Arboretum Foundation

The Arboretum is a magical venue for weddings. Congratulations to all of this year’s happy couples, some of whom are pictured here.

We’re booking now for the 2027 season.

More details and contact info: https://botanicgardens.uw.edu/washington-park-arboretum/visit/wisteria-hall-weddings-events/wisteria-hall-weddings-mitzvahs/

Thanks to our wonderful local wedding photographers (and the happy couples) for letting us feature their pics!

A nice piece by KING 5 Evening Magazine about the new Ishigaki wall at the Seattle Japanese Garden in the Arboretum.

Seattle Japanese Garden's Ishigaki Wall receives timeless upgrade Master stonemasons used centuries-old techniques to construct the s...

HELPING RECOVER NORTH AMERICA’S RAREST FIR!

In late August, our arborists Shea Cope and Lincoln Erbeck climbed a 108-foot Santa Lucia fir (Abies bracteata) in the Arboretum to collect seed cones from the top of the tree. The cones were sent to conservation partners in California’s central coast to help with restoration of wild populations of the species.

Santa Lucia fir is the rarest fir species in North America. It grows in only one place on Earth: the cool canyons and windswept ridges of the northern Santa Lucia Mountains above Big Sur. Because of its restricted range, fragmented populations, and susceptibility to fire, the species is classified as “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

In 2020, the Dolan Fire severely damaged two significant groves of Santa Lucia fir near Cone Peak, a mountain on the Big Sur coast. In response, a local nonprofit, the Ventana Wilderness Alliance, started an initiative in partnership with Arboretum & Botanic Garden to collect seed from mature, cone-bearing trees near Cone Peak, with the goal of growing seedlings off site and planting dozens of young trees back at the two fire-impacted groves.

This year’s Timber Fire hampered seed collection, so the partners turned to botanic gardens for help. The Washington Park Arboretum has three mature specimens of Santa Lucia fir, and luckily this year they produced a heavy cone crop! The tree Shea and Lincoln climbed up dates to 1949 and came to us as seed sourced in the wild from the Santa Lucia Mountains. Hopefully the seeds we sent will help with recovery efforts!

Safeguarding imperiled plant species through off-site (or “ex-situ”) conservation is a key function of botanic gardens. At Seattle Botanic Gardens, stewardship means caring not only for the plants in our own collections but also showing up for fellow botanic gardens and conservation organizations when they need a hand.

READ FULL STORY: https://arboretumfoundation.org/2026/09/09/santa-lucia-fir/

How many sunflower seeds can you fit in a Mason jar? Turns out, around 7,400! (See photo 2.)

At our recent Volunteer Appreciation Party, Plant Program volunteer Val Batey came the closest to guessing the total (her estimate: 8,000), so we stopped by the Pat Calvert Greenhouse to deliver her prize!

Val is one of the many volunteers who help make our Plant Program possible, and today (Saturday, Sept 19, 10am to 2pm) these volunteers will be helping host our Fall Plant Sale at the Arboretum.

Come see what they’ve been growing and find something new for your garden!

MORE DETAILS: https://arboretumfoundation.org/events/fall-plant-sale/

Our wonderful Plant Program volunteers working hard to prep for the Fall Plant Sale taking place at the Arboretum this Saturday, September 19, from 10am to 2pm.

ENJOY 25% OFF ALL PLANTS!

We’ll have a unique selection of trees, shrubs, and perennials available. The sale will also feature a pop-up gift shop, live harp music by Leslie McMichael, and a community tabling event hosted by WSU Extension King County Master Gardeners, PSBA, our own environmental education staff, and more.

All sales benefit core programs at .

MORE DETAILS: https://arboretumfoundation.org/events/fall-plant-sale/

Lichens are small but mighty symbiotic organisms (made up of a fungus plus an alga or a cyanobacterium, sometimes all three) that play an important role in ecosystems.

For example, as pioneer species, they colonize bare ground and make it habitable for plants. They help bind soil into stable aggregates, preventing soil erosion and water runoff. Some species are nitrogen fixers, adding a key plant nutrient to the soil. Lichens also provide food and nesting material for wildlife.

Lichens are found all around the Arboretum, on plants, soil, buildings, bridges, and even old cars in the parking lot. They come in various forms, most commonly foliose (leafy), fruticose (shrubby), and crustose (crusty).

UW lichenologist Dr. Katherine Glew leads regular tours of the lichens in the Arboretum. She has identified dozens of species here. In the latest issue of our Bulletin magazine, Dr. Glew writes about the biology and ecology of lichens and provides a short, easy, self-guided walking tour of lichens in the Arboretum.

Full article and tour: https://arboretumfoundation.org/2026/08/28/lichens-of-the-arboretum/

📷 All photos courtesy Richard Droker.

Late-summer floral highlights from around the Arboretum.

1. The sweet-scented flowers of rose glory bower (Clerodendrum bungeii) on Azalea Way, just north of the Woodland Garden pond. A medium-sized evergreen shrub native to Taiwan, Vietnam, and China, it is a woody member of the mint family. People are divided on the fragrance of the crushed foliage: Some compare it to peanut butter, while others draw comparisons to skunky burning rubber.

