Tuesday, April 8, 2008
The
Rhododendron Botanical Gardens was formed in 1964 in order to collect the
finest Rhododendron species. That year Dr. Milton Walker visited numerous
gardens in England and got cuttings. Unable to import the cuttings to the US he
sent them to U. of British Columbia which propagated them for the Rhododendron
Species Foundation.
George Weyerhaeuser accepted the request to place the collection on its new
corporate campus. The company granted 24 acres for a permanent site in 1974 and
also provided the main service road, pathways, and irrigation system. Most of
the rhodies are hybrid and exhibit an enormous diversity of color, bark texture
size, leaf shape and time of flowering.
The Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection is open for your self-guided walk through an outdoor museum of living
art. More than 50 Bonsai are displayed
in a woodland setting with some trees more than 500 years old.
Fred Whitney and his wife, Ann, reside near Kent with two and a half acres containing a
collection of 2500 rhododendrons. Fred
is currently on a two year tour as President of the American Rhododendron
Society with a membership of 4500. He is past president of The Rhody Species Foundation. He is a
retired Boeing executive and has traveled to many of the rhododendron growing
regions of the world.
Melissa McGinnis will share with the class the history
of Pt. Defiance Park, Tacoma’s largest and one of its oldest. In 1888 the City
of Tacoma received permission from the federal government to develop the 600
acres of Point Defiance into a park. In 1905 formal title to the acreage was
turned over to Tacoma. Since that time much has changed but much has stayed the
same—the gardens, boathouse, marina and zoo date from the park’s first days. If
approval and money become available Point Defiance will see improved changes
throughout the park—viewpoints, Five Mile Drive, Owens Beach, Peninsula Park, a
Waterfront Promenade, along with roads and trails.
Kathy Sutalo will give the class an idea of the vegetation
communities within the old forest to see how
they differ within the site and why. Learn what constitutes “old growth
forest” and how the uses within and around the forest can impact its nature.
Melissa McGinnis is Metro Park’s Cultural and Historic
Resource Manager. She is co-author of Tacoma’s Parks, which is a photographic history for
Metro Parks centennial in 2007. She has a B. A. in history from the University
of West Florida.
Kathy Sutalo is Metro Park’s urban forester. She has a B. S. in
forestry from UW and has been working in urban ecology for 20 years.
April 30—POETRY: JUST FOR
FUN
APRIL IS NATIONAL POETRY
MONTH-Let’s celebrate it!
Where: Garfield Book Co.-Garfield St & Pacific-Fireside Room
Celebrate National Poetry Month with an informal time to hear and read poetry and share your poetry stories.
Governor
Gregoire recently announced Samuel Green as the first Washington Poet Laureate
for a two-year term beginning January 2008. Green’s new book, The Grace of Necessity, has been recently published.