Pilchuck Pollinator

A membership program was started in 1976, with membership gradually building, ultimately to over 750 members from 15 different countries.  Plant distribution to members was also begun about this time, with the profits helping to support the garden. 1980 marked the opening of the Garden to the public on a limited basis, the formal establishment of a coordinated volunteer program, and the completion of a garden master plan that proposed replanting the collection in the Garden to reflect taxonomic groups (those species that are most closely related are planted near one another).  This replanting was completed in 1984.

An International Rhododendron Species Symposium organized by the RSF was held in Tacoma, Washington, in April, 1985.  Education has always been a primary goal of the RSF.  One way to serve this objective is to provide horticulture students with practical hands-on experience. The Student Intern Program was inaugurated in 1986.  Since that time 48 budding horticulturists have worked and studied in the Garden and nursery.

 

In 1989 the new garden Gift Shop opened adjacent to Weyerhaeuser's newly constructed Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection, sharing a common entry, courtyard, and visitor facilities.  A new structure was built in 1995 near the Gift Shop for the sale of plants to the public.

In 1997 an anonymous member of the Board offered a matching challenge grant of $400,000 for the RSF Endowment fund. Members, granting agencies, and friends met the goal, and then some, to boost the fund to over one million dollars.  A small portion of the interest from the Endowment helps fund garden operations.

 

In the mid-1990s it was gradually becoming clear that simply propagating plants vegetatively from good forms of the species primarily in British gardens was not adequately serving either the needs of gardeners as the membership grew, or the mandate of the Foundation, especially in regard to conservation.  This was especially true as areas in Asia previously closed had been opening up for new exploration, and at the same time habitat destruction was taking place at an unprecedented rate.  The gene pool of plants in cultivation had to be increased, and it was decided that in many ways the intraspecific variations were as important to have in cultivation as what were considered the superior forms.  While there was some debate among members of the Board concerning propagation and distribution of wild collected seed, the ultimate decision to do so placed the RSF in a whole new context, where it served a function similar to what had been taking place in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries when most of the species had been introduced into cultivation for the first time.

 

Wild collected seed was propagated in the 1980s on a very limited basis. Beginning in 1993 propagation of seed was greatly increased, initially from outside sources. Then, in 1995, Curator Steve Hootman made his first expedition to China where he made numerous rhododendron seed collections.  Since that time he has participated in or led additional botanical expeditions to China, Sikkim, Tibet, India, and the states of North Carolina and Alaska. Exchange of seed with other collectors continues and the collection has been augmented considerably by member/supporters, including among others, Warren Berg, Garratt Richardson, and June Sinclair. 

 

With the increase in plant sales through mail order, nursery volunteers funded the construction of a new building to be used specifically for the spring and fall plant distributions. The structure was completed in the fall of 2001.  And in 2003 a new, state-of-the-art, propagation greenhouse was constructed to replace the aging facility built almost thirty years previously, thereby increasing the propagation success and capacity enormously.