Beloved Gardening Expert Ciscoe Morris Shares His Seattle Favorites
Image: Chiara Lanzieri
Ciscoe Morris hitchhiked to Seattle from Wisconsin in 1971 after getting out of the military. “I never had any idea I’d ever be doing TV and radio and giving talks everywhere,” he says. His first job in Washington was on a garden crew at a Seattle City Light facility in the North Cascades. His boss there told him to go get some education—so he did, at South Seattle Community College. One thing led to another, he says, and he became the head gardener at Seattle University, where someone on the school’s publicity team heard him give a talk on houseplants and set him up with a radio interview.
“It was around Christmas, and I had to go on and talk about holiday plants,” Morris says. “I was a nervous wreck.” Decades later, you can still hear Morris on the radio and watch him on TV talking about gardening—as enthusiastic as ever. Recently, he shared some of the places he loves in the city that loves him.
Image: Chiara Lanzieri
Way to Get Inspired
I have two things I love more than anything. I love talking to people. And I love the living tweedle out of dogs and plants. So I guess I have three things. I love walking my dogs and talking to all the people that have dogs, and even the people that don’t have dogs who just want to pet my dog while I walk by. And working in the garden really inspires me. I love finding new, unusual plants that nobody even knows what they are.
Museum
The Burke Museum is my favorite because they have bug day there. I’m kind of an amateur entomologist. I used to go around to grade schools and teach kids about bugs.
Image: Chiara Lanzieri
Restaurant
No doubt about it. It’s called the Fiddler Inn. I call it the Fid Pub. That place was built in 1933. It’s right in my neighborhood. It’s just kind of a neighborhood pub, but they have pretty good food. I’m crazy for the Zorba pizza.
Bookstore
I love Third Place Books. The one in Lake Forest Park, I think that’s a really good bookstore.
Nursery
That’s tough. My go-to is Swansons. They are in my neighborhood, and they’re a terrific nursery. I go there a lot. But boy I love Wells Medina, Sky [in Shoreline], Squak Mt. [Issaquah]. You know, a great nursery if you want to go on a field trip is Christianson’s Nursery [Mount Vernon].
I like My Garden Nursery up in Bellingham. But probably my favorite nursery for rare plants is Far Reaches Farm—that’s way up in Port Townsend. Oh, and I like my little City People’s down the hill, too. I have to be careful, I hope I didn’t forget anybody. I love every nursery in town around here. You know what else I love? I love garden art shows. (Editor’s note: Morris could have talked about his favorite nurseries for hours.)
Tourist Attraction
I like the waterfront. I think it’s really fun going down there. Anytime I’m going to take a ferryboat somewhere, I always go walk the waterfront and, you know, go in some of those crazy stores down there. Another tourist attraction I like is the Chihuly Garden and Glass.
Image: Chiara Lanzieri
Field Trip
Mary and I always take our dogs to Whidbey Island. We go to the dog parks over there. They have the best dog parks on Whidbey Island in the world. Greenbank’s my favorite one—big grassy hill, and it’s huge. They also got Double Bluff right on the sound. You can walk for like two and a half miles with your dog.
Hidden Gem
I love the Bellevue Botanical Garden and the Arboretum. I just think they are wonderful places to go walk and relax. And the Arboretum, you can bring your dog, too, which is nice.
