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Plant Life By Valerie Easton

Mastering The Plan

Paige Miller takes the Arboretum helm with a strong hand

Information in this story published on September 9, 2007 was corrected on September 17, 2007. The story about new Arboretum Executive Director Paige Miller incorrectly identified her husband. His name is Bruce Johnson.

If the new Arboretum executive director's name has a familiar ring, it's because Paige Miller was a Seattle port commissioner for 18 years. She also raised serious money for the Seattle Chinese Garden, first on the board and then as a consultant. Now Miller, 58, is turning her talents to kick-starting the Washington Park Arboretum master plan. She's determined to break ground next month so that a year from now, visitors will be able to stroll through the first completed Pacific Connections garden.

The hiring of a political pro like Miller is a first for the Arboretum Foundation. Longtime director Deb Andrews, who resigned last year, came up through the ranks of volunteers. Perhaps hiring a force like Miller represents not only the Arboretum's maturation as an organization but also new-found determination to shepherd the master plan into reality. All of us who love this Olmsteadian green space at the heart of our city can only hope that Miller will succeed.

"This place is complicated, it's a troika," says Miller of the Arboretum's complicated governance. The place is a Seattle park, so the land itself is owned by the city. The plant collections are owned and managed by the University of Washington. The Arboretum Foundation's role is to raise the money and volunteer support to make it all work. Miller sees the foundation as a community of advocates for the Arboretum. "I know the city and the mayor and many of the people here at the foundation," she says, "and I'm working to understand the university."

Miller arrived for her job interview with her first gardening book in hand, a 1958 edition of "Garden Pools, Water-Lilies and Goldfish" by G.L. Thomas. Her parents gave Miller her first garden plot at age 5, outside the dining-room window at her family's home on Long Island, N.Y. She considers this early encouragement crucial in her growing up to become a gardener. After getting a law degree, Miller moved west with her new husband, Bruce Johnson. "Like Hillary, I met a guy at Yale Law School, but unlike Hillary I didn't have to go to Arkansas," she says with a laugh. The couple, now separated, have a daughter and two sons; the youngest graduated from high school last spring.

Pink 'Gloriosa' water lilies, inspired by that long-ago book, grow in a tub on Miller's porch at her 1901 Queen Anne home. Miller has added a bog, pond and recirculating stream to the established garden of magnolias, lilacs, birches and half-century-old peonies. "I've been in this house 21 years and still don't have a good arbor," she complains, but she does grow blueberries, raspberries, lilies and roses. "It's not designed, just a mix of things I love," she says. Miller also shares a P-Patch with City Councilwoman Jan Drago.

"This job takes my passion for gardening and matches it with my experiences and skills in public life," says Miller, who is clearly enjoying her new position. She spreads out a thick set of documents to illustrate the plans for the Pacific Connections gardens. Being a gardener herself, she knows well enough that these ambitious plans will require a healthy maintenance budget, so she's working to raise an endowment dedicated to caring for the new gardens. She's off to a strong start. In her first two months on the job, Miller raised $75,000 from the Seattle Foundation and convinced the university to chip in $50,000 to help move the holly collection, a necessary step to get the plan in motion.

Watching Miller expertly thumb through the detailed plans, point out the Pacific Rim countries she's visited and the plants she admires gives hope that these long-anticipated gardens will soon be off the drawing board and growing in the ground. Miller sums it up this way: "I bring a strong focus to getting things done. The word most people use to describe me, for good or ill, is tenacious."

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and author of "A Pattern Garden." Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net. Betty Udesen is a Seattle Times staff photographer.

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