PNW Gardens: Lakewold Gardens
Lakewold Gardens is in Lakewood on the west side of Gravelly Lake between DuPont and Tacoma. The grounds that now comprise the garden were once the private gardens belonging to the sister of the couple that owned Bloedel Reserve. A Georgian-style home still sits on the site built to replace a country retreat from the previous owners when the area was still rural. The property and grounds are popular as a rental space for events and weddings. There is a gift shop and small plant shop next to the main guest parking area. I’ve never been able to visit without buying something.
You might call Lakewold the sister estate of Bloedel Reserve, for Eulalie Merrill Wagner, Lakewold’s owner, was the sister of Virgina Merrill Bloedel.
— The Pacific Northwest Garden Tour, Donald Olsen, Page 202
Spring is an especially beautiful time to visit the gardens as they have many mature stands of rhododendrons, including some ~900 lining the main Circle Drive from the entrance, and other spring-flowering perennials and annuals tended to by a landscape crew and volunteers. The endowment fund behind The Friends of Lakewold non-profit stipulates continued care for the garden.
“As we become more and more city creatures,” [Eulalie Merrill Wagner] wrote at the time, “living in man-made surroundings, perhaps gardens will become even more precious to us, letting us remember that we began in the garden.”
— The Pacific Northwest Garden Tour, Donald Olsen, Page 205
Much of the groundcover and undergrowth is a lovely blend of sought after spring bulbs and favorites like shooting star, pink dogtooth violet, and checkered lily (fritillaria). Many swaths of groundcover are lovely stands of dogtooth violets and avalanche lilies, in both white and pink.
After leaving the formal area near the house on the way to the lake is a woodland garden with flowing creek and pond. This area has my “spark tree,” a Japanese maple called Deshojo, that puts out fresh leaves in spring the color of crimson blooms, before turning green during the summer, and back to a rainbow display in fall. I bought one for my own garden not long after visiting Lakewold for the first time.
I have not visited Lakewold in the summer but I suspect the roses, and annual and perennial show is probably pretty spectacular. But I’m a sucker for the spring garden. I can’t get enough of towering rhododendrons, magnolias, Japanese maples is fresh foliage, and all the small flowering bulbs and ground covers. Spring at Lakewold gives you all of that and more!
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