The garden path: Pretty places to see spring flowers

— Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle, 206543-8800, depts.washington.edu/wpa/. From February through June, "bursting with vivid spring floral displays from magnolias to rhododendrons," Joyce said.

— Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island, Wash., 206-842-7631, www.bloedelreserve.org. "Cultivated gardens and forests and a sweeping view of Puget Sound," with magical springtime displays of wildflowers like trillium.

— Heronswood Nursery, Kingston, Wash., 360-297-4172, www.heronswood.com. A commercial nursery; display gardens can be visited by appointment. Founder Dan Hinkley "has created an Arcadian wonderland on the Kitsap Peninsula," Joyce said. "You can find rare plants here that you won't find anywhere else, as well as plants brought back from the wild, propagated and sold by the nursery."

— Elk Rock The Gardens at the Bishop's Close, Portland, Ore., 800-452-2562, www.diocese-oregon.org/Garden/. "An amazing cliffside setting on the Willamette River," Joyce said. March is "magnolia month."

— Abkhazi Garden, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 250-598-8096, www.abkhazi.com. A storybook garden set amid massive outcroppings, built by a prince and princess who met in Paris in the 1920s, were interned in camps during World War II and later married.