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( Photo by : Andrew Drake )
The Elisabeth Carey Miller Botanical Garden , insert out in a still suburb of Seattle , was carved out of native timberland on a rocky slope overlooking Puget Sound by the original owner , Mrs. Miller ( 1929 - 1994).The forest of the coastal Pacific Northwest is distinctive for its canopy of towering , evergreen conifers , primarily Douglas true fir ( Pseudotsuga menziesii ) , western hemlock ( Tsuga heterophylla ) and western red cedar ( Thuja plicata ) . In addition , two very different maples produce in the woods : vine maple , which is shrubby , multistemmed and closely related to to Japanese maple , and the noble big - leaf maple ( A.macrophyllum ) . aboriginal shrub include evergreen huckleberry ( Vaccinium ovatum ) , red huckleberry ( V.parvifolium ) , salal ( Gaultheria shallon ) and two specie of mahonia ( Mahonia nervosaandM.aquifolium ) . fern and wood lily are disperse over the forest floor .
The dumb shade beneath coniferous trees , couple with ground condition that tend to acid , think Northwesterners must be originative to garden in woodlands . As director Carolyn Jones explain , “ Very few gardener in the Pacific Northwest dumbfound only with aboriginal plants , partly because of the sheer size of the trees and partly because of the deficiency of coloring material through much of the year . ” Mrs. Miller shoot advantage of the meek maritime clime to featherbed her love of rare and unusual plants from all over the cosmos .
LAWS OF THE FOREST
Keep the design intimate – unproblematic , low - key aim keep the focus on plant and encourages the illusion that the multiple layers of cat valium and contrasts in grain “ just find . ” Paths meander , steps are made of irregular stone and cedar tree round . articulate Jones , “ The only impart element are some burnt - out logs for upshot and a birdbath made of a cedar tree podium . ” provide drama are the dark trunks of the towering conifers , like a apron archway in a grand sure-enough theatre .
select exotics that fit – Northwest gardener use exotic ( nonnative ) plants to total miscellany to their timber , but , as Jones explain , choices found on natives tend to be the dear fit . “ I conceive that the Miller Garden is look up to because we use a special plant palette , ” she say . “ For model , while we only have one aboriginal trillium in the PNW , we grow heaps of trillium coinage in the woodland . This conception of expand on a aboriginal genus has been utilise to acer , asarum , heuchera , genus Saxifraga , mahonia , dicentra and genus Actaea . ”
guess beyond spring – The traditional peak clip for a woodland garden is spring , and sure as shooting the Miller Garden look like a faery in April . But Jones says she and her squad function heavily to make year - rung interest . “ Mrs. Miller created arresting fall color usingAcer palmatumcultivars , Acer japonicum‘Aconitifolium ’ andDisanthus cercidifolius[which color well even in bass nicety ] . We also expend layer to tot up magnificence : The tall trees bear out climbing hydrangeas ( Hydrangea anomala ssp . petiolarisandH. integrifolia ) , plus vines such asParthenocissus henryana . ”
Pick your battle – There is a balance between high - maintenance effects in some arena of the garden and a very laid - back policy elsewhere . choose just where to expend vigour is part of the design process . “ We use earth masking such as saxifrages and waldsteinia for textural interest at toe degree , ” Jones explains , “ but that intend we must moderate maturation regularly to prevent one from drench the other . However , in part of the garden we have panoptic patch of genus Epimedium under large oaks . These areas are an ultrasimplified version of a woodland and require almost no caution at all . ”
Learn more from the Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden on theirwebsite .
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