Category: Pt. Defiance Park

Debbie and Jeff’s recent visit to Tacoma finally managed to get me out of the garage where I’ve been frantically working on bathroom cabinets for the last month. Since Debbie is a Master Gardener, we took her to see the Point Defiance Rose Garden

where roses and, my favorites, dahlias, were in full bloom. I really do prefer Dahlias to roses, so it’s not surprising that my favorite shots were of dahlias like this beauty.

Although the beauty of these flowers probably are enough, I couldn’t resist shooting some from a different viewpoint, as in this shot

It’s easy to see how I got inspired to try drawing mandalas recently.

For a short while every year the Pacific Northwest may well be the most beautiful place on earth when our Rhododendrons bloom, and this has been a particularly good year for Rhodies.

We took our out-of-town visitors to the Point Defiance Rhododendron Garden and they seem almost as impressed by it as I have always been. I doubt that any kind has ever had a more royal purple than the purple Rhody at the entrance of the garden.

If that shade of purple doesn’t please you, there were many other shades.

I’ll have to admit, though, that I tend to favor the pink rhodies which come closer to the native rhodies found in the mountains.

The garden also features a bright yellow rhodie, the only one I’ve ever seen.

One of the major factors in deciding to buy our present home was how close it is to Pt. Defiance Park. Skye had to be walked everyday, and I could’t imagine a better place to do that then Pt. Defiance. The Spring after we moved here I discovered the Rhododendron Garden, and I haven’t missed visiting that ever year since. I was late getting there this year, but there were more than enough rhodies in bloom to justify our visit.

Most of the white varieties seemed past their prime, but there were a lot of purple

and red varieties

in full bloom. Many of the later varieties were about to bloom

into their full beauty.