Elandan Gardens
The six-acre site, located on the shores of Puget Sound, was an abandoned, bramble-covered landfill from the 1930s that was never developed past its refuse origins. After three years of dreaming, planning and applying for permits, the Robinsons were finally granted permission to create Elandan Gardens.
In the fall of 1993, the Robinsons brought in 30,000 cubic yards of sandy fill dirt and over 800 tons of boulders - some close to 8 tons each - and began to give shape to this unique environment. Diane coined the name "Elandan", which is a combination of "Elan" - French for spirit or courage - and Dan, who is the true spirit of the Robinson's bonsai collection and garden.
The garden has grown into a spectacular display of flora encompassing a range of alpine micro-environments that includes ancient gnarled trees, silvery dead wood, waterfalls, a pond and monuments of stone encrusted with moss and lichen.
Everything here is sculptural. The main walkway is 10-15 feet below the earthen ridges. This causes visitors to look up, which silhouettes the trees, snags and stones against the sky. Rock outcroppings with twisted trees and potted bonsai surround a freshwater pond. Towering, charred snags, which are often graced with an eagle or osprey, cast shadows over the plantings of native grasses, ground covers and ferns.
This dramatic setting is now home to much of Dan Robinson's world-renowned bonsai collection. The majority of the trees in the collection were collected from wild places and each exhibits a design induced by hundreds of years of nature's ceaseless whimsy. One of the oldest trees in the collection is a Rocky Mountain Juniper approaching 1500 years. As dazzling as the ancient trees are, sprinkled into the mix of the landscape specimens and bonsais are highly stylized Japanese Black Pines that Dan grew from seed.
When Dan returned from his service in the Korean theater in the early Sixties, he brought with him a collection of Black Pine seeds. He planted and trained them in the ground, creating dozens of crooked bonsai and landscape pine trees.
Dan's bonsai collection continues to expand and Elandan Gardens continues to evolve with each passing season.
Alaska Yellow Cedar, Camaecyparis nootkatensis, Date of Origin: 1650
In 1993 I flew to Ketchican, Alaska, with my son William, to explore and collect. Two trees survive today (in 2004) from that collecting trip. One a Lodge Pole Pine is yet to be trained, the other is presented here. Heavily carved and wire trained its presentation is completed with its planting on the granite stone.
Rocky Mountain Juniper, Juniperus scopularum, Date of Origin: 705
Collected in the Seminoe Mountains of Wyoming in 1989. Just a narrow strip of bark (one inch) maintains the lifeline to the living top. The exposed weathered roots display the intensity of the suns erosive capabilities (sublimation).
Big Cone Douglas Fir, Pseudo tsuga macrocarpa, Date of Origin: 1205
Collected from natural granitic basin high in the Colorado Rockies, this tree, with the helping hand of Larry Jackall, was lifted straight up out of the basin using a crowbar under the bottom branch. The tree was subsiquently planted in a granite basin here at Elandan Gardens. Its spiraled bark and dead wood are the result of a genetic mutation.
Ponderosa Pine, Pinus ponderosa, Date of Origin: 1700
When I spotted this tree struggling for life in the crack of a granite boulder in Wyoming, I instantly had a plan to create a cascade style bonsai with its swollen base and short compact branches. To complete the design, heavy wiring would be needed to manipulate the branches. Heavy wire holds the branches in the position you determine for the trees artistic creation.
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