Seattle Municipal Archives www.urbanhort.org HORTICULTURE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE OF FOREST RESOURCES WINTER 2003 2 SPECIAL EVENTS 7 VOLUNTEER NEWS AND OPPORTUNITIES 3 OLMSTED CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION (CONT'D) 8 CLASSES AND PROGRAMS 4 NEWS FROM CUH AND WPA 1 1 YOUTH AND FAMILY PROGRAMS 5 PLANT ANSWER LINE QUESTIONS 13 EVENTS CALENDAR 6 NEWS FROM THE ARBORETUM FOUNDATION 1 5 REGISTRATION FORM Celebrating the Centennial of Seattle’s Olmsted Park System KARI STILES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FRIENDS OF SEATTLE’S OLMSTED PARKS A century ago, city officials, community leaders and the citizens of Seattle recognized the value of their spectacular natural landscape. They invited the top landscape architectural firm in the country to design a city-wide park system that would celebrate, showcase and protect the spectacular Pacific Northwest landscape while providing access and opportunities for all of Seattle’s citizens to experience and enjoy their extraordinary natural environment. John Charles Olmsted, of the Olmsted Brothers firm of Brookline, MA. and stepson of Frederick Law Olmsted, arrived to survey the Seattle area in the spring of 1903. By October the firm had prepared plans and recommendations for a comprehensive system of parks and boulevards that has achieved national recognition as one of the most fully-realized Olmsted park systems in the country. The Olmsted legacy includes such familiar Seattle treasures as Washington Park and the Washington Park Arboretum, Lake Washington, Ravenna and Magnolia Boulevards, and Volunteer, Woodland, Green Lake and Seward Parks, as well as over 30 other Seattle area parks and boulevards. Even today, we are still acquiring and developing parklands recommended by the Olmsted plan 100 years ago. For example, the original plan recommended four parks along Lake Union. Within the last 23 years the city has acquired Gas Works Park, Fairview Park and most recently, South Lake Union Park. The Olmsted plan looked forward 100 years to provide open space for a city of 500,000. Seattle has now reached that mark, and today’s challenge is not only to protect and preserve our century-old legacy but also to carry the Olmsted philosophy into the next 100 years of landscape design and planning in order to ensure the preservation of open space in the century to come. Olmsted Centennial Celebration The Friends of Seattle’s Olmsted Parks (FSOP), Seattle Parks and Recreation Department, the Center for Urban Horticulture and over 35 entities are organizing a year-long series of events that will provide opportunities for community members and professionals to learn about and (continued on page 3) LU 0 c D I- _i D U H CH 0 X z < co cc D The new Merrill Hall still needs your support! For more information on the Merrill Hall Donor Tile Campaign, please visit the web site at www.urbanhort.org or phone 206-685-8033 for more information. Heronswood Nursery will open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday February 15, with an admission price of $7.50 per person, to benefit the Elisabeth C. Miller Library. Dan Hinkley will speak on hellebores and related topics, docents will assist as you wander through the winter gardens of Heronswood, and hellebores from the nursery breeding program will be for sale. For more information, phone 360-297-4172 or visit their website at www.heronswood.com. TENTIPSTO KEEPYOURTREES HEALTHY Chris Pfeiffer, horticulture consultant and former Arboretum horticuturist, will speak on cultural practices that ensure a long and healthy life for the trees in your landscape. PLANTINGTECHNIQUES FOR LONG-LIVED TREES AND SHRUBS Linda Chalker-Scott, Associate Professor of Landscape Science and Plant Management at CUH, will describe techniques to plant woody trees and shrubs to maximize their survival and well-being. DESIGNING THE HEALTHY GARDEN Daniel Winterbottom, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at UW, will focus on designing gardens to promote plant health and well-being of the gardener. PROVEN PLANTS FOR EASY-CARE GARDENS Librarian and garden writer Val Easton will discuss her favorite grasses, perennials, shrubs and trees and how to use them to form the backbone of an easy-care, environmentally-considerate home garden. HEALTHY ROSES, CHERRIES, RHODIES: IS IT POSSIBLE? Sharon Collman, IPM Outreach Coordinator for EPA Region 10, will speak with zest, humor, and enthusiasm on ways to manage these pest and disease prone plants. Free with admis o the Flo continued from page 1 celebrate Seattle’s Olmsted legacy and its contribution to the development of the Seattle urban landscape. Some of the 2003 event highlights include specific parks projects such as the Seattle Park Foundation project to restore the Volunteer Park lily ponds, the EarthCorps IvyOUT project in Olmsted landscapes, the Days in the Parks summer neighborhood park event series, and the National Association for Olmsted Parks annual conference in May. Throughout 2003 there will be events in Olmsted landscapes including