Washington Park Arboretum Fall 2026: What to Know

"He listens to the stones and puts them where they want to go." That is how the Arboretum Foundation describes Suminori Awata's method. He is the stonemason building the new Ishigaki wall at the Seattle Japanese Garden. He is one of the last remaining masons in a family line that goes back 15 generations. His walls are built from hand-split granite boulders with no mortar, and they often stand for centuries.

That sense of time fits this corner of Seattle. The Arboretum's supporting nonprofit had worked alongside the University of Washington for roughly 90 years before the two merged this year. The grocery store opening on E. Madison on October 14 was first announced in 2016, on a lot where a garden store had operated for 34 years. Three long timelines meet in the first two weeks of October 2026, and none of them arrives finished.

Hatsumomiji, With the North Section Still Fenced

The Seattle Japanese Garden marks Hatsumomiji, its early-autumn maple season, from October 1 through October 12. This year the view comes with an asterisk. Seattle Parks and Recreation reports that most of the Garden reopened on July 28, 2026. The north section stays closed through November for wall construction and landscape restoration.

The work runs on a June to November 2026 schedule. It closed the whole Garden for much of July while crews removed the old basalt wall. The Arboretum Foundation has also warned that building the new wall "will also create noise that might interfere with normal visitor enjoyment of the Garden's serenity." When it is done, the old uneven shoreline path becomes part of a looped walkway that works for wheelchairs and strollers.

So the timing is awkward. The best maple weeks of the year fall inside the last stretch of construction, and the completed shoreline loop won't be walkable until after the Garden's winter closure. October hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. November hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Garden opens at noon on October 1 and November 3, then closes from December through February for winter maintenance. Closure details are time-limited, so check the Garden's own site before you go.

October 1 also brings a Free First Thursday haiku workshop led by Michael Dylan Welch of the Haiku Society of America. There are two 85-minute sessions, at 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Each one includes classroom time, a walk through the Garden, and a chance to share what you wrote.

A New Operator, the Same Names on the Gates

The fence around the north section is run by an organization that didn't exist under its current name a year ago. On January 9, 2026, the Arboretum Foundation and UW Botanic Gardens announced they would combine operations into one new nonprofit, Seattle Botanic Gardens. The Foundation's board approved the agreement on January 6, and the UW Board of Regents approved it on January 8. The merger brings the Foundation's fundraising, advocacy and volunteer network together with UW's horticulture, programming and conservation research. The stated goal is better visitor experience, programming and access.

Here is what's settled so far for someone who walks Azalea Way or the Loop Trail:

• Three sites, one organization. Seattle Botanic Gardens covers the Washington Park Arboretum, the Seattle Japanese Garden and the Center for Urban Horticulture. Its website says all three keep their existing names.
• The building names stay. UW's visitor page still calls the Arboretum's hub the Graham Visitors Center.
• Membership was a transition. The Foundation's May instructions had members keep paying the Foundation through the end of its fiscal year on June 30, 2026, with the new name rolling out later in the year.
• Nothing announced on fees. The January announcement doesn't mention changes to admission, membership benefits or Japanese Garden visitor procedures.

The first public test came on September 19. The Fall Plant Sale at the Graham Visitors Center was the first held under the Seattle Botanic Gardens name and brought in more than $4,300. Plant Program volunteers spent months propagating, potting and tending the stock. WSU Master Gardeners, Puget Sound Beekeepers Association, Birds Connect Seattle and Friends of Arboretum Creek staffed tables. In one of the day's small moments, a guest donated a larch tree to the Cloney-Harris Plant Nursery team, and another visitor bought it while volunteers were still potting it.

The organization's own timeline also runs past this season. The City's Pacific Pathways project will build an accessible connection from Azalea Way, the Loop Trail and parking up to the Pacific Connections Garden and Lookout Gazebo. Construction is scheduled for January through August 2027.

Ten Years on One Lot at 2925 E. Madison

Just south of the Arboretum, the longest clock of the three stops on October 14. That morning at 9 a.m., PCC Community Markets opens its 17th store at 2925 E. Madison St. It will have in-house sushi, a pizza program, bulk groceries and a deli. Getting there took a decade:

1. April 2016. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reports plans for a PCC-anchored mixed-use building to replace City People's Garden Store, with Velmeir Companies as developer.
2. June 2021. After years of design review and appeals from the group Save Madison Valley, including challenges to the project's environmental review and climate analysis, the Seattle Hearing Examiner denies the group's appeal.
3. July 2022. City People's announces its final growing season and plans to close at the end of the year, after 34 years on the Madison site.
4. April 2026. The six-story building, now called The Arbory, reaches the tenant-improvement phase with a 140-car underground garage mostly complete.
5. October 14, 2026. PCC opens on the ground floor of an 82-unit building.

MyNorthwest puts the store at 24,000 square feet with about 75 employees. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog's spring report described a 25,000-square-foot grocery, so the exact size depends on which source you read. Like the Japanese Garden, The Arbory opens with part of it still unfinished. A retail space of roughly 1,500 square feet in the building is still available.

The rest of the street keeps changing at a slower pace. Visible Coffee Roasters moved to 2739 E. Madison in September 2025. Casa Ella, a café focused on small-batch Colombian beans, is planned for the northeast corner of 34th Avenue and Spring Street, across from Yoka Tea. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog says to watch for Casa Ella pop-ups as it prepares to open.

The Fall Calendar, From Maples to Evergreens

The scheduled events this season are mostly guided walks, spread from the first week of October to the first week of December. Times are as listed by the organizers.

Gifts & Greens Galore on December 5 and 6 falls just after the Japanese Garden closes for winter and just after the scheduled end of the Ishigaki work. By the time the Garden's winter closure ends after February, the north section's listed closure through November will have passed.

At Lisa Turnure, we follow the slow-moving projects that shape Washington Park, from wall restorations to decade-long permit fights, because these timelines come up whenever a home here changes hands. If you'd like to know when the next one surfaces, ask to receive our exclusive listings and neighborhood updates.