Provided to the QAM News
Free and open 365 days a year, the 53-acre Bellevue Botanical Garden (bellevuebotanical.org) is already a treasure giving people access to beauty year-round. Within it is an extra-special gem that rewards visiting any day of the year: the perennial border.
Entirely maintained by volunteers from the Northwest Perennial Alliance (northwestperennialalliance.org), the border showcases the best of Northwest gardening in a kaleidoscope of color and texture that shifts at least every two weeks, if not daily for the really close observer. The largest volunteer-tended public perennial garden in the country, it’s been wowing people since the garden opened in 1992.
While it’s called a perennial border, the maples, horse chestnuts, and hydrangeas adding seasonal support and structure make it a mixed border. The border was overhauled and nearly doubled in size to 33,000 square feet in 2012 by original designers Glenn Withey and Charles Price, known for their love of color.
I recently attended a tour led by NPA president Tere Kalfus, for a behind-the-scenes look at the planning and maintenance of the garden.
Amazingly, the garden always seems full, with new wonders revealed weekly, yet the plants have plenty of elbow room — notably unlike my current garden.
On this visit, in early June, the border was surfing the cusp between spring and summer - the irises and azaleas were in their heyday, while the delphiniums had just started and the peonies were nearly finished blooming.
But the real magic lies not in the pure flower power, but in the choreography of the planting. Purple iris blossoms are set off by a lemony meadow rue (Thalictrum flavum ‘Illuminator’). Plenty of evergreen foliage and winter interest backs up and highlights that flower power. Color stories shift from section to section, from full sun to shade, as the path snakes back and forth across the hillside. A particularly striking section centered on a variegated dogwood, with silver brunnera (Brunnera macrophylla ‘Looking Glass’) in the foreground and a statuesque clump of sapphire blue delphinium (Delphinium ‘Cobalt Dreams’) on the right.
Kalfus said the NPA has full rein on planting choices — except trees, which require approval from the BBG. She recently championed a new maple’s inclusion. She said they are working on “leaving the leaves” when appropriate over winter to showcase horticultural best practices, though longtime volunteers may need convincing. The volunteers use only organic inputs in the garden beds, including Sluggo for slugs and snails and blood meal for rabbits.
I’ve discovered many a plant here, like ginger relative Hedychium with fragrant orange spikes in late summer and fuzzy silver Potentilla lineata. (One of the two Hedychiums planted in my yard last year has returned — it’s very possible the other was swamped by marauding daylilies from the next yard, or I ripped it out while pulling at those same daylilies. We don’t know yet about the Potentilla, which was in a mixed container all winter.)
It’s easy to discover the names of plants you love, even without plant tags, thanks to QR codes on signposts at the edge of each section. Simply zap with your phone and you’ll get a list with photos of the plants in that section. My shopping list gets longer every visit!
Happily, the NPA also sells plants to fulfill those needs in a stand next to the Trillium Gift Shop. It’s restocked every day by Monday, FYI. Interestingly, they are not divisions from the grounds, as you might assume. A recent surge of a soil-born hellebore virus and some persistent weed seeds put an end to that, so the plants are from local wholesalers. This time, I adopted an Agastache “Morello” whose leaves start out plum, making a lovely foil for the raspberry pink flowers, and several candelabra primroses, which are not that easily found at general nurseries.
If you want to learn from passionate gardeners in this beautiful setting, join the crew of volunteers for work parties on Monday and Thursday for as many hours as you’d like — all skill levels are welcome. You can learn more at northwestperennialalliance.org/NPA-Border.