The Daily Outside: Flower & Garden Festival Day 2, Bumble Bee Atlas
Sunday’s Daily Outside belongs to the pollinators. From backyard gardens designed to welcome hummingbirds and butterflies to citizen scientists learning how to net and document bumble bees, and the final day of Tacoma’s biggest garden celebration, today’s adventures all revolve around the small winged creatures doing some of the biggest ecological work in the Pacific Northwest. Roses may get the attention, but the bees are running the operation.
Pollinator gardens, hummingbird diplomacy, and the fine art of making your backyard slightly more popular with bees
Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium — Garden Tour: Backyard Pollinators
Sunday, June 7, 2026
10–11 a.m.
Pacific Rim Plaza, just inside the front gate
Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
Free with admission or membership | Garden tour | Pollinator habitat | Family-friendly
This is backyard gardening with wings attached. Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium’s Garden Tour: Backyard Pollinators invites visitors to meet the plants — and the horticulturalists who care for them — while learning how ordinary home gardens can become small but meaningful refuges for bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other pollinators.
The tour begins at Pacific Rim Plaza, just inside the front gate, and focuses on the kinds of plants, garden choices, and habitat features that help bring wildlife closer to home. Expect practical ideas for attracting pollinators: nectar-rich flowers, layered plantings, seasonal blooms, shelter, water, and the useful reminder that a garden does not need to be enormous to become ecologically generous.
The beauty of this kind of tour is that it connects the zoo’s planted spaces to the places people actually live — yards, patios, containers, parking strips, and small neighborhood gardens that can all become part of a larger pollinator network. A few thoughtful plant choices can turn a decorative garden into a tiny refueling station for birds and insects moving through the city.
The tour is free with zoo admission or membership.
More info: Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
Bumble bee nets, pollen detectives, and the fine art of photographing tiny flying conservation data
Pacific Northwest Bumble Bee Atlas — Field Training
Sunday, June 7, 2026
10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
12315 Waddell Creek Rd SW, Olympia
Free | Pre-registration required | Field training | Not wheelchair accessible
This is citizen science with a net, a camera, and a very specific kind of patience. The Pacific Northwest Bumble Bee Atlas field training gives volunteers hands-on practice in the skills needed to help document bumble bee populations across the region — because protecting pollinators begins with knowing who is actually out there, where they are living, and how those populations are changing over time.
The in-person session is designed as a practical companion to the Bumble Bee Atlas online training. Participants will practice netting and photographing bumble bees under the guidance of an experienced instructor, learning how to safely handle, document, and release bees so their observations can contribute to larger survey efforts. It is not a full classroom-style introduction, so participants are encouraged to watch the training webinar, review the video series, or read the Participant Handbook before arriving.
All skill levels are welcome, from brand-new volunteers to experienced Atlas participants looking for a field refresher. The goal is to build confidence: how to approach a bee, use a net properly, photograph identifying features, record useful data, and participate independently in future Bumble Bee Atlas surveys.
The larger purpose is serious. Bumble bees are vital pollinators for wildflowers, crops, and native ecosystems, but many species face pressure from habitat loss, pesticides, climate shifts, disease, and changing landscapes. Volunteer surveys help create the baseline data scientists and wildlife agencies need to track distribution, detect declines, and guide conservation decisions.
Expect an active field session rather than a passive lecture. Bring weather-appropriate clothing, curiosity, and comfort moving through outdoor terrain. Photography and videography may occur during the event; participants who prefer not to be photographed should notify WDFW staff upon arrival.
More info: Pacific Northwest Bumble Bee Atlas
Blooms, rose-scented wandering, and one last chance to become dangerously interested in gardening
Parks Tacoma — Point Defiance Flower & Garden Festival
Sunday, June 7, 2026
11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Point Defiance Park
5400 N Pearl St, Tacoma
Free admission | Some workshops and tours require tickets | Garden festival | Family-friendly
This is the festival’s final day, which means the roses are still blooming, the garden experts are still sharing wisdom, and Tacoma’s annual temptation to suddenly become a gardener is making one last push before packing up for another year.
For one weekend each June, Point Defiance transforms into the South Sound’s largest garden gathering, filling the park with floral displays, horticultural demonstrations, educational talks, workshops, vendors, music, family activities, and enough plant inspiration to convince perfectly reasonable people they need “just one more” addition to the yard.
The free festival grounds offer plenty to explore. Wander through Vendor Village, listen to guest speakers, enjoy Music Amongst the Roses, visit the Pagoda activities, and explore the display gardens and children’s garden areas. The festival’s setting is part of its magic. Point Defiance’s mature landscape, historic gardens, towering trees, and waterfront surroundings create a backdrop that feels less like an event venue and more like a celebration of why gardens matter in the first place.
Many visitors also make time for the park’s Japanese Garden, one of Tacoma’s most beloved horticultural spaces. Guided tours and specialty workshops may require tickets or advance registration, but the festival itself remains free to attend and easy to enjoy at your own pace.
The Wine & Beer Tasting Garden returns Sunday beginning at 11:30 a.m. in the Rose Garden area, offering a chance to pair local beverages with a leisurely afternoon among the blooms. Meanwhile, garden designers, nursery experts, and plant enthusiasts continue the annual tradition of helping visitors leave with new ideas, new knowledge, and occasionally unrealistic confidence about what can be accomplished in a single weekend at home.
Traffic and parking remain heavier than normal throughout Point Defiance, and Parks Tacoma encourages visitors to arrive early, use alternative transportation when possible, or take advantage of the complimentary festival shuttle connecting key locations throughout the park.
Come for the flowers. Stay for the ideas. Leave wondering where you could fit one more tree, shrub, perennial, or suspiciously irresistible plant that absolutely wasn’t on your shopping list.
More info: Parks Tacoma Point Defiance Flower & Garden Festival
Afterward, meet up at Peaks & Pints
By Sunday evening, you may have spent the day admiring roses in Point Defiance, learning how to turn your yard into a pollinator haven, or chasing bumble bees across a field in the name of science. Not bad for a group of creatures most people only notice when they buzz too close to lunch.
Settle into Peaks & Pints with a pint of Lumberbeard Brewing Cut-off Flannel IPA and compare notes with fellow adventurers. Someone will be planning a pollinator garden. Someone will have learned the difference between a honey bee and a bumble bee. Someone will be trying to justify the purchase of three new plants they absolutely did not intend to buy that morning. The Kareem Kandi Jazz Trio will be in our Events Rooms from 5-8 p.m.
The best outdoor days often change the way you look at ordinary things. A flowering shrub becomes habitat. A patch of clover becomes a feeding station. A bee becomes a data point helping scientists understand the health of an ecosystem.
And if you leave Sunday with a new appreciation for pollinators, plants, and the remarkable relationship between them, that’s a pretty good return on a day spent outside.
LINK: The Daily Outside explained
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
