Cool and damp weekend. We wanted to visit a couple of gardens. We discussed maybe the Rhododendron Species Foundation but decided we didn’t want to go that far. We were going to go to the another garden when I remembered that we had wanted to visit the Arboretum at South Seattle Community College.

It was new to us even though it started in 1978. Recently, the Seattle Chinese Garden opened next to it which gave us another reason to visit. It is located on Delridge area south of West Seattle Bridge. Five acres of about a dozen different growing areas. The best by far is the Coenosium Rock Garden which contains a world class collection of drawf conifers.

We were a little disappointed in the current condition of the garden. Many of the beds were overgrown with both plantings and weeds – most common the horsetail. The Coenosium garden is in good condition but most of the others needs some work.

After our visit, we walked over to the Chinese Garden which I will post about later.

Coenosium Rock Garden

Pinus contorta ‘Chief Joseph’