A stroll through the Japanese Garden at the Washington Park Arboretum is both a soul-stirring delight and a profound lesson in garden design.
The deceptive simplicity of the garden reveals the beauty of every stone, artfully pruned branch, ripple of water and unfolding flower.
Cherry petals strewn on the path are heart-stoppingly lovely in such a setting.
As we soak up the tranquil atmosphere, we can't help but notice that pruning is an art form, that ornamental cherry trees look their best planted in groves and that every little detail along the path has been carefully orchestrated for maximum satisfaction.
Opening ceremony
The Japanese Garden opens with a traditional Shinto blessing Feb. 26, at noon.
The public is invited to tour the garden and enjoy the opening ceremonies, including taiko drummers and a martial-arts demonstration, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The garden officially opens for the season on Feb. 28, and will remain open daily through November, 10 a.m. until dusk.
The garden is located at 1075 Lake Washington Blvd. E. in the Washington Park Arboretum. Call 206-684-4725 for more information.
Guide training
There's no better way to learn about the Japanese Garden's traditions, design and plants than to volunteer. Sign up now for Guide Training, which takes place over four Tuesdays in March, and offers a chance to study Japanese art, culture and gardening — and then share your knowledge with visitors.
The course fee of $30 includes all materials. Call 206-283-9902 for
more information and to sign up. Class size is limited.
Such lessons are easily transportable to our own gardens, no matter what their size and style.
Seattle's treasured Japanese Garden was installed in 1960 by renowned Japanese designer Juuki Iida.
It's a stroll garden, patterned after the pleasure grounds of wealthy 16th- and 17th-century merchants and aristocrats.
Iida hand-selected more than 500 granite boulders in the Cascade Mountains, some weighing up to 11 tons, and directed their placement along with thousands of plants.
Because of the curving pathways, the submersion into shady intimacy and the views across ponds and hillsides, the garden seems much larger than its 3 ½ acres.
I once took a group of school kids to the Japanese Garden, and even the 9-year-olds felt the atmospheric hush of the place and walked its paths in appreciative silence — for a little while, anyway.
They were entranced by the fat, slow-swimming koi, the graceful little teahouse behind its bamboo fence, the gnarled old trunk of the wisteria both stretching overhead and reflected in the pond.
The plantings are mainly evergreen for sturdy year-round structure, with flashes of color to celebrate the changing seasons.
Hellebore Open House and Plant Sale
Pick up a dose of winter color for your garden at the Northwest Perennial Alliance's Hellebore Open House and Plant Sale on March 5, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Held at the Bellevue Botanical Garden Visitors Center (12001 Main St., Bellevue), the sale will feature hundreds of hellebores and other late-winter plants grown by local vendors and dug from the famed BBG perennial border.
All sales support the border, which you'll want to be sure to visit while you're at the garden, for spring bulbs, grasses and the earliest bloomers should be at their springtime best just in time for the sale.
Soon the cherry trees will burst with pink, frothy bloom, followed by vivid azaleas.
Then in May the wisteria will drip fragrant purple flowers down through the pergola overhanging the pond.
Buds are forming, leaves are bursting forth and the Japanese Garden is about to come into its most spectacular season when it opens next weekend.
Valerie Easton also answers questions in Wednesday's Plant Talk in Northwest Life. Send questions to P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111 or planttalk@seattletimes.com. Sorry, no personal replies.
