We celebrated the Ravine public opening today when MSPC volunteers, members, and guests gathered to cut the ribbon and take down the orange fencing that surrounded the project. MSPC’s events committee provided cake and lemonade to participants and passers-by under a canopy strategically placed across from the children’s playground. The Ravine public opening marks the…
After overhauling ravine, Mission Street Parks Conservancy has ambitious plans for Salem parks A longtime group of volunteer gardeners in Bush’s Pasture Park has formed a new nonprofit organization that wants to do more to take care of the park’s historic trees, roses and other plants. By Rachel Alexander – Salem Reporter May 10, 2019…
There are a lot of tasks that go into managing a public gardening, including monitoring for pests. Here, City Horticulturist Brian Smith finds azalea sawfly larvae on one of the park’s Exbury deciduous azaleas. These hungry critters have defoliated entire groups of deciduous azaleas in past years. Here’s what OSU says about the critter: “It…
The camas fields at Bush’s Pasture Park are now in bloom in the lower oak grove. These fields were managed before 1850 by the Kalapuya people who harvested the bulbs. The Camas have remerged after the park changed its maintenance procedures. You can learn more about the park’s camas and wildflowers here. Come and enjoy…
Four arborist from Elwood’s Tree Service spent the day at the park cleaning mistletoe and deadwood out of two of the park’s many oak trees.
The park’s extensive collection of Camellia japonica cultivars are in full bloom. These shrubs were likely planted by the landscape architect team of Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver. Edith was quite fond of camellias while Elizabeth had a love of lilacs. The park’s camellia japonicas were likely planted in the 1950’s and 1960’s. You can…
A hardy group of eight souls braved a clear but cold day to tour Bush’s Pasture Parks searching for signs of Spring. Fortunately, there was plenty to see. The winter Helleborus orientalis (Lenten Rose) were in full bloom, along with early bulbs such as Galanthus nivalis (snowdrops), Chionodoxa luciliae, and Crocus thommasinianus (early Crocus). Daphne odora…
Tom Beatty retired as the City’s horticulturist on February 28th. His departure closes an 18-year tenure during which, among other duties, he served as the head gardener of Bush’s Pasture Park. While Tom had a desk at the park’s historic “root house,” he was more often out in the park supervising ground crews, planting spring bulbs…
The City and MSPC are working together to remove a damaged and failing ‘Shogetsu’ flowering cherry tree near the Conservatory. We have already purchased a replacement ‘Shogetsu’ cherry tree that will be planted in nearly the same location. Gardenia.net calls the Shogetsu cherry tree “One of the finest Japanese cherries” and describes it as “a broad-spreading…
The Conservancy has started the much-needed rehabilitation of the park’s historic crabapple collection, which likely dates back to the 1940’s. The collection was first inventoried and mapped in 2003 by crabapple expert Arthur Jacobsen. He determined that the collection included at least 44 individual trees representing 42 different species or cultivars of Malus. Several trees have…