Staff Blog: Plant Happenings at the RSBG

By RSBG Assistant Nursery Manager Emily Joseph November, the month when even the drive along Weyerhauser Way invites you into the garden through a tunnel of deciduous color intermixed among a backdrop of evergreens. Native big leaf maples (Acer macrophyllum), vine maples (Acer circinatum), and black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) are ablaze in shades of yellow, […]

By RSBG Horticulturist and Assistant Curator Will Clausen October is here, and by now, the days are getting short, the sky cloudy and often heavy with rain, and in the garden, we start to see colors popping up where before everything was green. The month of fall color is finally upon us, a time of […]

By RSBG Assistant Nursery Manager Emily Joseph The sun-drenched days of summer have passed, ushering in cooler temperatures and welcome rain showers as the seasonal shift from summer to fall sneakily slides into view. Early signs of deciduous foliage gathering sugars and producing anthocyanins and carotenoids have begun (those red, orange, and yellow pigments that […]

Story and photos by RSBG Horticulturist & Assistant Curator, Will Clausen Throughout August, new Rhododendron leaves continue to emerge and mature as the relentless summer sun does its best to sear the garden. As the heat builds through the end of summer, the new growth is quickly becoming thicker and more adaptable to both the […]

Story and photos by RSBG Nursery Manager & Assistant Curator, Atsuko Gibson While our nursery specializes in species Rhododendron, we also propagate “companion plants” — the term we use for our non-rhododendron collection. We focus on plants that grow naturally alongside rhododendrons in the wild, as well as many other genera within the Ericaceae, the […]

July Story and photos by RSBG Assistant Nursery Manager, Emily Joseph Somehow, it always surprises me how much cooler it is beneath the shady canopy of the garden than just down the hill in the sun-soaked nursery. Yet it is a well-known fact that trees provide a cooling effect that reduces the buildup of heat […]

June Story and photos by Will Clausen June is a month of transition in the garden. Even though peak flowering has passed for rhododendrons, there are still plenty of species that put on their show at this time of year, and a few that will wait for an even later date. And of course, we […]

April by Will Clausen The beginning of April brings us near the end of the first big wave of color at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden. Thankfully, the second wave should get going just as the early flowers fade away. It has been an exceptional spring for flowers throughout the garden so far and as […]

March by Emily Joseph March at the garden is a month most known for its variable precipitation, temperature swings, and for being the reason we check the 10-day forecast repeatedly. Frequently extolled in weather lore and age-old adages, it seems like a time-honored tradition for the weather to fluctuate without any predictability. Yet, the balance […]

February By Will Clausen February might seem like just another winter month to some, but at the RSBG February means spring is already here. Flowers are starting to brighten up the garden, though sometimes winter weather sneaks through the gate. Rutherford Conservatory It is a short walk from the Visitor Center to the Conservatory, and […]

January By Emily Joseph Seasonal Interest: Often labeled as the dead of winter, January probably ranks as the month of least interest in the minds of most botanical garden visitors. Yet amidst the quiet cold, bastions of the winter botanical world are showing off structure, spectacular bark, and swelling buds about to break, giving life […]

Download pdf:    Species-Profile-R.-nakaharae-by -Adam-Duell By Adam Duell This plant is  available for purchase   in the Spring 2023 Catalog. Rhododendron nakaharae is a very compact creeping evergreen azalea. With a typical maximum height of around 1 foot it is most suitable as a ground cover, rock garden, or container plant. Its small size also […]

If you’ve been to our alpine garden, you have probably noticed the most fantastic (possibly the best you have ever seen) display of Adiantum aleuticum var. subpumilum. This plant is basically a dwarf version of our Western Maidenhair fern, Adiantum aleuticum, but only reaching 6 to 8 inches in height. Due to its compactness, it […]

by Britt Board   Hi, my name is Britt and I’m not a plant expert.  I am but a lowly plant appreciator and part of the administrative team at the RSBG. Since I started in 2018, I’ve been fixing my coworkers with confused stares and asking lots of questions to help me better understand the […]

by Will Clausen In cold midwinter when little else is astir and most of the plants in the garden are in survival mode, one species of rhododendron is ready to burst into a cloud of pink. Rhododendron dauricum is a semi-evergreen thicket-forming shrub native to northeast Asia from Mongolia and northern China east into Siberia, Korea, […]

by  Atsuko Gibson I think we all remember when we saw a Himalayan Blue Poppy for the first time. For me, it was in Scotland, where I spent 3 months for my horticultural internship in 2008. Since then, I have been drawn to the clear sky-blue flowers every time I have seen them, just like you. Upon my return from the internship, […]

by Atsuko Gibson Over the years, I seem to get an increasing number of inquiries for small growing rhododendrons. When I get these questions, I have certain rhododendrons in mind to recommend, depending on the availability in our nursery. R. keiskei  ‘Yaku Fairy’ and many of the alpine rhododendrons are my usual recommendation, but for […]

by Jillian Demus Sarracenia species, or North American pitcher plants, is a favorite genus of mine – stemming from my love of the harsh and rugged peatland ecosystems. To begin with, a peatland is an accumulation of organic matter due to incomplete decomposition. Like all wetlands, peatlands recycle nutrients, trap eroding soil, filter out polluting […]

By Will Clausen, Gardener at the RSBG Pushing through the layer of accumulated forest duff, leaves folded into pleated spirals with fine hair fringing their margins, the emerging mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) is a reassuring sign of spring. Growth progresses quickly as temperatures warm and days lengthen. The leaves unfurl and expand, gathering steam and becoming […]

by Jillian Demus Rhodora is native to Pennsylvania and New Jersey northward to Ontario, Quebec and the Canadian Maritimes. The name comes from the old genus name, Rhodora, when it was thought to be in its own genus due to the odd, tubeless flowers. In the wild, this azalea blooms in early-late May and mid-June […]