2. Franklin tree (Franklinia alatamaha) in the main Tea Family collection near the south end of Arboretum Drive. Related to camellias and stewartias, the Franklin tree was originally native to the U.S. Southeast but is now extinct in the wild.

3. Hydrangea aspera ssp. strigosa, from China, in the main hydrangea section in upper Rhododendron Glen. Sometimes treated as its own species, Hydrangea strigosa, it offers lots of lovely features including white, peeling bark; colorful stems covered in stiff hairs: and beautiful late-summer flowers. Our specimen is about 10 feet tall and was wild-sourced by Dan Hinkley in Sichuan Province in 1996.

4. A cultivated variety of the red-flowering bottlebrush, Callistemon subulatus ‘Dark Red’, in the Australia Entry Garden at Pacific Connections. The straight species is endemic to southeastern Australia and blooms from spring to summer. Callistemon comes from the Greek callos, meaning “beautiful” and stêma, meaning “stamen”, a reference to the showy staminate flowers. Some botanists now place the species within the genus Malaleuca.

5. A white-flowering variety of the chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus ‘Silver Spire’) blooming next to lower Woodland Garden pond along Azalea Way. The straight species, native to the Mediterranean, has lavender flowers. See our post from August 16.

6. Chinese mahonia (Berberis gracilipes), native to China, blooming along the Loop Trail in the future China Forest area. Spot the bald-faced hornet taking a little nectar break.

7. Western azalea (Rhododendron occidentale), native to Oregon and California, reblooming in the Cascadia Entry Garden at Pacific Connections.

This past Monday, volunteers from across came together at the Center for Urban Horticulture for our 2026 Volunteer Appreciation Party—a celebration of the people whose time, knowledge, curiosity, and support help make our gardens and programs possible.

This year’s theme, “Growing Connections,” felt especially meaningful as we begin our new chapter as Seattle Botanic Gardens. Volunteers joined us from programs and sites across the organization, bringing together people who may work in very different places and roles but are all contributing to the same growing community.

They enjoyed delicious Seattle-style hotdogs from DeezDogz, fun plant-themed activities, a giant Jenga, and lots of cake. A live illustrator captured moments, conversations, ideas, and themes as the afternoon unfolded, creating a visual record in real time, projected onto a large screen in NHS Hall. The finished illustration will become a traveling representation of how volunteers across our many programs and sites are collectively shaping the future of Seattle Botanic Gardens.

Seattle Botanic Gardens may be a new name, but the community behind it has deep roots. Our volunteers bring years of knowledge, relationships, stewardship, education, and creativity to this organization. As we grow, their experiences and voices aren’t simply part of the history we’re bringing with us. They’re helping us imagine what comes next.

Dear Arboretum visitors: This Monday, August 31, the Graham Visitors Center parking lot will be closed from 7am to 1pm while our horticulture staff prunes the trees overhanging the lot.

If traveling by car, you will need to use the gravel parking lots along Foster Island Road (just a short walk from the Visitors Center) while we complete this work.

We apologize for any inconvenience!

📷 Hummingbird fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica) blooming on the north side of the visitors center.

Colorful late-summer fruits from around the Arboretum.

1. White Chilean myrtle (Luma chequen) in the future Chilean Forest section along the Loop Trail. A large evergreen shrub from the Central Andes mountains of Chile and Argentina, it bears sweet-scented, cup-shaped white flowers in spring and summer that develop into edible purple fruits. The fruits have a pleasant, blueberry-like taste.

2. Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) in fruit at the north end of Azalea Way. A small tree native to southern Europe and southwestern Asia, it blooms early in spring, bearing tight clusters of tiny, star-shaped, bright-yellow flowers on bare branches. These develop into cherry-like red fruits that are edible when ripe but quite tart.

3. The developing, pine-cone-like fruits of Platycarya strobilacea in the walnut family (Juglandaceae) collection area along the Arboretum Loop Trail. A medium-sized deciduous tree native to mixed forests of East Asia, it produces erect, spiky, yellow male catkins and cone-like female catkins in summer. The female catkins mature to chestnut brown in fall as small, winged nutlets inside develop.

4. Though not considered toxic, the fruits of cucumber tree (Magnolia acuminata) are not recommended for chopping into your salad. Native to eastern North America, this magnolia is a large deciduous tree with handsome, yellow spring flowers. The fruits start out green (looking like small cucumbers) and mature to red.

5. Japanese mountain ash (Sorbus commixta), native to Japan, Korea, and the Russian Far East, in the Brian Mulligan Sorbus Collection. The small, apple-like fruits are edible raw or cooked, but they are tart. In Asia, they are traditionally used to make preserves or fermented into a country w**e.

6. Though they look like plums, the “fruits” of Florida torreya (Torreya taxifolia), a conifer from the U.S. Southeast, are technically female cones. They mature from a green to purple color. Each fleshy cone contains a single large seed that’s edible, however the species is critically endangered, so human consumption is not recommended.