Bellevue Botanical Garden was named “Best Park in the Northwest” by King 5’s 2009 Northwest Escapes contest.

The Bellevue Botanical Garden, at 12001 Main St., features 53 acres of display gardens, trails, woodlands, meadows and wetlands. It includes the Northwest Perennial Alliance Border, Waterwise Garden, Yao Garden, Alpine Rock Garden and summer displays of dahlias and fuchsias.

The garden is open dawn to dusk, year round, with free admission. Free docent-led tours are offered Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. and the Trillium gift shop, located in the Shorts Visitor Center, is open daily 10 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

More than 300,000 people visit the garden each year and it offers many opportunities for enjoyment regardless of the season or weather. In the winter months, hundreds of garden volunteers transform the garden with bundles of commercial grade outdoor lights formed into three dimensional flowers, shrubs, vines, and critters in the annual Garden d’Lights festival.

The Bellevue Botanical Garden is owned and maintained by Bellevue Parks & Community Services, in conjunction with the Bellevue Botanical Garden Society and several other garden partners.

One contest voter who reviewed the garden said it is a place “where visitors may walk, stroll, jog, play, photograph, paint, contemplate, sit, smell, and listen in this daily changing habitat. The colors and textures respond to the seasons. We are so fortunate to have this place where we can enjoy and learn together.”

For more information about the Bellevue Botanical Garden call 425-452-2750 or visit http://www.bellevuebotanical.org/