walks, lectures, bicycle tours, work projects and community celebrations. For information about participating in or contributing to the Olmsted Centennial Celebration or the Seattle 2003 conference, you can reach FSOP by email at seattle2003@olmsted.org, by phone at 206-332-9913 or 206-250-5859, or visit us on the web at www.seattle.gov/friendsofolmstedparks. More information about Seattle’s Olmsted parks can be found on the Seattle Parks and Recreation park history website, http://www.pan.ci.seattle.wa.us/parks/parkspaces/olmsted.htm, and at the Olmsted Interpretive Exhibit at the water tower in Volunteer Park and the National Association for Olmsted Parks website: www.olmsted.org. 1903 CENTENNIAL 2003 CELEBRATING OUR OLMSTED LEGACY “I do not know of any place where the natural advan- tages for parks are better than here”. JC Olmsted upon his first visit to Seattle in May, I 903. The Arboretum’s Olmsted Heritage by John Wott, Director of Washington Park Arboretum In 1934, James Dawson was contracted through the generous donation of $3000 from the Seattle Garden Club to design a plan for the new Arboretum. He arrived in Seattle in November 1934 and made copious notes on top of the plan of Washington Park that the firm had used in 1905. Shortly thereafter, a news article stated that a taxonomic arrangement would be the basis of the plan, much as the Arnold Arboretum. The finished plan, signed by James Dawson and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr, arrived in 1936. Dawson was most enthused about Azalea Way, which would consist of a grassy promenade of cherries, dogwoods, and azaleas. He boastfully wrote that the planting “would certainly knock the famous Cherries along the river in Washington (D.C.) in the eye’’. To celebrate the centennial, Washington Park Arboretum is noting it in several ways. The Signature Bed, outside of the Graham Visitors Center, is being planted with plants most often seen in the Olmsted plans. Also the Arboretum Garden in the Northwest Flower and Garden Show will depict Olmsted plantings, the Arboretum Foundation will feature an Olmsted speaker in March, and a walking tour of Azalea Way is planned for May. Olmsted Describes Northwest Landscape John Charles Olmsted penned a letter to his wile on May 16, 1903 describing the Puget Sound landscape. Below is an excerpt (courtesy of the Francis Loeb Library at Harvard University): The apple trees and other fruits are about done blooming now. Lilacs are in full bloom but I don’t see as many big ones as we have.The blackberries, especially a low creeping one, are making a good show in banks in pastures and neglected places.The flowering dogwood is at its best and some trees make a tremendous show.The tree is generally much larger than ours and not so horizontal in branching.The mountain ash is in full bloom and so is the madrone.This last is evergreen. It is something like the evergreen magnolia we saw in the south but the leaves are smaller and a little paler and between the kaimia and rhododendron in size and shape. It is quite common in woods but seems never to be transplanted. Its bark is very smooth when the old part falls off, smelling as the sycamore does, and is a pale greenish scarlet verging toward salmon color. How’s that for a color? It is so smooth, that boys always cut their initials on it; it is ordinarily like a dogwood in size but some left from woods are 1 8" or 2 feet in diameter and 50 or 75 feet tall. Jones photoed two large ones last Sunday for me. I must remember to send you some bark. Ever your loving husband, John CENTER FOR URBAN HORTICULTURE WINTER 2003 News from CUH and WPA 4 Search for Plants via Library Website Let the Miller Library help you search for a favorite plant that just can’t be found at local nurseries. By going to www.millerlibrary.org > Resource Center > Sources for Plants, a range of plant finding tools for gardeners are available using the Internet, or from the library’s collection. Learn about a search engine devoted to mail-order catalogs, how to zero in on native plant nurseries, and find a book devoted to heirloom vegetable seeds. Urban Forestry Symposium Planned for March, 2003 On March 13 and 14, 2003, CUH will host a symposium titled “Tools and Techniques to Manage the Urban Forest.” Local and national speakers will address topics such as economics and the urban forest, urban wildland fires, the human dimensions of urban forest management, effects of global climate change, urban design in the era of endangered salmon, the Citrus Longhorn Beetle, and others. Co-sponsors include the UW College of Forest Resources, City of Bellevue, WA State DNR, and City of Seattle. Check the CUH website at www.urbanhort.org for a schedule, list of speakers, and for registration information. Monica Ravin Resigns from Arboretum WPA Education Coordinator Monica Ravin resigned in November to follow her husband to a new job in Arizona. Monica worked at the Arboretum for three years and ran the very successful Saplings Program that brought 2,300 elementary school children to the Arboretum each spring. We wish her the