Arborists & Gardeners
Funding garden maintenance and tree care
By becoming a member of the Arboretum Foundation or making a donation, you play a vital role in preserving and enhancing the Washington Park Arboretum for current and future generations. The Foundation supports the maintenance of the Arboretum’s plant collections, gardens, and natural areas in the following key ways.
- Funding the UW Botanic Gardens staff arborists, who keep the Arboretum’s woody plant collections healthy, safe, and vigorous.
- Funding the salaries and benefits of the two UW Botanic Gardens horticulturists who care for the Pacific Connections Garden in the Arboretum.
- Funding temporary gardeners assigned to special projects, such as the restoration of the Lake Washington Boulevard Corridor.
- Coordinating the Garden Stewards program, which recruits and trains volunteers to assist horticulture staff with weeding, mulching, and other tasks.
- Coordinating the Corporate and Group Service Program, which recruits volunteers from local businesses and community groups to participate in weeding and mulching work parties.


Humor: The Garden is a Dangerous Place
Sep 20, 2023
Gardening is a scary pastime, or so writer Barbara Blossom Ashmun claims in her article in the latest Arboretum Bulletin. In her many years as a garden professional and hobbiest, she has been attacked by bald-faced hornets, poisoned by plant sap, sent to ER because...

Bigleaf Maple: A Native Tree With Much to Offer!
Aug 19, 2023
As the warmth of summer fills our days, the canopy cover of trees provides welcome respite from the heat. With a spreading crown and thick branches covered with a profusion of foliage, mosses, lichens and ferns, the bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) stands out as a...

Marvelous Woody Mints of the Arboretum
Jul 25, 2023
The mint family, Lamiaceae, is a familiar one for gardeners. We plant lots of low-growing herbaceous plants from this group - such as salvias, basil, and bee balm - in our kitchen gardens and ornamental borders. But you may be surprised to learn that the family also...
“Thank you so, so much for all your work maintaining the arboretum — it is a beautiful refuge that I have been lucky enough to visit every week during lockdown… Every time I visit I discover something new and see the care that the gardeners have taken. I wish I could give more, but hopefully this helps get you to your goal”
—Anna