If you’re new to Seattle from the great plains of the Midwest, or the deserts of Arizona, or the suburbs of California, or the metropolis of Seoul, the first thing you’re likely to notice is the region’s emerald environs.
In this medium-sized jewel of capital, misty rain falls from a monocloud for eight months of the year before yielding to a clear and mild summer (barring intense wildfire smoke). These conditions conspire to create the signature quality of Seattle’s verdure: big-assness.
“We have some of the same things other places in the country have; it’s just we have them bigger in a lot of cases,” said Raymond Larson, curator of living collections at the University of Washington’s Botanic Gardens. “Our trillium has one of the biggest flowers, our dogwoods have the biggest dogwood flowers, and our sword fern is the largest evergreen fern.”
