Postcards from the Trail

Seattle is a riot of color. The Spring weather has been typical, a little rain, a little sun but overall not too cold. But the biggest difference was the mild winter. Everything is in full bloom without any winter damage. The Rhodies are the best that I've seen in a couple of years.

We spent Sunday visiting gardens. We had not yet been to Lakewold Gardens this year. Lakewold is our favorite garden estate in the region. We might be a little late for the rhododendrons but we could catch the Chilean Fire Bush in full bloom. The irises were blooming in the neighborhood so we wanted to stop at the Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden to hopefully catch the bearded irises in bloom. The King County Iris Society has a nice display bed. And we wanted to return to Bellevue Botanical Garden to see what it looked like a month after our last visit.

I'm going to start with the last garden - Bellevue Botanical Garden. Wow - were we in for a surprise! Our last visit was about a month ago. The garden was filled with early spring flowering trees and bulbs. We had noticed something was changing in the entry bed but we had no idea the extent of the change.

We drove up Main Street and were shocked when we saw the cyclone fence, the backhoes and stacked logs of fallen trees. The entrance and area next to the rock garden is now fully under construction. And so is the parking lot. The signs directed us back to Wilberton Hill Playfield and the back entrance to the Yeo Garden.

We reviewed the information sign in the lot. They are constructing a new Visitor and Educational Center along with redoing the parking. It is scheduled to be completed in 2014. The garden is open and still beautiful so do visit.

But we were still surprised. We were a little sad to see the Davidia tree at the entrance was gone and we suspect the great Stachyurus praecox in the parking lot may also be gone. But what is a garden without change! We look forward to watching the completed garden grow.

Here are some shots of the construction areas.

View from the Alpine Garden

The old entrance area. The Sharp Cabin will be moving

We think the Sharp Cabin will be moving to this area

And now for some flowers - Lots of beautiful color especially alliums and irises

Waterwise Garden

Meconopsis 'Lingholm'

Things are coming along very well in the garden. The main flower garden starts its spring glory right around Mother's Day on into the first week of June. Everything is right on time this year. I don't see much from last year in my archives but I found 2011. Everything was late. This post from June 9th 2011 - and our garden is already where it was after the first week in June in 2011. This bods well for tomatoes.

Here are some shots of today's garden.

We have a wonderful botanical garden here in Seattle. It is located in Bellevue and it is managed by the Northwest Perennial Alliance. They have recently (past couple of years) redone the perennial border. I have to admit - I had a lot of concern when I first heard that they were going to redo the beds. I loved the old apple trees and the meandering trail through the lush plantings. But I have to admit - after a couple of years - I am stating to love the new plantings. There are some very interesting plants and some good color swatches. The steps and paths allow for more discovery of unusual plants. We have made two trips this year to watch the progression. Nice job!. Here is what we saw on our most recent visit mid-April. (check this post see the beds before the change in 2007).

One of our favorite day trips in the spring is to go to Eastern Washington to view the wildflowers. I was searching on this blog to see my previous posts and I found that I haven't blogged that often about our spring trips. We almost always make one trip to see the wildflowers. Timing is key. I will follow hiking trip reports from my local NW Hikers forum or the trip reports on Washington Trails Association. The bloom can be anytime from mid-April to mid-May. So much depends upon the temperatures. Some years the bloom can start and then be blasted by high temps. Other years, it is slow and spreads out into mid-May. This year it is a little early.

We like to just ramble over the sage country exploring and seeing what can we can discover. Our favorite area is along the Old Vantage Highway between Ellenburg and Vantage. The area around Whiskey Dick and Quilomene Wildlife area are our favorites for exploring. The reports that I have read said everything was already in bloom so we wanted to do a trip.

This area is extremely windy. Puget Power has build a wind farm- Wild Horse Wind Farm in the past years which has changed the area. But they have done a lot to repopulate the area with the native plants and open the area to visitors. I saw that it was the start of their Wildflower Hike season. Perfect timing. I called and signed up for the hike this weekend.

It takes about 2 and half hours to drive from North of Seattle to the Wild Horse Farm. We started to see Prairie Lupine along the drive. We gathered in the seminar room at the Wild Horse Facility before heading off to an hour and half walk/hike exploring the wildflowers. We decided to go with the advanced botanical group and spent time exploring. It was great to meet other plant enthusiasts.

We went back to the visitors center after our hike and got a permit which allowed us to stop and explore more of the property. We drove north and into the Quilomene Wildlife area. The dirt roads can get pretty rough. The wind started to really blow. We could hardly walk across the fields. I checked the wind speeds and they were around 45mph!

But the blooms were stunning. The perfume of the prairie lupine was intoxicating. The big head clover was at its prime and accented by the golden Hooker's Balsamroot.

Around 2pm, we headed back to Ellensburg. We stopped at U-Totem Burgers for an early dinner and then over to Iron Horse Brewery for a sampler. It was pretty tasty and we filled our growler with some of their IPA before heading back to the gray.

First a couple of previous posts on Eastern Washington and the Wind Farm:

Washington Desert in Bloom

Technology (Wild Horse Wind Farm)

Euphorbias along our driveway

Seattle residents fuss over the weather. In the early 90's, we had rather predictable Spring weather. You knew when to plant and what to expect. But recently, you really have not known what to expect each winter and spring. In the past five years, we have had three rather cool, gray, late springs. This year seems to be back to normal. We have already had one or two days get to 70 degrees. Two years ago, it did not get to 70 until late May. There have been more sunny days. I am starting to not wear sweatshirts everyday. Live is good.

And the garden is doing well. The lettuce is hanging in. We had to buy another pack of lettuce because our old seed did not germinate. I scored a bargain by finding a pack of "Nevada" lettuce for 79 cents. It is what we usual grow since it is slow to bolt. Tomatoes are coming along. The potatoes are interesting. The Yukon Gold which were supposed to be early have yet to show any leaves. We dug around and they are there but just not up yet. Carmine, the late red, is showing some plants but the Satina is going gang busters. It is a mid season yellow.

Lots is also blooming in the garden. The winter was also not as cold so many of the less hardy perennials are starting to leaf. Matilija poppy has run and spread around the bed and the stalks from last year have started to leaf out. Our Basjoo Banana did not need to be cut back to the ground and is starting to leaf out. A few items still are tender such as our Chilean Firebush. It is going to have one bloom. Our Echium wildpretti is also doing something strange.

Here are some pictures of the garden taken at the end of April.

First up - our vegetable garden

Next views in the backyard

The Front Yard

Tags:

• Gardening
• Spring