Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden

Seattle Rose Society Celebration Garden

The third club to join the Club and Society Beds portion of HSBG was the Seattle Rose Society, which is developing the area just east of the Paradise Garden. The space is a beautiful, fragrant public gathering place suitable for celebrations of every kind, as well as a teaching and working border where local rosarians give demonstrations on selection, cultivation, and care.

The garden is maintained by a team led by Lori White of SRS and Lonnie Garceau of the Valley Rose Society. Members of other local rose societies are encouraged to join us! The roses are maintained organically, and the only products applied to the roses are Messenger, compost, and love.

A central turf area, planted and maintained by the City of SeaTac Parks Department, is flanked by a dual colonnade of concrete columns donated by Secret Garden Statuary. Soon this framework will be surrounded by mixed borders featuring a variety of the best roses for Puget Sound gardens. The roses are in, and companion plantings will follow as funding permits. A decorative seatwall will eventually surround the lawn, and donors are sought for this portion of the project. This multipurpose gathering space plays host to around a dozen weddings a year.

Directly north of the lawn, a fountain also donated by Secret Garden Statuary is now installed. It anchors a smaller "room" of mixed borders, arbors, and arches draped in climbing roses. The arches, modeled after those at the Monet Garden, are complete, and will be installed as weather permits.

At the opposite end of the space is a display of SRS's top 20 hybrid Tea Roses for Puget Sound Gardens. This planting is updated frequently to showcase the most disease resistant, floriferous, and carefree hybrid tea roses for our area.

The design was completed by a team including former SRS President Lori White and local landscape designers Nikki Fields, Debbie Caton, and Greg Butler.

For more information about SRS, visit their web site at www.seattlerosesociety.org. To volunteer at the Rose Garden, contact Lori White. To reserve the Rose Garden for a wedding, please visit our Weddings page

The Seattle Rose Society Garden and the Highline Botanical Garden Foundation are grateful for the support of the following:

Secret Garden Statuary
Cedar Grove Composting
Eden Bioscience, manufacturers of Messenger
The City of SeaTac Parks Department