Autumn at Kubota Garden

It was a beautiful fall morning that brought us to Kubota Garden in Seattle (https://www.kubotagarden.org; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubota_Garden). Links aren’t working on WordPress so I inserted those two as references. The garden is 100 years old next year, but it has been a public park since 1987.

We wandered around the 20 acre area on meandering paths lined with every kind of shrub you would expect in a classic Japanese garden. I used ChatGPT to tentatively identify some of the plants.

ChatGPT had high confidence that this is Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca Pendula’).

The park has a central pumping facility that recirculates water through several waterfalls and a dozen ponds, making for a very serene environment.

ChatGPT tentatively identified this reborn, small tree as Japanese Plum Yew (Cephalotaxus harringtonia). It was recently cut back, but it is growing vigorously now.

This is a fascinating hedge because only one of the bushes is being trimmed while the others protrude, almost like sculpture.

There were many pagodas and ponds with stone bridges and private spots, creating a sense of privacy in a public space.

Mahonia eurybracteata subsp. ganpinensis ‘Soft Caress’ is a fall-flowering plant.

Lacecap Hydrangea (Hydrangea serrata or a lacecap cultivar of Hydrangea macrophylla) has two sets of flowers; the typical hydrangea flowers, and an outer layer of decorative petals to attract pollinators.

There were red berries everywhere. I’ve had Euonymus several times over the years, but they were never as colorful as Burning Bush.

Weeping Conifer (likely a Weeping Hemlock) said goodbye at the exit, just as a Weeping Cedar greeted us. The aura of evergreen was overwhelming beneath its boughs.

Final Thoughts

Kubota Garden is a great place to spend a couple hours. There were a lot of visitors, and even a youth naturalist activity, but it didn’t feel crowded; however, the parking lot was full and we had to park a couple hundred yards up the street.

As part of my expanded interest in local sights here in the Pacific Northwest, I’m learning about plants. ChatGPT is an excellent assistant in this endeavor, but I can’t memorize a thousand species names. It referred to taxonomic FAMILY several times today, so I included this photo from Wikipedia as a memory helper. I will try to remember this when I report on ecology in the future. I will go as far up the plant family tree as I can in the future.

The only thing missing from this gorgeous fall morning in the park was a fresh cup of coffee. Alas, Kubota Garden is in a residential area and there isn’t even a Seven-Eleven nearby.

Later…