Sunday, August 21, 2011

Bellevue Botanical Garden and Olympic Sculpture Park

I really enjoyed the beautifully planted perennial garden at the Bellevue Botanical Garden. I feel like we must have hit it at the peak bloom time but maybe it is that lovely for much of the year!

nolina agastache lavandula

rusty plant supportsechinacea monarda gaillardiastipa gigantea wavephygelius kniphofia agapanthus

agastache, cotinus, lilium regale

eryngium achillea veronica

perennial garden2pinks

perennial beds

angelica stricta purpurea, alchemilla mollis, angelica stricta purpuea, alchemilla mollis

Uh oh! Shoo!

shoo!

There were quiet parts to the garden too.

rock with hole

pathway

stone pillarsgolden robinia and seating area

Next we were off to the Olympic Sculpture Park near downtown Seattle. It was a warm sunny day and the park was filled with people enjoying the sun and sculptures and the amazing view!

great view

like boats

big boatsan edge

no touching

love the movement in this piece

down it goesclarkias

god's voice

field in the city

silver snagroof drain

This building recreated the forest understory with a huge fallen trunk acting as a nurse log to lots of sprouting plants.

nurse log building

nurse log building insidenurse log

This is a shot I got as we were driving down the highway. Mount Rainier, I think. I definitely would enjoy living in Seattle for all the wonderful views everywhere!

mount rainier

Monday, August 15, 2011

Epping and Lane Gardens, Seattle

On day two of the Garden Bloggers Fling we blessed/cursed with sunny skies. I know I should be glad it wasn't pouring rain but it did make it more difficult to photograph gardens. So please bear with the harsh light in the images for this post.

The first garden we stopped at was the Epping Garden. Topping a hill and with stunning views this garden was an interesting combination of showy open party spaces and quiet introspective corners.

garden with a view

the view

blues and yellows

face planter

I loved the combination of Holodiscus discolor or "Ocean Spray" with the blue foliage of the Blue Atlas Cedar. And check out the beautiful hand-wrought iron railings that looked like trunks and roots.

ocean spray and blue atlas cedarwrought iron railing

wrought iron roots

They had some nice benches and fountains.

blue seating area

shady bench

fountain and fence

lovely ligularia

I love how our driver brought his camera the second day and joined in the fun.

driver photographer

There were lots of lovely vignettes.

container loveliesapricot rose trellispink combocontainers

budha lady

And some bootylicious ones.

container and pedestalplanting vignettenice foliagebootylicious

There were a couple of plants I didn't know. Let me know if you know what these two are:

variegated saxifragawhat is this

We got to enjoy lunch at the Lane Garden, a lovely garden with lots of open space as well as paths to wander with surprises around every corner.

We had lunch on the patio, made of the most colorfully-stained concrete I've ever seen.

seriously stained concrete patio

garden studio

They had a charming ruin.

the ruin

lewis and little columns

love the reseeding

Lots of neat treats throughout the garden:

rodgersia etcrustic swingfrogcolumns

nice fountainbird house

branch archshady path

shady path plantings

shady plantings

hakonechloa path edgingrosa glauca rubrifolia hip and astrantiaastilbe chinensis taquettiiyellow poppy

golden-leaved oak-leaf hydrangeavariegated thing

Thank you to our wonderful hosts! We appreciate getting to view your gardens!