The Osoberry that I added to the native plant garden last spring is blooming! I didn’t expect it to have flowers when it is only a few feet tall. The grace of the drooping flower buds below expanding leaf buds never fails to impress me.
I also found larger plants blooming in my travels this week.
Another beautiful native that I stumbled upon at Shoreview Park is the salmonberry.
My own salmonberries are likely too young to flower, but maybe next year.
I played tennis at the Amy Yee Tennis Center today and I got there early and couldn’t go inside due to COVID protocols, so I wandered the grounds. This City of Seattle facility is on a big piece of land that is only partly being utilized for outdoor and indoor courts. Years ago a plan was made to expand the outdoor courts and add a parking lot on the upper level, but it hasn’t happened yet.
There are some great spaces right now that are just overgrown grass and weeds and a few native/non-native shrubs (Mahonia, Arctostaphylos, and Berberis). My grand idea is to talk to the City to see if these barren spaces could be upgraded with native trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals. I’m not sure there would be any City budget money to do this, but I know I could drum the money up from grants or donations. And there are a lot of compelling reasons for the City to do it–less maintenance, more beautiful, nature-friendly space, and maybe an educational element could be added for kids.
I’ll start researching this possibility and we’ll see how hard it is to make changes to park’s properties, since there are a LOT of them locally that could be added to Homegrown National Park.