-

-
Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Garden d'Lights at Bellevue Botanical Garden

"Garden d'Lights features over 1/2 million light which transform the Bellevue Botanical Garden into a blossoming winter wonderland."


"Over 100,000 people enjoy this dazzling display each holiday season."

"For 11 months of the year, volunteers put in hundreds of hours busily handcrafting Garden d'Linghts displays.  Starting with a single string of lights, they carefully fashion 3D representations of botanically corrct plants and flowers inspired by gardens in  Northwest gardens and around the world."

"Garden d'Lights began in 1994 with a few strings of purple and clear lights placed on a trellis ...to evoke wisteria and grape vines.  The display was immediately popular with visitors.  Over the years more ambitious displays were added to the various gardens and visitor areas."  - Text from the brochure given us as we entered the garden.


Not being a drug user, I can only wonder if this is what an actual garden might look under the influence of some sort of hallucinogenic drug.

Can you see the gardener?  The brochure didn't comment upon his/her botanical correctness or lack thereof.

These delphiniums need no additional staking!

Charlotte preparing getting ready for dinner.

Light shows are great fun and I appreciated the focus on gardens and gardening in this one!

Over 7,000 volunteer hours are required each year to create, build and maintain the existing inventory.  Can you imagine?  I hope these aren't the kind of lights where if one light in the string goes out, they all go out.  How frustrating would that be?



This huge tree was a popular backdrop for a lot of people taking selfies. 

Potted poinsettia was a real turn on.  (Sorry, couldn't help it.)  


Fortunately for all in attendance, I resisted bursting into  "You Light Up My Life."  

Lupines?

No garden in the Pacific Northwest is complete without slugs!  This one is named Willie.  





A quick visit to the tropics. 

Mmmmmmmmmmmagenta!

Barrel cacti.

They named it Snap d'Dragon.



Love the potting benches!





 Tomatoes ripening in the veggie garden.

Pesky rabbit near the carrots.




This tree rakes its own leaves. Wow, that is a garden fantasy!

These sunflowers were much taller than I.  

Cycads?  Agaves? 


Now that's a water feature!






What a fun way to spend Saturday evening!    For more information, check out the Garden d'Lights website here.
Hope you enjoyed our visit and will plan to visit yourself if you're in the area!

28 comments:

  1. You captured these so well. Charlotte-in-the-Web is beautiful. I would pull the plug on Willie the Snail. My favorite is the potting bench with the buckets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How about creating a big lit box of slug bait for Willie? Those benches were my faves too!

      Delete
  2. Light colour tastic! I can imagine kids (and adults) enjoying such displays!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was fun and surprisingly, there were many more adults than children there. We did go a bit later at night though.

      Delete
  3. I love that these are sculptures and not just plants wrapped in lights! At the start of this post I was thinking "not my thing, I'll just quickly scroll through..." but by the end I was really enjoying it! Really nice work to make most of these easily recognizable!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is a cool display and the sculptural aspect makes it unique in this area.

      Delete
  4. That was a fun tour! Even the bunny looked d'lightful in this context.

    Very well done with great ideas. I loved the poinsettias.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you liked the show, Shirley. I saw the cutest fox in a nursery the other day and thought of your collection.

      Delete
  5. Those Agave/cycads look a lot like spiders to me! You did well capturing the brightness of the lights, not an easy feat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Alison. Spiders make a lot of sense for those three agave/cycads! They were out in an area all by themselves and I didn't count the legs.

      Delete
  6. So I'm left wondering, do you or Tom put lights on the outside of your home?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, we never have. Just the other day, a young woman who was talking about her light hanging service, said that she strongly believed that people over 50 should NOT be standing on ladders to hang Christmas lights so we're off the hook. Don't tell Tom Reeder, he's always climbing on his roof for fun! When I was growing up, my folks put up some outside lights. I enjoy looking at what other people do but have no desire to have my own outside lights.

      Delete
  7. Forget Santa and his reindeer, this is the best light show I've ever seen!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We're very lucky to have several really wonderful light shows in the area. I'd not gone to this one before so it was a wonderful surprisel

      Delete
  8. That's quite a show. It's those 100,000 people that would keep me away. We tried to see the lights at The Grotto a couple of years ago. After circling for half an hour without gaining entrance or even a parking spot within walking distance, we gave up and went for Chinese.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There were a few other people around when we visited but we went kind of late and found parking right next to the main entrance.

      Delete
  9. Wow, that's amazing. Some of those plants are really well done, too. I'll say it if no one else will, some of your pictures remind me of scenes from Avatar.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've not seen Avatar but that's exactly what Tom said about the display. Sounds like an amazing movie!

      Delete
  10. Amazing, I've never seen anything remotely like this done with lights before.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is an unusual treatment of lights to be sure.

      Delete
  11. We have been going every year. I am excited to see how it is set up this year with the new additions to the garden.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It looks great! This was our first time visiting the show.

      Delete
  12. I've never HEARD of such a place! I never knew lights came in so many colors! Your photos are amazing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a nice experience. We are lucky here to have several great light shows in the area!

      Delete
  13. Wow, the lights are impressive. I especially liked the spider on the spider web.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.