Located in Maple Valley, WA, The Lake Wilderness Arboretum features Northwest native plants and a large collection of Western Azalea.
Keyword: Arboretums and botanical gardens--Washington
Kubota Gardens
Located in South Seattle, Kubota Gardens is “a stunning 20 acre landscape that blends Japanese garden concepts with native Northwest plants.”
Kruckeberg Botanic Garden Foundation
“The Kruckeberg Botanic Garden at Richmond Beach, in Shoreline, Washington, is a public garden dedicated to community enjoyment and educational enrichment.” In 2008 the garden was sold to the City of Shoreline and is now part of the Shoreline Parks Department.
Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden
Located 1 mile north of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the garden’s centerpiece is “Elda Behm’s Paradise Garden.”
Evergreen Arboretum and Gardens
Located in Everett, WA, Evergreen Arboretum and Gardens offers “a large variety of plants, labeled and growing with compatible plants.”
Dunn Gardens
A Seattle garden open to the public for guided tours only. The landscape was designed by the Olmsted Brothers.
Chase Garden
A garden located an hour south of Seattle with views of Mt. Rainier.
Bloedel Reserve
The Bloedel Reserve, located on Bainbridge Island in Washington, including information on how to make reservations for a visit.
Bellevue Botanical Garden
“The Bellevue Botanical Garden, Bellevue, Washington comprises 53 acres of display gardens, woodlands, meadows and wetlands.”
Lakewold : a magnificent Northwest garden
Among my favorites of recent new books is Lakewold: A Magnificent Northwest Garden. It reminds me of a well-crafted exhibit catalog, beginning with detail from an oil painting of the garden on the cover.
Inside a rich history of photographs–dating from the early 20th century and drawing from most decades since then–tell the story of a dynamic garden. As a gardener, I appreciated seeing the old and the new, the changes and what stayed, and the large scale, formal plantings that gave way to simpler plans.
The style and quality of the book is not surprising as the editor is Ronald Fields, Emeritus Professor of Art History at the University of Puget Sound, who has been a docent for Lakewold since it opened to the public in 1989. The choice and layout of photographs is quite engaging, and includes unexpected hardscape details, many close-ups of signature plants, and the people who shaped the garden–primarily Eulalie Wagner and Thomas Church.
Several short essays provide their own history, including those written by local horticultural luminaries Valerie Easton, Dan Hinkley, and Steve Lorton, recounting visits to Lakewold early in their careers. Other sections highlight the vitality of the garden that continues today and its importance amongst the great estate gardens in the country.
If nothing else, this book will make you want to visit Lakewold. We are very fortunate to have this garden close-by, open to the public, and continuing the vision and spirit of those who developed and shaped it.
Excerpted from the Fall 2011 Arboretum Bulletin.