WEBVTT

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This is right across from the Visitor's Center.

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This area still has the original character and a lot of very showy rhododendrons

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in a lot of bright colors.

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A good variety of of small to medium to

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large plants, and blues and other colors.

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It's a great backdrop to take photos.

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The lower woodland pond there is a very serene place.

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It's placid and it's surrounded by flowering plants this time of year and has a lot of our Japanese Maples.

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There's a magnificent Golden Oak that really has bright yellow foliage.

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In fact, when I fly in a lot of times,

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you can kind of pick out that tree from the air.

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Yeah, a lot of nice beds of lower azaleas and

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then this very bright Oak that people always

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comment on.

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Azalea Way has a really interesting history. Before this was Seattle's fourth Park in 1900,

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it was logged twice and that was the original skid

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road that they used to get the logs out for milling.

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It was kind of this open, fairly muddy spot at that time,

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following the contours of the land.

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And then after that it was a harness racing track,

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in the early days of the park.

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So you'd take your horse out, there was a horse barn

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down kind of here where the Japanese garden is now.

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That was used for horse riding back then.

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The Olmsteds and other planners saw that early mark in the landscape and thought

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let's develop this, it's already a nicely open area in the middle of the cutover forest,

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so let's accentuate what we have.

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So they brought in a whole bunch of loads of manure and other things

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to make the soil little richer,

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widened it out a little bit.

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and kept that as the central feature,

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thought it could be something that people could really enjoy.

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The rhododendron hybrid garden showcases the work that local

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breeders of azaleas and rhododendrons have done

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over the last 60-70-80 years and we're one of the best places

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in the world to grow rhododendrons.

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It's really a showcase of all the different colors and

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forms and shapes that have been added to this amazing

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floriferous genus over the last 80 years.

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It's a really concentrated dose of different types of plants.

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You'll see unusual forms and colors there.

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Up the hill to the east side of Azalea Way there,

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we have many of the species rhododendrons and

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and many of those have been in the ground for 70 or 80 years,

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and so they've gotten pretty big,

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and you'll see these more tree-like forms and a

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lot of those have pretty big flower clusters too.

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And that's where we get a lot of our

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hybrids that have been developed from these naturally-occuring species

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in the wild.

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Taking colors or sizes of the blooms and brought them

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into a smaller plant or a little different color.

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But that's where you're going to see some really older

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or sizable specimens

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if you have time to wander off to the sides.

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You see a lot of lawn expanse, but in the background it's kind of in this low valley.

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You'll get cherries blossoming behind and larger flowering trees and then

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bigger species of rhododendrons, more of the large shrubs.

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This is a great spot. People come up

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to the pond and look at the turtles and

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you'll see a heron, animals using the pond, and it's kind

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of the biggest sheet of water we have,

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and so there's a nice set of several benches and

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then a newly-developed garden there that has a big stone bench

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That kind of overlooks the pond and then above the hill

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there's our lookout gazebo which was from the depression-era

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1930s when the Olmsteds designed to park and

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that gazebo looks out over Azalea Way to

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the north.

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But it's also a landmark looking south along Azalea Way.