Meerkerk Rhododendron Gardens (53 acres) are nonprofit
garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...
s located at 3531 Meerkerk Lane,
Greenbank, Washington
Greenbank is an unincorporated community on Whidbey Island in Island County, Washington, United States.
Greenbank, which was named by Calvin Philips after his homestead in Delaware, has a population around 1626. It is the location of the Green ...
. They are open daily; admission is $5.00
The gardens were founded by Ann and Max Meerkerk in the early 1960s on , and served as a site where they collected and hybridized
rhododendron
''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...
s. They gradually expanded the garden to of rhododendrons surrounded by an additional of woodlands. Ann Meerkerk left the gardens to the Seattle Rhododendron Society in 1979.
Today the garden features more than 1,500 varieties of rhododendron species and hybrids.