The Elizabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden part one: I Got a Golden Ticket!

As you may recall, I was in Alaska during the first week of July, returned home on the evening of July eighth and would have the ninth to get ready to head out to the Garden Bloggers' Fling in Portland on the tenth.  When Alison, The Bonnie Lassie, not the niece, emailed me with an offer to take her place at a class at the Miller Garden on the ninth, I initially declined.  However, she talked me into going and I'm so glad she did!  It didn't take a lot of coaxing as I'd wanted to see the garden and because of it's location in Seattle's first gated community, only 500 visitors a year are allowed to see the garden.  How lucky was I to get to visit the garden with no effort whatsoever?

For information about Elizabeth C. Miller, her garden, and her contribution to gardening, see this post.  See Alison's post here, Loree's posts here, and Justin's  posts here.


Elizabeth Miller had an encyclopedic knowledge of plants, was a collector and gardener.  The class I participated in was called "Plant Introductions from the Miller Garden." 

 

Plants, now common in commerce, were once rarities first grown in this very garden. 

 

Ms. Miller sponsored plant exploration expeditions and had accounts with nurseries abroad.  Whenever they got something new or unusual, Betty would certainly get as many as possible.  One of the stories told during the class was that of Miller ordering 5 tiny whips of some new tree (an Abies of some sort) at a cost of $100.00 each at a time when the median U.S. annual  household income was about $7000.00.  She kept one or two for herself and sold the others to plant collectors like Mrs. Wagner of Lakewold Gardens.  The others were not so keen on paying so much for such tiny things but went along with it anyway.

 

Don't try this at home Kids -

Miller loved trees and some that she planted are state champions (the largest tree of their type in the state.)  Like many avid gardeners, she didn't worry a whole lot about the future when she planted tiny specimens so close to the house. Can you see the roof in the picture below?  I'd sure be nervous in a windstorm if I lived here!

 

 

Some of the plants in the garden are the only ones in cultivation and will probably never make it into commerce because, in the words of our wonderful instructor, head gardener Holly, they're not all that exciting to a lot of people.  (These plants are not those!)

Roscoea 'Cinnamon Stick' perhaps?

A view of the house from the tiny and only lawn in the garden.

 The trees, they do grow high!

Mahonias were a favorite of Ms. Miller and many beautiful examples can be found here!

Dactylorhiza

The crested form of this fern made my heart skip a beat.  Or was it that I forgot to take my medication that day?  One way or the other, the fern is cool.

Such well done layering of foliage!  Notice the Wollemia nobilis, one of four in the garden. 

 

Hakonechloa in the foreground was also a Miller Garden introduction.  At one time, this was the only garden in the state that had it!

Really, there is a very nice home back there somewhere!

Pleasing combination!

The indumentum on this rhododendron glows in the summer sun.  Who cares about flowers?  Notice the meconopsis paniculata foliage at the bottom.

Tomorrow, we'll go down the hill a bit and see the sunnier part of the garden. Leafless Arctostaphylos left in situ after it's demise, is still adding sculptural beauty to the garden.