Road Trip Garden-Elandan Gardens

Bremerton, Washington

Bonsai is for lovers of the twisted and the ancient, for those passionate about illusion and the art form side of craft. Bonsai is a combination of art and horticulture in the highest form: a living thing controlled and trained both above ground and below. All gardens rely on the element of time in their creation; time for trees to achieve a certain height, for a plant to mature and bloom…but two to 25 years in the garden is nothing when compared to some bonsai specimens whose age can be in the hundreds. The time element in bonsai adds a level of unsurpassed awe.

Art and craft in bonsai go hand in hand with tradition. Classic Japanese bonsai styling has been handed down to bonsai students over the centuries with little sway from the core principles. Enter Dan Robinson. Dan has been a bonsai pioneer for over 65 years, developing the “naturalistic” style he is known for, which often clashes with traditional bonsai methods. The results are indeed awe-inspiring and can be seen in the garden he created near Seattle, Washington.

Elandan Gardens is a dream that materialized from stone, water, trees, time, gumption, and … garbage. The seven-acre garden is easy to miss on the busy WA-16 about an hour west of Seattle. A former trash dump, the garden is now a living museum of Dan’s bonsai and his son, Will Robinson’s artistic stonework. The setting of all this creativity is Puget Sound. Water and forested hills are the backdrop to the 300+ exquisite specimens on display- some in bonsai pots, some directly planted in the ground.

Dan smuggled seeds, even trees, in his duffel bag during his military service in Korea. The impressive red pines, Pinus densiflora, share the grounds, along with coastal redwoods and Japanese maples which make up a permanent part of the collection.

The potted bonsai specimens are the main focus. If Dan is available, he might give a personal tour, making sure you don’t miss or overlook any specimen worthy of note…and they are all worthy of note, each with a unique story of where they were found and how they were worked into the specimen you see before you.

If you do not get a personal tour, Dan has written each specimen’s story and mounted it below the base. These aren’t just factual signage with dates and places; they tell the tree’s story and history to bring a deeper level of appreciation.