The Ornamental Border at Bradner Gardens Park: June 2013

Friday, June 28, 2013

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Roses in the Ornamental Border

Rosa rugosa 'Blanc Double de Coubert'. May 2013. Located in the Sensory Garden.

Rosa rugosa 'Hansa'. May 2013. Located in the Winter Garden.

These are Hybrid Rugosas. Derived from Rosa rugosa from Japan and Korea beginning in the 1880s, these vigorous roses are extremely hardy with excellent disease resistance. Most are extremely fragrant, repeat bloomers with moderately double flat flowers. The defining characteristic of a Hybrid Rugosa rose is its wrinkly leaves, but some hybrids do lack this trait. These roses will often set hips.

Rosa 'Compte de Chambord'. June 2013. Located in the Sensory Garden. This is a Portland Rose. This group of roses was named after the Duchess of Portland who received (from Italy about 1775) a rose then known as Rosa paestana (now known simply as 'The Portland Rose'). The whole class of Portland roses was developed from that one rose. The first repeat-flowering class of rose with fancy European-style blossoms, the plants tend to be fairly short and shrubby, with a suckering habit, with proportionately short flower stalks. The main flowering is in the summer, but intermittent flowers continue into the autumn.

Rosa 'Kathleen'. May 2013. Located in the Fragrance Garden. This is a Hybrid Musk Rose used as a climber on the trellis. Although they arose too late to qualify technically as Old Garden Roses, the hybrid musks are often informally classed with them, since their growth habits and care are much more like the Old Garden Roses than Modern Roses. The hybrid musk group was mainly developed by Joseph Pemberton, a British rosarian, in the first decades of the 20th century. Hybrid Musks are disease-resistant, repeat flowering and generally cluster-flowered, with a strong, characteristic scent. The stems tend to be lax and arching, with limited thorns.

Rosa 'Königin von Dänemark' (Queen of Denmark). June 2013. Located in the Sensory Garden. This is an Alba Rose. Alba Roses are derived from Rosa arvensis and the closely allied Rosa x alba. The latter species is a hybrid of Rosa gallica and Rosa canina. This group contains some of the oldest garden roses. The shrubs flower once yearly in the spring or early summer with scented blossoms of white or pale pink. They frequently have gray-green foliage and a vigorous or climbing habit of growth. Königin von Dänemark (1826) is one of the few pink albas and one of the most popular.

Unidentified Rose. May 2013. Located in the Butterfly & Hummingbird Garden.

Ornamental Border History

Planting of the ornamental border began in 1998. Before the first planting, native soil was amended with Cedar Grove compost and Smith Dairy manure.

King County Master Gardeners designed 7 theme gardens. Each garden was scaled to fit into smaller urban residential yards & featured a selection of trees, shrubs & perennials to demonstrate the right plant for the right place, low maintenance & a variety of irrigation systems. The gardens provided living examples for Master Gardener lectures, demonstrations & workshops.

From north to south, then west, the 7 gardens are the Winter Garden, Sensory Garden, Native Garden, Dry Garden, Butterfly & Hummingbird Garden, Shade Garden & Fragrance Garden.

Over time, the irrigation system was converted entirely to drip because it worked the best on the sloping beds. It was decided to use no irrigation starting in 2012.

King County Master Gardeners left Bradner Gardens in 2008. Presentations & demonstration mostly ceased after that point. But in more recent years, the border had only been used for workshops on drip irrigation. Plant Amnesty conducted a pruning class in 2012, when several overgrown trees & shrubs were pruned. General maintenance was transferred to volunteers from the Bradner Gardens P-Patch.

Bradner Gardens has the first arboretum of small trees that fit along streets under utility lines & in smaller urban yards. The collection features both deciduous & evergreen trees. Many were anticipated to grow to a mature height of 20 to 30 feet.

Planted as part of the Seattle Millennium/Woods Legacy celebration in 2000, these trees are located throughout the park, including the ornamental border. Tree Stewards worked with Seattle City Light & the City Arborist to select more than 40 appropriate trees for display.

For the original installation, lists were submitted to King County Master Gardener clinics to get donations from gardeners. Plants were also donated by the Washington Park Arboretum Foundation from the Pat Calvert Nursery & from Seattle Parks and Recreation. Most of the trees were obtained through the Seattle Millennium Tree Project and Seattle City Light. Some plants were also purchased with grant money.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Sensory Garden Plant List

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Roses in the Ornamental Border