North to Anderson School! (part two)

Yesterday's post was a (very) detailed look at just one part of the McMenamins Anderson School gardens. Today I share photos from the rest of the campus...

And a campus it really is, since the facility occupies what was Bothell's first Junior High School — not that bamboo, red bananas and Tetrapanax were growing there, back then.

I love the combination of a "trying to bloom" Tetrapanax and Araucaria araucana, the monkey puzzle tree.

Proof that the unusual is at home here, Fatsia polycarpa 'Needham's Lace' or as it's called in the UK: Fatsia Polycarpa Edward Needham form.

Nolina 'La Siberica'

I love the polite (yet direct at times) signage.

Heading across the parking lot I discovered a few lush Loquats/aka Eriobotrya japonica.

And then encountered the meadow garden. How striking it is in its decline, how different it must look in high summer.

I absolutely love this much space has been given over to these plants.

And a huge old tree was preserved. Imagine the changes it's seen.

Pathway through the meadow.

Spoilsports!

A nice place to sit for a bit, on a drier, warmer day.

As frozen and wet as I was, I was still determined to see it all.

Taking this photo I realized I might be looking right into a guest room. I later asked Riz and he confirmed that the gardeners to have to be careful where they point their eyes.

The rain/sleet was once again turning towards snow as I climbed these steps.

A former bloom of Eryngium agavifolium turning into a plantlet.

Where is everyone? Oh ya, over by the fire...(I didn't photograph the group huddled by the warming flames, privacy and all ya know).

Happy Daphniphyllum...

Love how the tawny grass brings out the petiole color of the Daphniphyllum.

Additional prof that things are a little unusual in a McMenamins garden; Pseudopanax ferox. I've heard Dan Hinkley say this would be perfectly happy in the ground in our PNW gardens, even through winter, but I'm still not willing to risk mine. Portland is just to variable, especially my neighborhood.

Ugh. So cold, so wet!

But I can't stop taking photos! Until I do. I have to, my fingers are frozen.

So I step inside for a bit, to warm up and chat with Riz while I enjoy a glass of wine in the North Shore Lagoon. The bamboo work throughout the "Lagoon" was done by The Bamboo Craftsmen, a Portland company.

I really wish I had been more attentive and I would have snapped a photo looking down at the pool from those windows behind the bar.

Here's the pool, those "skylights" above are open to the sky. For awhile it was snowing in the pool. How crazy magical right?

Riz shared that the haze/steam does sometimes shut down the pool. If the lifeguard can't see across the pool then people can't swim.

Safety fist, I guess (at the expense of fun)...

Since this area is enclosed, yet open, plant hardiness zones are pushed — of course.

Dreamy...right?

Back outside it was time to say goodbye to Riz and Anderson School, I had an uncertain drive ahead of me.

In the end the drive turned out fine (I even had time to stop at Wells Medina and Ravenna Gardens), but who would have thought there would be snow in western Washington on November 3rd? Crazy...

Weather Diary, Nov 30: Hi 47, Low 37/ Precip .06"

All material © 2009-2017 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.