Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: Favorite Plants

Here is a list of posts with photos & information about interesting, beautiful & notable plants that grow well in Seattle.

Trees
Acer circinatum (Vine Maple):part sun or shade
Arbutus menziesii (Madrona):sun
Magnolia ashei (Ashe's Magnolia):sun
Pinus kwangtungensis (Hainan White Pine):sun
Quercus garryana (Garry Oak):sun
Quercus suber (Cork Oak):sun
Sassafras albidum (White Sassafras):sun
Sequoiadendron giganteum (Sierra Redwood):sun or part sun
Sorbus (Mountain Ash, Rowan, Whitebeam):sun

Shrubs
Agave palmeri (Palmer's Agave):sun
Daboecia cantabrica (Irish Heath):sun
Fatsia japonica (Fatsia):shade
Fothergilla major (Mountain Witch Alder):shade
Hebe (Hebe):sun
Paeonia suffruticosa (Tree Peony):part sun
Paeonia suffruticosa 'Zi Er Giao' (Chinese Tree Peony):part sun
Rosa rugosa (Sea Tomato):sun

Perennials
Acanthus hungaricus (Hungarian Bear's Breeches):sun
Allium (Ornamental Onion):several species of this genus for sun
Allium karataviense (Turkestan Onion):sun
Armeria maritima (Sea Thrift):sun
Asarum caudatum (Wild Ginger):shade
Crocus ochroleucus (Fall Crocus):sun
Darlingtonia californica (Cobra Lily):bog plant
Dicentra formosa (Western Bleeding Heart):shade
Erigeron speciosus (Showy Fleabane):sun
Euphorbia nicaeensis (Spurge):sun
Helenium autumnale (Common Sneezeweed):sun
Narcissus (Daffodil, Jonquil):sun
Paeonia corsica (Paeonia cambessedesii, Corsican Peony):sun

Plant Families
Cupressaceae (Cypress):sun
Ericaceae (Heath):sun

About This Blog

This blog began in 2008 as Metropolitan Gardens to provide information on gardening in Seattle & places like it. Click on Gardening in Cascadia. The blog expanded to include Parks P-Patches Public Gardens in the US, Canada & Europe. Then Nature was added. (The difference between nature & gardens is intent. Nature happens. Gardens are planned.) Many recent posts are not about Seattle, or even Cascadia. They are Urban Landscape: streetscape & architecture. Cascadia is the region including the Cascade Mountains of Washington & Oregon. If you want to contact the blogger, leave a message in comments. Comments are moderated & private messages will not be posted.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.