Sculpture Park is grounded in greenery

The biggest news in gardens this month is the opening of Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park on the waterfront. The crowds may visit to see Alexander Calder's orange "Eagle" or Richard Serra's wave-like steel "Wake," but they'll leave wowed by nine green acres. Tens of thousands of mostly native plants carpet what was once an old fuel-storage facility on the shores of Elliott Bay.

The sculpture park has been planted to form a variety of habitats stretching from Western Avenue to the water. You'll stroll through archetypal Northwest landscapes, including a grove of quaking aspen, a coniferous forest and meadows of native grasses and wildflowers.

Native plants will attract birds and creatures as well as humans to this new, ambitious park, and I predict we'll all be bringing our binoculars along with us soon enough.

Visitors will feel this habitat aspect of the park in their bones as they stand beneath ginkgos and dawn redwoods in the Garden of the Ancients, or walk through native ground covers like maidenhair ferns and vanilla leaf.

The grand opening is 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Jan. 20 and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Jan. 21. The public is invited to enjoy live music and dance performances, tours and artistic demonstrations during the weekend-long celebration. The Olympic Sculpture Park is located at 2901 Western Ave. See www.seattleartmuseum.org for more information.

Woodland Treasures

Dave DeMers, a plant explorer from Vancouver, B.C., is coming to town Wednesday to share his enthusiasm about three coveted and unusual kinds of plants ideal for Northwest woodland gardens.

He'll show slides and talk about how to grow the trendy Paris (genus, not Hilton), dark and weirdly attractive Arisaema and the lily-padlike Podophyllum.

Meet DeMers at a reception at 6:45 p.m., followed by a lecture at 7:15 p.m., at the Center for Urban Horticulture's NHS Hall, 3501 N.E. 41st St. For more information, go to www.northwesthort.org.

Witch hazel moment

If your garden is sadly witch hazel-less, this is the month to visit the Washington Park Arboretum's Witt Winter Garden and soak up these showy shrubs' color and astringent perfume.

One look will probably have you searching for space in your own garden to plant a witch hazel, so pay close attention to their mature size as well as the great variety of colors. Give each type the sniff test, for some kinds are far more fragrant than others, with Chinese witch hazels (Hamamelis mollis) the most richly scented of all. On the paler end of the color spectrum is the lemon yellow H. x intermedia 'Arnold's Promise'; H. x intermedia 'Diane' and 'Jelena' have flowers in darker shades of copper and carmine.

The Witt Winter Garden is a short walk from the Graham Visitors Center in the Arboretum, 2300 Arboretum Drive E. in Seattle. Call 206-543-8800 for directions and hours.

Eat your garden

Winter is catalog frenzy time for gardeners, for edibles as well as ornamentals. Catalogs featuring food plants are luscious, offering unusual and tasty fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts, berries and even edible flowers.

Three companies whose catalogs you shouldn't miss specialize in edibles especially suited to our west-of-the-mountain conditions. This current crop of catalogs will have you smacking your lips and dreaming of summer:

• Territorial Seed Co. in Cottage Grove, Ore., 800-626-0866 or www.territorialseed.com.

• Raintree Nursery in Morton, Lewis County, 360-496-6400 or www.raintreenursery.com.

• Nichols Garden Nursery in Albany, Ore., 800-231-5306 or www.nicholsgardennursery.com.

Valerie Easton also answers questions in Wednesday's Plant Talk in Northwest Life. Write to her at P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111 or e-mail planttalk@seattletimes.com with your questions. Sorry, no personal replies.