Changes on the horizon for Meerkerk Gardens

A new crop of rhododendrons isn’t the only change coming to Meerkerk Gardens this spring.

Peak season has just begun at the Central Whidbey treasure, and while the buds are opening, garden staff and volunteers are also welcoming new personnel, building a new trail and initiating new programs and events.

Visitors from near and far will get to enjoy a recently-added trail this season. Publicity coordinator Ron Newberry said the trail, which is still a work in progress, connects the display gardens to the property’s hiking trails. The path will open this spring.

New staff members have also joined Meerkerk in recent months. Newberry said this is the first time he’s aware of that Meerkerk has been fully staffed at one time.

Newberry himself is a relatively recent addition to the team. He came aboard in September, bringing with him a lifelong love of gardening and the outdoors.

Another newcomer, garden manager Dave Schmidt, has only been working at Meerkerk for three weeks. Schmidt, a longtime horticulturist, first fell in love with Meerkerk when he and his family moved to Whidbey Island in 1989. When he and his wife returned to the area after a decade-long stint in California, he learned about the job by happenstance and figured it was meant to be.

Schdmit said getting to pour his knowledge and talents into a place he loves has been a dream come true.

“There really is no setting quite like this,” he said. “It’s just really a great place.”

Staff aren’t the only new members of the team; Meerkerk also welcomed 11 new volunteers this year. Led by volunteer Ellen Alexander, the group members, all of whom are Master Gardeners, lead regular “spring bloom tours” on Saturdays.

Though the gardens have had tours before, Newberry said they have never been held so consistently.

“There’s a real passion for this place. People kind of see it as their own place to go to be inspired and to just have that peace,” Newberry said of the volunteers. “They have a vested interest in having Meerkerk Gardens thrive.”

Currently, tours happen just once a week, at 1 p.m. on Saturdays. But beginning on April 16, Newberry said that will increase to two or three tours each Saturday.

April 16 is a big day for Meerkerk for another reason, too — that day, the gardens will host the organization’s first ever Easter egg hunt.

Meerkerk has long hosted three staple events — a Mother’s Day concert, a bluegrass festival and an Oktoberfest celebration. This year, a fourth event will join the calendar. Newberry said he hopes the new Easter egg hunt will attract more young families to the gardens.

“We want to be able to let people know that in the center of Whidbey Island, we have this magical place,” he said.

Renovations to the Meerkerk House are also on the docket. Garden founders Ann and Max Meerkerk lived in the mid-century modern style house in the gardens for years.

“This renovation allows us to preserve this history of this house and Meerkerk history itself,” Newberry said. “The house will serve as office space and meeting place for volunteers as well as allow us to have space for Meerkerk classes, meetings and events that benefit the community.”

As a nonprofit, Meerkerk relies largely on donations to maintain operations. Newberry said the house renovation is one project that would benefit greatly from community donations.

Monetary donations aren’t the only way to support the gardens, however; Newberry said the organization is always looking to expand its volunteer base. Later this summer, Meerkerk will need a large contingent of volunteers to assist with deadheading the rhododendrons after blooming season.

People can donate or sign up to volunteer at www.meerkerkgardens.org.

As always, Meerkerk is resplendent with blooms this time of year. The crown of its floral collection are its world-renowned rhododendrons, and the gardens boast a wide variety of other plants as well, including many species rare to Whidbey Island, such as a monkey puzzle tree Ann Meerkerk collected at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair.

The flora isn’t Meerkerk’s only attraction, either; the gardens are also home to all kinda of critters, including woodpeckers, frogs, bumblebees, deer and salamanders. Orcas and gray whales in Holmes Harbor can even be spotted from the Meerkerk property.

Even during the non-blooming season, Newberry said Meerkerk is still worth visiting. Besides the gardens, Meerkerk’s 53 acres include two miles of hiking trails for residents to enjoy year-round. Newberry said the property is just as stunning in fall colors or blanketed in winter snow as it is in the springtime.

Meerkerk Gardens was founded in the early 1960s by Ann, an artist, and her husband Max, a former antiquities dealer. The couple loved rhododendrons and began collecting many varieties of them on their 13-acre property near Greenbank.

Max and Ann purchased 20 more acres together, and after Max passed away in 1969, Ann acquired another 20. After she passed away in 1979, she left the 53 acres of gardens and woodland to the Seattle Rhododendron Society.

The society cared for it for decades until 2002, when the Meerkerk Gardens nonprofit organization formed and assumed ownership and responsibility for the property.

(Photo by Karina Andrew/Whidbey News-Times)

Meerkerk Gardens are in full bloom this time of year, with its famous rhododenrons and other flowers in all colors adorning its walking paths. (Photo by Karina Andrew/Whidbey News-Times)