The Garden’s Green Legacy Hiroshima Plants: An Update
By Susan Ralph
On October 5th, 2020, we planted a Ginkgo biloba sapling gifted by Green Legacy Hiroshima.
Hibaku-Jumoku are 62 trees from Hiroshima that survived the atomic bomb in 1945. A group of volunteers called Green Legacy Hiroshima (https://glh.unitar.org/) was created in 2011, to save seeds from these trees and disseminate them to partners around the world with a message of peace and hope. To date there are 126 partners in 40 countries. The Seattle Japanese Garden became a partner in 2020.
Green Legacy Hiroshima gave us a sapling ginkgo that was about 5 years old, from a seed of the Hibaku-Jumoku that was grown in San Diego. We planted this on October 5, 2020, exactly 60 years after Princess Michiko from Japan planted the birch tree which is still in the garden.
Our ginkgo is growing up!
November 8, 2022. Due to unusual weather this fall, with prolonged hot spell followed quickly by a freeze, the ginkgo did not turn yellow this year but dropped green leaves all at once.
Left: August 2022, with origami cranes that were folded during our Gardens for Peace day. Middle: November 8, 2022. The green ginkgo leaves. Right: The ginkgo dropped green leaves all at once.
Green Legacy Hiroshima also sent us some seeds. These arrived in March 2020 (after much red tape to get past the US Department of Agriculture, who threw away the first shipment!). These were planted under direction of Ray Larson, Curator of Living Collections and the Otis Douglas Hyde Herbarium at the University of Washington Botanic Gardens
Seeds from Hiroshima, Japan
Left: March 20, 2020: Ginkgo first germinated. Middle: April 2020 Ginkgo first leaves Right: October 2022 Ginkgo saplings
These young plants are all still in the greenhouses at the botanic gardens, waiting until they are strong enough to be planted in the Japanese Garden. They will remind us of our connections to the other countries on this planet, and the need to work for peace.
Left: Diospyros kaki (persimmon) germinating, April 2020. Second from left: Celtis sinensis (hackberry) germinating, March 2020. Second from right: Hackberry and Persimmon in October 2022, just as leaves are falling off. Right: Ilex rotunda (Kurogane holly) in October 2022. These seeds took a year to germinate!
Susan Ralph is the president of Unit 86, Seattle Japanese Garden Docents. She is also an excellent origami maker. She is the one who decorates our bulletin board with beautiful origamis!