How the winners were chosen

An impressive 141 gardens were entered in the 13th-annual Pacific Northwest Gardens: A Competition for Home Gardeners, this region's premier gardening contest. The Seattle Times' Pacific Northwest magazine and the Northwest Flower & Garden Show, in cooperation with The Arboretum Foundation, sponsored the competition.

The grand-prize winners receive hotel expenses and a round-trip air ticket for two to London's Chelsea Flower Show in May. The second-place winners receive a trip for two to the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show in March, while third place captures a $500 cash award.

The top 15 contestants were honored last summer during a ceremony at the Washington Park Arboretum. Six each received $150 gift certificates, and nine others $50 certificates, from Swanson's Nursery.

All-volunteer teams of judges — each with gardening expertise, trained and guided by Arboretum Foundation staff — rated the gardens by way of a standardized scoring sheet and point system. They considered overall design, diversity of plant material, color, foliage and the like. Gardens that made the first cut were advanced to second-round judging, where a new team of judges viewed and assessed.

Second-round judges for this contest were Barbara Stock, Daniel Winterbottom, Greg Graves and Tory Galloway. Each traveled more than 160 miles in a 10-hour day to make assessments for final-round judges.

Judges for the final, third round were W. Alan Burke, a landscape architect and partner in Classic Nursery Landscape Co. of Redmond; Jeanne E. McNeil, executive director of the Washington State Nursery & Landscape Association; and Daniel Lowery of Queen Anne Gardens, a certified member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers. The Arboretum Foundation's Janet Endsley, competition chairwoman, accompanied final-round judges.

— Dean Stahl