The Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden in Seattle

The Sunny Bank

I was very excited to get the opportunity to visit this garden because I've heard so much about it. It did not disappoint. The garden was created by Elisabeth Carey Miller and her husband Pendleton who purchased the house in 1948. Mrs. Miller was a self-taught gardener who used her artistic skills (she majored in Art History) to create the stunning garden which features a dense canopy of native conifers. She became a plant collector and tracked down unusual specimens and was known as a well-respected plantswoman in the horticultural community.

The front entrance

Visiting this garden is not exactly easy. It is situated in a restricted community and there is a limit to the number of visitors per year. You must make an appointment on the website at designated times or you can find a tour group like I did. The address isn't listed either although even if you had it, you would have to get past the security guard at the gate to the neighborhood.

I think if I lived in this neighborhood, I would never venture out beyond the gates again. Dense with huge mature trees and thick hedges, it was like entering an enchanted forest. There was so much vegetation that I only caught glimpses of two houses along the way. 

The entrance to the Miller garden is on a descending slope. The back part of the property continues to slope downhill toward the river. Our tour actually started in the back garden near the patio but I will begin in the front.

The front garden, known as the "Upper Woodland" is terraced by trails and rock walls. A huge amount of rock and logs were used in the construction of the garden.

There were quite a number of large, mature rhododendrons throughout the landscape. Mrs. Miller didn't care for flowers and actually instructed her gardeners to cut off rhododendron blooms. She only wanted the leaves. On a rhododendron like the one below ('Noyo Chief'), I can see why.

 

 Walking around the side of the house brings us to a covered patio area and a sunroom.

Outside this area is the "Sunny Bank" where our tour initially began.

Elisabeth Miller was the first person in the U.S. to grow the Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’). The clump in the above photo is the original plant that was added over forty years ago.

I was quite taken with their large collection of cordyline. Many of these are grown in pots and protected during the winter although I think some of them may stay out year round. This was my favorite -

 

Down a set of rocky steps from the Sunny Bank brings us to the "Sunny Rockery"filled with drought-tolerant plants -

 Down lower is the Shade Rockery and Wild Garden -

 

 And finally, the Lookout Garden which overlooks the Puget Sound -

 

 A fantastic garden and one that I'd love to see again, especially in the autumn.

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy