Holiday Issue 2021

35 Bloedel Reserve is an internationally renowned public garden and forest preserve, located just west of downtown Seattle on Bainbridge Island. With its mission of enriching peoples’ lives through a premier public garden of natural and designed Pacific Northwest landscapes, Bloedel Reserve is highly deserving of the Best North American Botanical Garden Award 2021. Gentle trails meander through nearly 150 acres of sculpted landscapes, forests, meadows and wildlife habitats, creating a one-of-a-kind immersive experience in nature. The grounds also include an historic residence, originally used by the founders of the Reserve, Prentice and Virginia Bloedel as a summer home. There is also a Gatehouse Gift Shop at the entrance to the Reserve which, along with the grounds, is open only to visitors with booked time tickets and masks due to the pandemic and Washington state health and safety protocols. The residence is closed to the public at this time. Visitors to Bloedel Reserve come from all across the region, the state, the country, and the world. In a typical pre-COVID year, the Reserve would see upwards of 60,000 visitors. In 2020, that number dropped significantly, in part due to a three-month closure of the grounds. But Bloedel Reserve is now open once more and visitors are eager to spend time walking the trails and relaxing whilst immersed in nature. An experiential garden and forest preserve, it’s not a typical botanical garden. The gardens and grounds have very little signage or plant identifiers. This is deliberate. Bloedel Reserve founder, Prentice Bloedel envisioned the purpose of the grounds to be immersive and not an exercise in plant identification. Another unique feature of the grounds is the wide variety of landscapes for visitors to enjoy. The landscapes and gardens range from a widely recognised Japanese Garden, a Moss garden with 43 varieties of moss blanketing the landscape, and the recently renovated Buxton Bird Marsh & Meadow (planted with 50 varieties of native bloomers designed to attract pollinators back to the grounds), to the deeply forested stretches of trails flanked with cedar, hemlock and other native Pacific Northwest trees. The grounds also have streams, ponds and a gorgeous view of the Puget Sound, making water an important element of the Bloedel Wonders of Nature experience too. The range of natural and cultivated garden and landscapes is truly astonishing. In order to fulfill its mission of enriching peoples’ lives, Bloedel Reserve has identified four key principals that define, shape and inform the programmes it creates and the projects it initiates and supports, both on the grounds and within the community. Those principles are horticulture and design, conservation and stewardship, creativity and inspiration, and nature and well-being. Furthermore, it believes in equity and that nature is vital and should be accessible to all. Bloedel Reserve’s IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility) initiative is focused on ensuring that it is a welcoming, inclusive, and representative organisation. In the words of its President and CEO, Ed Moydell: “I’m grateful to work at Bloedel Reserve because there is no other place like it. Its beauty, sense of place and power to inspire are truly unique. I’m fortunate to work with a passionate team of people who are dedicated, talented and creative, and who are really good people. Finally, I’m grateful for the incredible support we receive from the community that makes all of our work possible.” It has been especially apparent how Bloedel Reserve serves the community during the pandemic. Having a place to go to safely refresh and recharge outdoors has been immensely important to visitors, and the gratitude that they have expressed has been truly overwhelming. And to quote a visitor on their Bloedel Reserve experience, they said: “It was magnificent, magical, peaceful, radiant, delightful. I walked slowly… sat on every bench… and breathed in the magnitude of such a gift this garden is to the world.” Looking towards the rest of 2021, Bloedel Reserve will be completing construction of a new composting facility which will triple its ability to create and use its own compost throughout the grounds. This is just one of many initiatives that allow the Reserve to incorporate green horticultural practices and innovation into its work. The Reserve will also continue to use virtual tools such as Zoom to create ways for members, friends, and fans to connect with Bloedel Reserve through the likes of virtual gatherings, classes and workshops, until onsite group activities are once again possible. And in the coming year, it will begin work on a new entrance landscape that will greet visitors as they arrive. Company: Bloedel Reserve Contact: Gretchen Douma Website: http://www.bloedelreserve.org/ Feb21611