best of luck! McVay Courtyard is Renovated You may have noticed some landscape improvements recently in the McVay Courtyard. New plants came in, some old plants went out, and other plants got a make-over, resulting in a refurbished garden that follows the original design while providing additional year-round interest. The original intent of the McVay Courtyard, designed in 1985, was to provide a display of reduced maintenance ornamental grasses and grass- like plants together with companion plantings of trees and shrubs. The fernleaf fullmoon maples (Acer japonicum Aconitifolium’) grew robustly and eventually shaded out many of the ornamental grasses. In addition, children were being tempted to climb on the boulders and hang from the trees. Ray Larson, CUH graduate student and facilities coordinator, developed a curatorial plan that would rejuvenate the garden and discourage young visitors from climbing the trees. In the summer of 2002, volunteers Wendy DesCamp and Judy Duncan helped Larson renovate the site and install the new plants. Five new ornamental grasses were added, including orange sedge ( Carex testacea) and golden wood rush (Luzula sylvatica Aurea’). A blue leaved, fall flowering mahonia (Mahonia piperiana) was planted, as was a grouping of Hosta ‘June’, a sport of Hosta ‘Halcyon’ that was part of the existing plantings. Expanded plantings of black mondo grass were added to provide further color and texture. Our native cascade Oregon grape (Mahonia nervosa) was interplanted with existing sword ferns under the maples, and combined with a grouping of the fragrant winterbox (Sarcococca ruscifolia). Come by and see what has changed during your next visit to the Center! Plant Answer Line The Plant Answer Line is open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Call UW PLANT, 206-897-5268, or e-mail your question to: hortli b@u. wash ington.edu QUESTION: lam about to start a garden design project in Seattle on Puget Sound waterfront property. Does the city, county or state have guidelines or regulations about plant selection and if so, where can I find that information? ANSWER: The City of Seattle’s Department of Construction and Land Use (DCLU) “Director’s Rule 13-92’’ provides a comprehensive description of landscape requirements for public and private property. The document can be accessed at http:// www. ci. Seattle, wa. us/ dclu/ Codes/ dr/ DR1992-13.pdf. DCLU’s “Client Assistance Memo-234” provides, among other things, landscaping responsibilities of various City Departments and lists of recommended plants. It can be viewed at www.ci.seattle.wa.us/ dclulPublicationslcamlcam234.pdf. Lastly, the City of Seattle Landscape Architect’s Office reviews the design of landscaping for private developments. Their website is www.ci.seattle.wa.us/ td/landarch. asp. QUESTION: My lawn care company wants to kill some insects in our fruit trees with an insecticide, but I’m not convinced that they are harmful. They look exactly like brown lady bugs to me. Is there such a thing as a brown ladybug? ANSWER: Yes, there is a brown ladybug — the Hippodamia tredecimpunctata tibialis and, as most lady beetles, it is considered beneficial. Most species of lady beetles are among our most beneficial insects as they consume huge numbers of plant feeding insects — mostly aphids. This fact and their attractive appearance have contributed to the generally good opinion of them held by most people. For instance, the French call them les betes du bon Dieu or “creatures of the good God’’ and les vaches de la Vierge or “cows of the Virgin”. The Germans call them Marienkafer or “Mary’s beetles”. The appetite of lady beetles is quite remarkable. An adult female Convergent Lady Beetle may consume up to 73 aphids a day while the smaller male may consume up to 40. One larva may eat up to 350 aphids during its life span. QUESTION: I want to find the best roses for my garden. What are the different classifications of roses and what are the advantages of each kind? ANSWER: In recent years, several attempts have been made to pigeonhole all the rose varieties available into an array of different categories. There are three principal institutions that have attempted this exercise, all with varying degrees of success. • The World Federation of Rose Societies has produced the most comprehensive, descriptive and wordy list. However, it has very little relevance to practical use. • The American Rose Society has compiled a classification system that is closely allied to the requirements of exhibitors and compilers of rose show schedules. • The British Association Representing Breeders has published a list that is very relevant to hybridists. The Encyclopedia of Roses provides a simplified version of the World Federation of Rose Societies’ system that has been specifically designed to help the ordinary person answer some basic questions about the size, shape, growth habit and flowering of popular roses. SOURCES: Botanica’s Roses: The Encyclopedia of Roses foreword by David Austin; introduced by Tommy Cairns. New York: Welcome Rain, c!999. 5 m O O CN cC LU H z Ui