by Anita Browning
Remember how Willy Wonka's chocolate factory only seemed like a factory from the outside? Once Charlie and the others followed the magical Mr. Wonka through the doors, what awaited them was "a world of pure imagination." Similarly, in Seattle, the grounds surrounding Children’s — when toured with Jeff Hughes, grounds and sustainability manager — become a botanical paradise teeming with rare and beautiful plants in brilliant colors and strange shapes with sometimes mouthwatering smells! Jeff was kind enough to take me on a walk and answer some questions.
Jeff Hughes stands in front of a winter-blooming camellia near the Giraffe entrance. He took the photos for this story — except for this one. (And the last two — you'll see what I mean when you get there!)
Anita: Hi, Jeff! I've heard great things from people who took this tour with the Citizen's Advisory Committee (CAC). Thanks for the repeat performance — you are very generous with your time!
Jeff: It's my pleasure. When we are involved in the Major Institution Master Plan, we give tours to the CAC so they can see how committed Children’s is to sustainable practices by maintaining a beautiful and healing environment even in the midst of our need to grow. We also occasionally give tours to local horticulture students and gardening clubs.
Anita: What makes our grounds such a draw for these folks?
Jeff: We have over 2,000 species here, including some rare species. Diversity is important to us, so while some advocate having native species only, we have trees, plants and flowers from all over the world on our grounds.
Anita: Why do you think diversity is so important here?
Jeff: Because we're a hospital. The surroundings here are meant to promote healing, and a kind of respite from very difficult things that may be happening inside. And since we have patients all year, we need to ensure that there's that kind of sanctuary available whenever it's needed. So, no matter who you are, or whenever or wherever you choose to step outside for a break, we want something you see to delight you!
Anita: That's very cool! How long have you been doing this kind of work?
Jeff: I've been at Children’s for 26 years now and was doing landscape installation for about five years before starting here.
Anita: How did you get interested in this field?
Jeff: My grandfather was a good gardener and, as a child, I tagged along behind him as he worked. My formal education is in fine art — I'm a painter. I also draw and do printmaking and sculpture. So, I've always been drawn to the natural world because I think visually. After all, art is a way of seeing — that's the basis for all kinds of art — once you've learned to see, you can apply that skill to anything. Success is all in the attitude of approaching a new endeavor that way. Every new bed is like a blank canvas. This work is never boring!
Anita: Can you give me an example of the kinds of artistic decisions you make in a garden?
This Phlomis fruticosa, or Jerusalem sage, blooms with yellow flowers in the summer and these pods will turn silver in the winter, making it lovely all year round.
Jeff: Sure. We think about color and texture, just like you would when making a painting. We also think about juxtaposition, how big things will get so we can allow as much space as each species needs, what kind of maintenance it requires, what it looks like during each season, when it blooms and what it attracts, in terms of wildlife.
Anita: What kinds of things do you not want to attract to the garden? For example, I've heard that folks are encouraged to attract honeybees as they are on the decline, but is that a good idea for us with so many kids around?
Jeff: Honeybees are a good idea and we do like to attract them. That rosemary between the Giraffe parking garages on Penny Drive is a good example. Rosemary attracts honeybees, but we've put it in an area other than, say, the play area.
Fragrant rosemary with small lavender flowers rises up beside the smoketree's red brown leaves, with the sunny fig leaf at the upper right.
Anita: Yes... about that rosemary... is it OK for employees to pinch a bit on occasion?
Jeff: Of course! People do it all the time.
Anita: What else do we have to eat here?!
Jeff: We have an old heirloom apple first discovered in the 1800s in England, and now hard to find in the U.S. It's a Cox's Orange Pippin apple tree and we have a Brown Turkey fig tree over on the same side of Penny Drive as the rosemary. It's about 15 years old and this one is thriving in our cold and rain, where most figs don't fruit or simply rot.
You think of cacti as loving the desert, so how can they grow in rainy Seattle? Jeff and the grounds team has taken advantage of every space and created microclimates that can accommodate non-native species.
Anita: So, how can a fig tree live here if they are accustomed to such different weather?
Jeff: This particular cultivar was bred for a maritime climate. With other species we are able to create microclimates by taking advantage of naturally occurring conditions, like rocky soil or full-sun exposure. In some cases part of the building or a parking structure can shield a particular area from the sun, rain or wind, allowing us to plant things that might not otherwise thrive in the Pacific Northwest.
Anita: Where are some of these microclimates on our campus?
Jeff: Here by the Giraffe garage, we have a couple of them actually. There's a "prickly pear" cactus in front of this concrete wall that gets very hot when the sun shines on it. It has the best access to full sun all year here. The overhang and the stairwell shield the area from rain and there's no soil here, just rocks, so we chose a cactus because it likes those exact conditions.
