compare Oct. 26, 7:00-8:30 PM. Bring a sample of your own soil to test, and prepare to get your hands dirty! (Early Bird deadline Oct. 19.)

When your friends ask you what you did for Halloween, you'll be able to tell them you hunted for lichens in a cemetery! Get your weekend off to a fascinating start at Mount Pleasant Cemetery with Cemetery Lichens Oct. 30, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM, with Dr. Katherine Glew, the Burke Museum's lichen expert. (Early Bird deadline Oct. 27.)

Oct 2: Take a walk on the wild side
See how UW students and faculty turned what once was a landfill into a beautiful restoration site that attracts more than 200 species of birds and other wildlife. Adults and families are invited to take a Walk on the Wild Side with UW Botanic Gardens faculty member Kern Ewing through the Union Bay Natural Area—a 70-acre outdoor classroom, green space and wildlife habitat area at the Center for Urban Horticulture—Oct. 2 from 10:00 AM-12:00 PM. You'll also take a peek at the new Yesler Swamp Trail, which you might enjoy exploring further after the tour. The Walk on the Wild Side is free, but please RSVP to Jean Robins at 206-685-8033 or urbhort@uw.edu. Rain or shine! So dress for the weather, and wear comfortable walking shoes.

Oct 8: Reception showcases Vorobik's botanical art
Dr. Linda Ann Vorobik, professional botanist and botanical artist, is the principal illustrator for botanical publications such as Flora of North America Volume 25 (Grasses) and The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California. Her upcoming exhibit in the Miller Library Oct 4-Nov 29 features tools and methods used in creating her illustrations, books featuring her work, her pen and ink drawing of a new species named in her honor, pen and ink plates used in floras, and watercolors of ferns, orchids, native plants and flowers from her late mother’s garden. (This show is dedicated to the memory of Ruth Vorobik, long-time Arboretum Society member and member of the Arboretum Journal’s Editorial Board.) Meet Dr. Vorobik during a free public reception Oct. 8, 5:00-7:00 PM in the Miller Library.

Oct 13: ProHort class focuses on weeds
WSU Extension Weed Specialist Tim Miller teaches basic weed identification, management and control from 10:00 AM-12:15 PM at the Center for Urban Horticulture. Emphasis is on western Washington's common weeds found in ornamental landscapes. Class fee is $40. The class is designed for plant professionals, but it's open to anyone interested in learning how to identify and manage weed species. WSDA and CPH credits pending. To register, call 206-685-8033 or email.

Courtesy of FCIT

Oct 28: Can you find the fungus among us?
During "The Fungus Among Us," small teams of mushroom hunters will work under the guidance of the Puget Sound Mycological Society in 2 to 3-hour shifts to inventory all of the mushroom species they can find in specified areas of the Washington Park Arboretum. You're invited to participate, and drop-ins are welcome! This family-friendly Bioblitz: Fungi Edition will last from 10:00 AM-10:00 PM. Much of the identification will take place after sundown. For more information, call Patrick Mulligan at 206-616-3381 or email simsigan@uw.edu.

September plant profile:
Begonia grandis 'Heron's Pirouette'
[by Soest Gardener Riz Reyes] Probably one of the most elegant of all late summer to fall-blooming perennials, this hardy begonia has been loved and admired by many avid gardeners since plantsman Dan Hinkley brought it back from Japan in 1997. It is somewhat late to emerge in the spring, and it grows from a hardy tuber. . . .The plant produces little baby bulbils on the nodes of the stems so there are always volunteers to share with gardening friends! For the complete narrative, a larger photo and details about growing the plant, see the complete plant profile.

Dec 4-5: Conference focuses on regional food security
During “Cultivating Community Food Security: Recent Research in Urban/Rural Food Systems,” co-hosted by the UW Botanic Gardens and Washington State University Extension, urban gardeners, agriculture organizations and policy-enacting legislators will consider emerging research on topics ranging from urban soils, food markets, urban/rural economic interdependence and public health. This two-day conference at the Center for Urban Horticulture will encourage collaboration to create a more sustainable regional food system. For more information, contact conference coordinator Karen Luetjen at 206-616-1569 or email.

twigs. . .
UW Botanic Gardens student Nate Hough-Snee presented a poster on the Union Bay Natural Area's restored E-5 parking lot at the Society of Wetland Scientists annual meeting in Salt Lake City, UT. Co-authors are UW Botanic Gardens faculty Kern Ewing and School of Forest Resources alumni Lexine Long and Lacey Jeroue. . . Newly-installed signs in the Soest Garden detail conditions of each bed. . .Hundreds of varieties of daffodils, tulips, crocuses, cyclamen and other bulbs will be available at the Arboretum Foundation’s Fall Bulb & Plant Sale Oct. 3-4, 10:00 AM-2:00 PM. . . Saturday hours have resumed at the Elisabeth C. Miller Library, 9:00 AM-3:00 PM. . .The theme of the guided morning Arboretum walks in October is Momijigari - Japanese for "fall color viewing”. . . Plant collection records of Washington Park Arboretum are available in a collaborative, evolving database headed up by Chicago Botanic Garden. You may access them from the Collections Database sidebar on UWBG's Plant Collections of the Arboretum web page. . . Coming up: the Elisabeth C. Miller Library's 25th Anniversary Open House Nov. 6.

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University of Washington Botanic Gardens' mission:
Sustaining managed to natural ecosystems and the human spirit
through plant research, display, and education.

3501 NE 41st Street, Box 354115, Seattle, WA 98195-4115
Phone 206.543.8616
Email: uwbg@u.washington.edu
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