Flying Dragons and Demure Crocuses

Flying Dragon at the Center for Urban Horticulture

There is not that much going on in the winter gardens at the Center for Urban Horticulture.  Or rather, it’s more likely that there is a lot going on, but I just don’t have the training and vision to see it.

Nonetheless, on this most recent visit, my eyes were caught by the calligraphic lines of the Flying Dragon plant.  The curling, thorny branches very much evoked the feel of a mythical Chinese dragon.

Flying Dragon branches

And, of course, I was also captivated by the crocuses, poking up demurely from the garden beds.

Crocuses, Center for Urban Horticulture

Crocuses poking up through the mulch

A February Walk in the Union Bay Natural Area

Union Bay Natural Area, Seattle

I took a short ramble through the Union Bay Natural Area on Lake Washington south of University Village.  There is a puddly loop trail through a wetland area.  It was pretty quiet on this winter afternoon.

These dried seed heads were the most predominant plant in the area.

Dried stalk

Reflections

Stalk silhouettes

Back lit stalks

Backside view

Tree Watching around Green Lake (2)

Giant "patriarch" trees near the tennis courts (cypress or cedars?)

Green Lake has some really giant trees, like this cluster of three near the tennis courts.  I don’t know if they are Western Red Cedars or Sawara cypresses.  It’s trees like these that call to mind soaring cathedrals.

Tall, tall tree

Three massive trunks

Soaring grove of trees at Green Lake

And this nut tree stands right by the exit to the parking lot by the Aqua Theater.  I don’t know what kind of nuts these are.  It looks like the old ones are popped and empty, and new ones are starting to grow.

Old nuts

The nuts grow in dense clusters

New growth

 

 

Tree Watching around Green Lake (1)

According to local tree expert, Arthur Lee Jacobson, there are over 160 different kinds of trees at Green Lake Park.  In 1992, Jacobson wrote Trees of Green Lake, in which he provides “prose portraits” as an introduction to these trees.  I armed myself with this book on a recent walk around the lake.  The book was helpful, but what I needed was a map locating and identifying the trees around the lake.  I finished my self-guided tour wondering if I was matching the right trees with their descriptions.

I’ve decided I need to watch for one of Jacobson’s guided walks and sign up!

Still, there is a lot happening with Green Lake’s trees.  Take this Atlas Cedar, for example (or maybe it’s a Cedar of Lebanon) on the east side of the lake.  It is a huge tree, with so much to see!  Jacobson says it hails from the “snow-clad Atlas Mountains of Algeria and Morocco” and differs from “other trees called cedars in that they bear needles , not scalelike miniature leaves.”  I loved how the needles formed in clusters that line the branches.

There were plenty of cones, but the ones that had fallen left these pointy stems.

Cones and stems left behind

Cone with pieces about to fall off the top

The lawn under the tree was littered with pieces of broken cones

Some of the pieces got caught in the needles

I didn't know what these were. Possibly new cones? They looked like brown caterpillars.

And I loved this cone on another Atlas Cedar on the west side of the lake:

Atlas Cedar cones, opened and closed

 

 

A February Face

So much going on in our February sky

“Why, what’s the matter,
That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?”
– William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing

I love this mention of a “February” face.  Can’t you just picture it?  So full of fleeting, stormy emotions.  Just like our February skies.

Dramatic, dark gray cloud amidst a paler blanket of gray

I love the glowing light of the sun on these gray-sky days.

Tree Watching in Seattle: Thwarted!

Posted signs on my "adopted" horse chestnut trees

My “adopted” horse chestnut trees are slated for removal!  The property owner wants to get rid of them because they are too close to the power lines and apparently planted too closely together.  I am sad that I won’t get to watch these trees come into leaf.

Bud of horse chestnut tree

The buds on the horse chestnut trees are still not showing much action, although I did notice that they are very sticky to the touch.

Meanwhile, the buds on “my” maple trees are starting to fatten just a tiny bit.

Buds of maple tree

And the willow tree is still bursting with pussy willows.

Branch of "my" willow tree

Thoreau Thursdays (45): Expecting Birds to Sing

“How can you expect the birds to sing when their groves are cut down?”
– Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Wintering robin on the apple tree outside my window

I like to think of Thoreau the bird-watcher.  His world around Walden’s Pond was filled with the sights and sounds of birds, and many of his writings noted their activity.  He came up with some very imaginative descriptions, for example the barred owl as “winged brother of the cat” or, “The hawk is the aerial brother of the wave . . . “

I don’t see many bird species in the city of Seattle.  I am at a disadvantage as a bird-watcher because I have significant hearing loss and I can’t hear most bird songs anymore.  But I try to pay attention.  The two most common birds in my life are crows and gulls.

Crow with blue-black feathers at Green Lake

Urban crow

California gull with distinctive dark ring on beak and polka-dot wing tips.

Thoreau was an early ecologist, and he very aptly linked the loss of habitat with the eventual decline of bird populations.  We’d do well to heed his cautionary quote.

Mystery Plant

While I was out and about looking for early crocuses, I came across this dense patch of blooming bulbs (or possibly corms).  The petals resemble irises, but the plants were dwarfs, no taller than crocuses.  I can’t recall seeing them before.  But they are very pretty!

Do you know what they are called?

Dense, early blooms

Tightly wrapped bulbs and freshly opened flowers in the same bed

The colors of Spring

Ground-level view

First Crocuses

I’ve been watching for the first crocuses of the year, and I finally found them — no farther away than my next-door neighbor’s parking strip!  Then I found another cluster on a walk around Green Lake.  They always signal to me the end of Winter and the coming of Spring.

First golden crocuses in my neighbor's parking strip

A patch of pastel purple crocuses at Green Lake

Botanical print of crocuses from Kohler's Mediznal-Pflanzen

(The source of good botanical prints is Botanicus.org.)

Witch Hazel

The witch hazel is blooming, mostly in yellow, but some pink, too.

Witch hazel adding a touch of yellow to our gray winter days.

Witch hazel bloom

Witch hazel in bloom at Green Lake

Pink witch hazel?

Another bush with witch hazel blooms and old leaves

Still life with witch hazel and old leaf

Watercolor sketch of witch hazel and leaf