On the other side of the stairwell, we have another microclimate that includes a swamp cypress. We've situated it in this spot because it likes a bit of wind; here the wind comes primarily from the southwest.
Anita: With the growth that has happened and will continue to happen on our campus, how can you ensure that these conditions will remain favorable to the plants that are taking advantage of them?
This Coast Redwood was moved from its original location.
Jeff: Well, we can't make everything stay the same forever. We've actually moved quite a few of our plants and trees to different locations on our grounds when their original settings became less favorable. For example, this Coast Redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, was moved from its first placement. These trees can get up to 320 feet tall, but will probably only reach about 110 to 200 feet in an urban setting like this. They would need to be about 400 years old before they reach that height. As you see, this one is only a baby at about 50 feet. But we have moved trees even larger than this one — one was about 85 feet.
Anita: Wow! What kind of equipment does that take?
Jeff: It's called a tree spade, and it goes in the ground on either side of the root ball and forms a cone around it to lift it out. In the case of that 85 foot American Elm, the root ball was 15 feet across and eight feet thick. We use tractors to dig around it and then we get a large truck! We've been very successful with this process, but sometimes we do lose a tree.
Anita: Is there one in particular that breaks your heart?
Jeff: Yes. I'll show you. This tree, a Giant Sequoia, didn't die from being moved, though; it was struck by lightning last year.
This Giant Sequoia was 80 feet tall before it was split by lightning last year.
(We walk about halfway through the upper level of the Giraffe parking lot and back behind the "prop house." It's not a stump; it is more like a huge half-tree with a rose vine twisting up toward its broken top.)
Jeff: This tree was 80 feet tall but it split right down the middle from the four-foot gash the lightning made. This tree rose went 60 feet up.
(On the way back toward the parking lot, I smell something delicious!)
Anita: Jeff, what's that lovely smell?
Jeff: Oh yes! It's the leaves from this katsura tree. This is a female. It's a Japanese tree and these yellow heart-shaped leaves smell like burnt sugar. (He hands me a leaf from the ground.)
A sweet-spicy katsura leaf in its fall yellow, and, actually, upside down — it should be "heart-shaped."
One of 15 mushroom varieties grown on Children's grounds, Slippery Jack is food for local wildlife.
While we're here, let me show you this (he points to a grayish-white soft-looking amorphous shape on the ground by the Giraffe entrance, now shaded in the afternoon). It's a mushroom called "Slippery Jack." We have 15 mushroom varieties here. You might not notice them immediately, but we like to encourage small things, too, because they feed all sorts of animals that we like to have around.
Anita: Can we eat a "Slippery Jack"?
Jeff: Well, they're edible, but I've tried one and I can't recommend it; "slippery" is an accurate description!
Anita: How about species we don't want to attract, like the giant seagulls I've noticed sometimes outside Sound Café. Are they pesky?
Jeff: We don't actively try to attract them, but the gulls actually help us by eating leatherjackets (cranefly larvae) in the lawn before they turn into the large flying insects we see in the spring. Many people in our area have a big problem with leatherjackets eating the lawn roots, but thankfully we never have.
Anita: When we left off last time, you were about to tell me what happens in the prop house.
The prop house keeps plants warm and sometimes gets them started.
Jeff: Yes, we grow things in there, too! Plants that can't survive the winter weather outside spend that season in the prop house where it's warm and sheltered. And "prop" is short for "propagation," so we also start plants growing in there from cuttings, layering, seeds, or spores we get from many sources, including the Seed Exchange.
Anita: What's the Seed Exchange?
Jeff: It's like a co-op of plant growers from all over the world who trade seeds from their best and rarest plants. That's where we've gotten some of our more exotic species — like our Rhododendron from the Himalayas.
(We continue down the steps and around the side of Giraffe where the plaza offices are and we stop outside of Dr. Hansen's office.)
Anita: This is a cool tree! I love all the color — sky-blue berries and pink buds. What's the name of this one?
The leaves of the peanut butter bush outside Dr. Hansen's office smell delicious!
Jeff: This is Clerodendrum trichotomum, commonly referred to as a peanut butter bush. Here, smell this leaf.
(Jeff rubs a leaf between his hands and hands it to me.)
Anita: Oh my gosh! That smells EXACTLY like peanut butter!
Jeff: And it's colorful, as you noticed. After the pink buds, the flowers will be ivory. We like our plants to have an element of surprise — with various colors and scents. It's nice because they make people happy in every stage of their growth, whether they're budding or blooming, whether it's spring or fall.
Anita: Speaking of peanut butter and good things to eat, do we have any nut trees?
Jeff: Yes! I'll show you.
(We continue along the path until we reach the edge of the hospital campus that borders NE 45th Street.)
Here is our black walnut and we also have some hazelnut trees. One day we hope to be able to use our produce here. We're partnering with the Dietary department about that possibility.
Our black walnut tree on NE 45th is leaf- and nut-free during this season, but still lovely.
