A visit to Seattle's Volunteer Park Conservatory

It was a rainy February afternoon in Seattle, and I was done with the NWFG Fest (but not done with plants—duh) so I decided to visit an old haunt, the Volunteer Park Conservatory on Capitol Hill. I lived just about 4 blocks away for several years and walked through the conservatory regularly. 

The statue in front of the conservatory is of William Henry Seward. Seward was the United States Secretary of State who negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia. Seattle's Seward Park is also named after this man. Why is Seattle so hot to honor a Senator and Governor from New York? Well from what I understand Seattle wouldn't be the metropolis it is, if not for the fact it became a thru point for goods heading to Alaska.

Just inside the door there was a great display of large staghorns, they were at a level you could look down on them, rather then up.

That gave an entirely new perspective!

Another part of the display, unfortunately these were hard to photograph well.

Onto (more) ferns and bromeliads!

I love a good climbing nepenthes.

As well as ferns in the sky.

Ceratostema rauhii, a tropical blueberry relative from Peru.

Wow, check out the spores on that platycerium…

They looked like they'd been dipped in a thick sticky cinnamon mix.

Lots of bromeliads to love...

Deuterocohnia lorentziana, a terrestrial bromeliad from Bolivia.

A close-up.

Ficus aspera, the mosaic fig.

I can only assume these are volunteers, ferns that have grown from spore moving around in the air? I’m so glad they were left in place.

On to the desert wing…

That big fellow is labeled as a crested Euphorbia lactea.

Kumara plicatilis, formerly Aloe plicatilis.

Another Deuterocohnia, I believe this one is D. brevifolia.

This hanging business caught my eye and gave me major flashback vibes, to 2013 actually, and the planters Andrew made to hanging in a long ago office (here). 

Then there is this…

Looking longingly at the off-limits greenhouses behind the conservatory I spotted an agave appendage laying on the lawn, sort of like it was placed there. I joked on Instagram that it looked like someone laid it down hoping it would sprout babies, like opuntia leaves do if placed on the ground. Haha, funny right? But Mr. Agave commented: “It is curious. You know, I saw a Japanese gardener that I follow do this with A. titanota leaves and he swears that he gets pups from it. There were dozens of comments saying that it's impossible and a few saying that it's not. I'm no expert so I divert to the experts who say that it's not possible but still, I see it occasionally as something that is possible. I would think that of the thousands of discarded agave leaves in my pile, one would have pupped by now if it were possible.” 

Never say never?

Here’s the agave that lost an arm to the experiment (if that’s even what’s going on).

And it’s super fuzzy friend…

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