Article by Nancy Way, March 12 ,2021
Planting an apple tree was a top priority for European settlers in Washington and Oregon as they established homesteads in the Pacific Northwest. In keeping with that tradition, the Sammamish Botanical Garden Society (SBGS) kicked off a new 6,000 square-foot Heritage Garden at Big Rock Park Central in Sammamish with the installation of an heirloom Yellow Bellflower. The Bellflower is a variety of Pippin apple that was a popular orchard tree in the 1800s.
The tree was donated by Bill and Nancy Way of Sammamish. It is a grafting from a 120-year-old tree in their garden, originally planted on Lake Sammamish when Weber Point was a lumber and shake mill. Three generations of Way children have enjoyed the applesauce and crisps that came from the harvested fruit of the mother tree.
“We are so pleased to have the Bellflower for both its local historical and botanical value. It will be a foundation plant in the SBGS Heritage Garden,” says Bruce Caredio, SBGS Heritage Garden Development Co-Chair.
Caredio and SBGS board members Janelle Deutsch, Lena Wegner, and Rebecca Krum took part in a ceremonial planting along with City of Sammamish Parks, Recreation & Facilities representative Shelby Perrault, Project Manager for the improvements at the 20-acre park property.
Big Rock Park Central was donated to the City of Sammamish in 2017 by a local resident. The park is currently closed to the public while under construction but is anticipated to open to the community in May 2021. The park also includes a historic farmhouse, the Jacob and Emma Reard House, currently being restored by the Sammamish Heritage Society. The garden and house are oriented to create a natural flow between them, reminiscent of how a family homestead might have looked.
The Ways believe it was serendipity that their grafted tree needed a permanent home at the same time the Heritage Garden was coming to life. Their mother tree has always been a family treasure, but an aging profile had the family worried that its life was coming to an end. Two decades ago, they attended a heritage tree grafting class at Raintree Nursery in Morton. The resulting baby was potted and eventually planted in their garden. Meanwhile, the mother tree began to rebound. Without pesticides and with improved pruning, it became more productive than ever, despite its age.
A new home in the Heritage Garden for the Yellow Bellflower Apple Tree
“With two healthy trees, we were overwhelmed with apples,” says Nancy Way, Sammamish Parks and Recreation Commission member and author of Our Town Redmond, the Redmond history. “We are thrilled that the genetic material of our Bellflower will be saved in the Heritage Garden.”
Originally a campsite for the Sammamish tribe and other native people, Weber Point became a bustling company town in the 1890s with the establishment of the Lake Sammamish Shingle Mill by pioneer lumberman Joseph F. Weber. The steamboat S.S. Squak called at the tiny settlement, that included a cookhouse, bunk house and a few homes. Apples that could be canned or made into sauce were highly prized by the hungry millworkers and their families who couldn’t visit a grocery store for fresh fruit.
Yellow Bellflower is a cultivar of domesticated apple that originated in New Jersey with its first documented graft carried across the United States in 1847. It has many other names including "Belle Flavoise" and "Lincoln Pippin.” A favorite for baking and canning, its fruit is variable in size, with a lemon-yellow color and pinkish-blush hues in sunny exposures. Its flesh is whitish, firm, fine-grained, tender, aromatic, and quite acidic early in the season. Usually picked on the tart side, it can be mellowed in storage.
Like heirloom tomatoes, heritage apples have developed a strong following among plant preservationists who are actively saving seeds, grafting from colonial trees, and planting orchards of old species. Their aim is to build species diversity for long-term health and survival. Of the 15,000 tree varieties historically cultivated, 90 percent of apples eaten today are from only 15 varieties.
Digging and transplanting the 8-foot-tall Bellflower and its 400-pound root ball was executed by a crew with Big Trees of Snohomish.
The Sammamish Botanical Garden Society has now signed an agreement with the City of Sammamish for the design, installation, and maintenance of the Heritage Garden. Members have been gathering other heirloom specimens and seeds through the winter, with planting to start in March and April. Volunteers are needed for planting as well as the maintenance of the garden.