Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden

Many of the botanical garden’s plants were salvaged from land bought as part of the expansion of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. As you enter the garden, the 1-acre Elda Behm Paradise Garden nestles up against a forest on the right. A recirculating stream flows through a 100 foot long series of waterfalls before emptying into a 7,000 gallon pond. Sunny borders are packed with a bewildering variety of Elda’s favorites, and 10,000-square-foot shade garden is cloaked in a canopy of alders and madronas.

Continue east from the entrance and you’ll find gardens of maintained by the King County Iris Society and the Puget Sound Daylily Club, and a formal rose garden maintained by the Seattle Rose Society featuring over 100 labeled roses. Weddings are held on the central lawn area within the rose beds.

On the easternmost side of the gardens is the recently relocated Seike Japanese Garden, built in 1961 partly as a memorial to a son fallen in World War II. A consultant from Japan designed the garden — a classic "pond-and-mountain" style — and oversaw its construction with the Seike family, who owned the Des Moines Way Nursery for more than 55 years. This attraction is located about 2.5 miles from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.