On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
PaulB
Welcome to stage 12 of “Washington’s Ultimate Road Trip,” the Cascade Loop. Today, we’ll be visiting Meerkerk Gardens, on Whidbey Island. The Gardens are more properly known as Meerkerk Rhododendron Gardens, as that is the primary blooming plant in the garden by far. The Gardens consist of 53 acres of gardens and over two miles of trails. The Gardens were developed by Ann and Max Meerkerk, who later bequeathed the Gardens to the Seattle Rhododendron Society. I should add that the Gardens also have a nursery where you can purchase rhododendrons.
It really is a gorgeous place, with a truly amazing variety of colors and styles of rhododendrons. My visit to the garden was a couple of weeks after the peak blooming of these flowers, and it was still stunning. I took nearly 200 pictures during my visit, then only managed to get that down to 168 pictures after removing duplicates and the not-so-great ones. I agonized over which to include in this series of posts. It’s well worth your time to visit, should you happen to be in the neighborhood during blooming season.
Note: You can see full-size versions of these photos here.
For most of these pictures, I don’t really have any insights to share, except for the final picture. In that one, you’ll see in the lower left corner that I had company on my visit. The funny thing is that I didn’t even know that until I saw the snake when I was reviewing these pictures for submission to BJ.
OzarkHillbilly
Dreams I’ll never see… Not in my garden anyway. Thanx Paul.
Weftage
SNEK!! Out for a
strollslither in the garden, like anyone else. Though I do have to wonder if that gravel path is comfortable to slide over.Lovely pictures, thank you.
Betty
What a beautiful garden.
eclare
Beautiful.
Yutsano
@Weftage: That was almost a Find the Snek moment for me but then I saw it! It’s most likely a garter snake as those are pretty common up here.
The rhododendron is our state flower. It’s little wonder why you see them all over western and central Washington. Unfortunately they don’t grow well in the east because of the hot summers.
KatKapCC
These photos look like they smell divine :D
PaulB
Rhododendrons don’t have much of a scent, at least not to my nose, but there were a few lilacs, as well, so there was a lovely smell in a couple of the areas. This was my favorite garden of the Cascade Loop, and it allowed me to end my vacation on a high note.
If you missed it, there are closeups of many of the rhododendrons in last Sunday’s Garden Chat. It really was a beautiful garden, although because they specialize in rhododendrons, it only has its peak beauty a few weeks out of every year.
The person at the entrance to Meerkerk was very apologetic that peak blooming season had passed. If so, I really couldn’t tell, as everything still looked amazing to me.
StringOnAStick
We’ll be using your series to help plan our trip to Whidby island in late September; I know rain gear is likely to be necessary but even though it’s not prime season, we’ll definitely go walk this garden.
There is a native rhododendron in the wetter half of Oregon, but I know that many of the nursery varieties have Asian heritage. It’s cool that such a gorgeous shrub is transglobal.
munira
I love our rhodies. The hot dry summers that climate change has brought are hard on them though.
Dan B
@PaulB: There are a number of rhodies that are very fragrant. I planted them for clients who may not remember. Most of them are late bloomers and they are among the most gorgeous and prolific bloomers. They’re not the hardest so zone 7 and up is their limit.
PaulB
Learn something new every day. Thanks, Dan B.