Highline Botanical Garden Foundation

Mission

To manage and develop a community-owned garden that demonstrates today's best horticulture and environmental practices. The garden houses a unique plant collection that helps to educate visitors and creates beauty for public enjoyment.

Description

The Highline Botanical Garden Foundation was created in 1996 by volunteers determined to save an award winning English cottage garden owned and tended by Elda Behm. Her Paradise Garden was in the shadow of the third runway. The Foundation found a new home for the garden at North SeaTac Park in 2000. The City of SeaTac, the Port of Seattle and over 200 local volunteers pitched in to help move thousands of plants their home. Elda Behm's original Paradise Garden a 35 year old labor of love was reborn to become the focus of a 10.54 acre Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden. In 2005, the City of SeaTac working with the Garden Foundation was able to secure funding from the State and city to move the Seike Japanese Garden from its original site in the Des Moines Nursery to the Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden to save it from being demolished by the Third Runway efforts at SeaTac Airport. Created by Hiroshima designer Shintaro Okada and built by the Shinichi Seike family , the garden first opened in 1961. It was created as a memorial to their son Toll, who was killed in action in the US Army in World War II.

Between the two historic gardens lie ever-changing beds sponsored and nurtured by local plant societies, including the Puget Sound Daylily Club, the King County Iris Society, the Seattle Rose Society, the NW Fuchsia Society ad the Western Species Fuchsia Society. The Garden is free to the public and open during daylight hours.