FLORA GALORA

By DEVIN HEILMAN

Staff Writer

Guests of the Coeur d'Alene Garden Club's Garden Tour are in for a treat Sunday.

In celebration of the tour's 20th anniversary, attendees will be whisked across Lake Coeur d'Alene to the famous Hagadone estate in Casco Bay, where geraniums burst with color and more than 300,000 species of plants flourish.

"All of the moisture in the spring really helped the gardens thrive," said Duane Hagadone. "We just have a great number of annuals, perennials, evergreens. It's quite a display in its entirety."

Plush lawns, impeccable landscaping, enchanting water features and inspiration abounds in the Hagadone gardens, where Duane, his wife, Lola, and their staff work to maintain more than 12 acres brimming with the diverse flora.

"We have a fence that goes around the property," Hagadone said. "You can imagine out here, the deer, if they can get in, it's like going to Baskin-Robbins."

It has been 11 years since the Hagadones have been featured on the Garden Tour, and they're looking forward to welcoming tour-goers.

"I'm a garden lover, and it's always been very special to me," Hagadone said. "Mrs. Hagadone and I work every year on the gardens. We have a staff, but we're in the gardens just about every day and we work on them every year. We think it will be really fun to share what we have with the community."

Bonnie Warwick, chair of the Garden Tour committee, said she’s thrilled by Hagadone's enthusiasm to participate in the Tour this year. The Garden Club even created a new award, the Extraordinary Garden Award, which will be awarded to Duane during the pre-tour this evening to acknowledge the Hagadone garden is in a class all its own.

"His garden is extraordinary," Warwick said. "It's record-breaking in our community. For him to have such a masterpiece in his garden is really extraordinary."

The first cruise boat to the Hagadone gardens will start loading Sunday at Independence Point at 10:30 a.m. and depart at 11. Boats will regularly depart from the point until the final boat loads at 2:30 p.m.

Two other locations will be featured during the Garden Tour from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. — Claudie Lowry and Bob Bloem's Loch Wood Court garden in Hayden, and Nancy and Steve Heffter's Dalton Gardens garden.

The Lowry and Bloem garden is filled with waterfalls, rocky outcroppings, flowers and grasses and is nestled at the edge of a forest. Tour-goers will wind through paths that lead to quiet hideaways and whimsical vine-covered seating areas. It has been in the works for 15 years.

The Heffter garden is brimming with trees, shrubs, perennials, berries and vegetables and boasts vibrant color in the spring and summer. Arbors, trellises and garden art can be found throughout the grounds.

Artisans and vendors will be found in the latter gardens while the tour's poster artist, Leon Roulette, will be painting away in the Hagadone gardens.

Proceeds from the Garden Tour go to North Idaho College scholarships.

"I am so gratified in feeling so enriched by this experience," Warwick said. "It's been a wonderful opportunity to do these things and pay back our community, and I think all the Garden Club members feel that way."

The tour's theme this year is "Nature's Reflections.”

Advance tickets are $25 and available at:

Ace Hardware, Mix-It-Up and Vanhoff’s Garden Center in Coeur d’Alene; New Leaf Nursery in Hayden; Aspen Nursery and Northland Nursery in Post Falls; Westwood Gardens in Rathdrum; Plant Land in Spokane Valley; Haase’s Greenhouse and Northwest Seed and Pet in Spokane; and Greenacres Nursery in Greenacres.

Tour day tickets are $30 and available for cash or check at: Vanhoff’s Garden Center and Ace Hardware in Coeur d’Alene; and in all of the gardens. 

For info, visit www.cdagardenclub.com or call 664-0987 or 661-0773.