Pickled cactus flowers and howling monkeys

Visiting the University of Washington Department of Biology Greenhouse on the UW campus in Seattle had been on my wishlist for years, however, since they’re only open to the public on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month, the timing had to be just right. I finally got to visit when I was up for the NWFG Festival in February. Here’s the building, see the greenhouses on the far right?

I'm working on a future post with lots of lust-inducing plant pics, but today I’m sharing one of the odder things I saw that day; alcohol preserved (pickled) cactus flowers…

The pickled flowers include Epiphyllum, Selenicereus, and Perekis aculeata and most of them date from 2022.

I tried to keep the labels and the photos in order as I photographed, but wasn't successful and I'm not going to attempt a matching game. Thus you just get to admire the floating flowers as art.

Leaving the greenhouses, and chatting with the volunteer on duty, I learned there was an old Medicinal Herb Garden on campus, just across the street, in the opposite direction from which I came.

Signage inside that blue building (above).

Since my visit was in February the garden wasn't at it's peak, so while looking around for things to photograph I first saw the Garrya elliptica (silk tassel bush), and then the monkeys... what the heck?

From the March 1997 University of Washington magazine: "They hear all evil and see all evil. Unfortunately, they have frequently been the victim of evil. In the 66 years they have rested atop twin 12-foot poles at the entrance of the UW’s Medicinal Herb Garden, two guardian monkeys have repeatedly been sitting ducks to vandals. They have been stolen, smashed, and even changed from wood to cement to make them more theft-proof. Only that didn’t work so well; while the cement monkeys were never stolen again, they were smashed and broken."

"Two-foot-tall gilded monkeys, carved by UW carpenters, were first placed atop ornate wooden poles in 1930 to keep a symbolic eye on the garden...The original wood-carved figures—said to be copied from Europe’s first medicinal botanical garden in Padua, Italy—lasted until the 1960s, when they rotted and were replaced by another set carved from cedar. In January 1987, one of those monkeys was stolen."

"Then, David Stone, a UW art graduate, was commissioned by the Friends of the Medicinal Herb Garden, to create a more theft-proof monkey made of cement. Using the remaining wooden monkey as his model, he recast two monkeys, similar to the 1960 simians, and they were dedicated in December 1987. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the solution. The following summer, someone, possibly using a sledge hammer, knocked one monkey off its pedestal and smash one of its legs. That required $500 worth of repairs. Only the 100-pound weight of the cement monkey may have prevented its disappearance." (source)

The garden itself dates to 1911 when it was created by the School of Pharmacy as a living laboratory. It was once the largest medicinal herb garden in the western hemisphere, of course most medicines are now synthetically created chemical compounds, rather than something created from herbs or natural ingredients.

Physalis peruviana, aka cape gooseberry or goldenberry.

I'd like to think I'll return in the growing season to see what the garden is like at its prime, however time is always an issue when I'm up in the Seattle area and there's never enough to do and see everything/everyone that I would like to.

Love the mossy platforms!

Opuntia engelmannii 

Dasylirion wheeleri

To receive alerts of new danger garden posts by email, subscribe here. Please note: these are sent from a third party, their annoying ads are beyond my control. 

All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.