Garden Touring Part 2

  There was more to see of the old estates on the shores of the lakes in Lakewood. 

Next up, the George Weyerhaeuser garden. George and Wendy Weyerhaeuser bought this undeveloped property on Gravelly Lake in 1957. Wendy was the daughter of the Wagners, who owned Lakewold, which you saw in the last post, and she grew up on that estate. George is part of the Weyerhaeuser Family of forestry fame. She liked roses and he liked rhododendrons. The Weyerhaeuser garden is very much a Northwest garden with old growth fir trees, oaks, dogwoods, and of course rhododendrons and roses.

We checked in in the covered indoor/outdoor room. Here we met the gardener. He told us a little bit about the garden including why the roses were looking so strangely trimmed. Rabbits! He said he had never seen so many rabbits as this year. All the newly planted rose bushes now have wire cages around them. 

We walked through to the back of the house for views of the lake, the swimming pool, the terrace and the large deck. And more big trees!

Around the side and back of the house is a Japanese style garden with ponds and a stream.

Of course there is a great lawn, bordered with wonderful trees and rhododendrons. 

And then we were off to the next garden. the Madera Japanese and Rose Gardens. Madera on Gravelly Lake was developed by Joseph Carmen as an estate in 1920. While the house was being built the couple traveled around the world finding treasures for their new home. Mrs. Carmen fell in love with Japanese gardens and sponsored several Japanese gardeners to create a Pond Strolling Garden. While this garden is now very mature, the bones are still there.

Across the drive is the entrance to the rose garden. First designed as an Italian style garden, it was redesigned in the 1940's to a circular design. 

It's late season for roses and heavy rains recently have left them somewhat bedraggled. In fact most of this garden tour featured not blooms so much as bones, the structures of the gardens, their greenscapes  and their hardscapes. 

This large estate is now a gated community of many lovely newer homes. We talked to one of the residents, who signed us in. She said she and others had been out weeding and primping these two gardens for this opening. For them, this is just part of the community landscape.