Anita: I bet the neighbors who are close enough to see our grounds love the view! What do you hear from them?
Jeff: Actually, Children’s owns some of these houses right across the street and we maintain those gardens as well. I also do consultations for some of the neighbors. They do really seem to appreciate it and I enjoy it, too. It's just part of being neighborly. It also enhances the satisfaction we get from our work because we think about choosing things that will add value to what the neighbors see from the outside as well as what we're looking at inside.
For example, when the neighbors asked us to minimize the effect of the Whale parking lot lights at night, we planted the Thuja occidentalis white cedar hedge that creates the border between that lot and the neighborhood. The trees came from the Mariners, who had put them in front of the scoreboard to minimize the glare for Ichiro, and Edgar in center field. It didn't work out, so they donated them to us! It was a very timely gift.
These trees used to block the glare off the scoreboard at Safeco Field. Now they block the light of the Whale parking lot from the neighbors.
This South African lily blooms when it's springtime in South Africa, which makes it a delightful autumn surprise in Seattle.
(We come through a gate into the outside play area)
Anita: What are those pretty pink flowers?
Jeff: That's Nerine, a South African lily. They're in bloom now because the bulbs are timed to the spring in South Africa. There's no manipulation required to make them bloom now even though it's colder than their typical spring.
Anita: That's amazing! Plants seem "smart" in that way. How would you describe that?
Jeff: They are certainly adaptable. They can even let us know if they're having trouble adapting. When a plant produces a lot of fruit, cones or berries, like our Portuguese Laurel, for instance, it's a sign of stress. It is over-producing seeds to make sure the species survives.
(Jeff shows me the laurel. Its branches are drooping from the weight of all the red-orange berries.)
Anita: Incredible. I would have mistaken that for a sign of being really healthy. In this area where patients play, what are some special considerations you and your staff make when choosing what to plant?
The "sand castle" in the play area provided an opportunity to plant "beachy" grasses. Patients from the psych unit have worked in the herb garden at the left in the photo.
Jeff: We've planted tough plants here — to withstand kids climbing and balls bouncing! And the wonderful sand castle that the Dillon Works team built and painted gave us a great opportunity to plant some beach grasses donated by Lynel Westby.
There really are endless opportunities to be creative. There is always a place in our gardens where children can participate.
Anita: Do patients or their families ever ask to help you work in the gardens?
Jeff: Yes. For awhile, the Psychiatry Unit was working in this area, planting herbs. That was something their program took the initiative to organize. It was an opportunity for patients to participate in the many metaphors that gardening expresses about our lives.
Anita: What's one of those metaphors?
Jeff: Living things — plants and people — are adaptable, but they both thrive with consistent care and attentiveness.
Anita: Indeed. How have you and your crew been adaptable?
Jeff: Well, there are a couple of things right here that may answer your question.
This mer-baby was once part of a fountain that was transformed into wall art when it stopped spouting water.
This swampy microclimate makes the most of an area with poor drainage.
These mer-children — that's what you call a mermaid's children, right?! — used to be part of a fountain that was donated to the organization when we were still Children’s Orthopedic. The fountain stopped working, but we saved these figures to use as sculpture. They really work here and serve our purpose by making this area something fun and uplifting to see when you're out on the campus.
If we continue a few yards this way, you'll notice another microclimate, like we talked about with the cacti last time. This swamp-like area resulted from a mistake when builders were calculating the drainage that would be necessary here. The bed turned out to be too wet for the planned planting. We've been able to use it to our advantage and plant this swamp cypress, and these swamp magnolias for example. So, we've adapted in order to accommodate both gifts AND accidents!
Anita: Jeff, what's your favorite tree here on our grounds?
Jeff: That's difficult. I can show you my favorite maple tree...?
Anita: Great — I'll take it!
(We walk past the Airplane entrance heading back to the shuttle pick-up/drop-off loop at the Giraffe entrance.)
Beautiful! Is it a Japanese maple?
Jeff's favorite maple, an Osakazuki maple outside the Airplane entrance.
Jeff: Yes! As a matter of fact, most cultivated maples are Japanese. This one is an Acer palmatum "Osakazuki."
Anita: Hey, I've just moved and have a little outside space. What would you recommend for me, an inexperienced gardener, to grow in a pot on my balcony?
Jeff: How about a toad lily? I think it's a lovely plant that people don't use enough. It's easy to grow and it's attractive to bees.
Need a plant that's both easy and lovely? Try a toad lily! This one is by the loading dock.
Anita: I love it! And finally, everyone wants to know... do you give staff tours?
Jeff: Yes! As long as people can be flexible about the day and time — there are only seven of us on the grounds staff for all of Children’s properties! It's best to email me so we can arrange something. We also encourage people to email us if they see something they like and don't know its name.
Anita: Thanks so much for all your time and for all you do!