Greenery and scenery
MITCHELL BONDS/Press From left, Carol Wilson, Kay Sands and Kathy Reynolds sit at a water feature in the Hagadone Gardens on Sunday during the 20th annual Garden Tour “It’s beautiful,” Sands said. “We just had to sit down and take it all in.”
MITCHELL BONDS/Press Linda Fleming sits by a water feature at the Hagadone Gardens Sunday during the 20th annual Garden Tour.
MITCHELL BONDS/Press Landscape painter Leon Roulette, left, who painted the poster for the 20th annual Garden Tour, signs one of his posters for Connie Lipsker, center, and Sue Kellogg at the Hagadone Gardens on Sunday. “It’s unique in that it’s actually a painting of a waterfall in (Hagadone’s) garden,” Kellogg said.
MITCHELL BONDS/Press Karen Cecil, left, and Jackie “Mrs. Skittles” Skillens got a kick out of the painted moose statue Sunday at the Hagadone Gardens during the 20th annual Garden Tour.
Tami and Mark Oliver enjoy a rest in the shade Sunday near one of the whimsical bastions and water features at Claudia Lowry and Bob Bloem’s garden in Hayden, during the 20th annual Garden Tour. MITCHELL BONDS/Press
Carol Fidani pokes her head out one of the flowery bastion windows in the garden of Claudia Lowry and Bob Bloem during the 20th annual Garden Tour. MITCHELL BONDS/Press
MITCHELL BONDS/Press A visitor to the garden of Claudia Lowry and Bob Bloem explores one of the out-of-the-way and whimsical water features Sunday near the bottom of the steep garden during the 20th annual Garden Tour.
MITCHELL BONDS/Press Nancy and Steve Heffter chat with guests in their garden Sunday during the 20th annual Garden Tour.
MITCHELL BONDS/Press Guests browse through the greenery and colorful flowers (and veggies!) in Nancy and Steve Heffter’s garden Sunday during the 20th annual Garden Tour.
MITCHELL BONDS/Press An iron bust of a cat’s head adorns one of the arches in Nancy and Steve Heffter’s garden during the 20th annual Garden Tour on Sunday.
Oh gardens of the greater Coeur d'Alene area, shall I compare thee on a summer's day?
More than 1,500 greenery groupies and flower fans flocked to the 20th anniversary Garden Tour on Sunday, put on by the Coeur d'Alene Garden Club and held at three area gardens.
"It's a record-breaking turnout," Bonnie Warwick, chair of the Garden Club, said Sunday morning as she prepared to guide visitors on and off the ferries headed to the Hagadone Gardens. "We sold about 900 last year ... We have 8 tickets left (at 10:30 a.m.) but I'm sure they'll be gone by the end of the day. There's just been a tremendous outpouring of interest.
"It's the 20th anniversary tour, and we've structured it for diversity, so there'd be something of interest to everyone," Warwick said.
The first stop on the tour was Duane and Lola Hagadone's Casco Bay home, featuring 15 acres of meticulous landscaping, brilliant bursts of flowers, tall trees and cheerful and calm water features.
"The generosity of Duane has just been remarkable," Warwick said. "The diversity when you have a 15-acre estate like the Hagadones' — with shrubbery and many huge trees — his staff do a meticulous job nurturing and maintaining the garden. There's nothing missing."
The Garden Club was so impressed with the effort and presentation that it had to create a new award for Hagadone Gardens: the Extraordinary Award.
It wasn't just the club that was impressed, either.
"It's my first time on the tour," said Terry Mastrianni of New York, who made it a point to take the Garden Tour while she was in the Cd'A area visiting family.
Her twin, Tracy Baeumel of Coeur d’Alene, and other family members Shawna Arine, Jackie Skillens and Karen Cecil, have all been to one or more of the tours. Skillens, a retired Post Falls High teacher known affectionately as "Mrs. Skittles" to her students, has attended almost all of them.
"It was really impressive that Mr. Hagadone came out to greet us," Skillens said, "and that they set up chairs for us while we were waiting."
"They're good; they've always been impressive," Cecil added. "But we also liked the ones that show you what you can do yourself if you don't employ a gardener."
Winning the Best of the Best award, the garden of Claudia Lowry and Bob Bloem proves you can truly impress if you're willing to put in a lot of work. Their garden — built into a cliffside and filled with bits of whimsy where you least expect them — took a lot of effort to make into the steep but special spot.
"It's a great property," Bloem said. "This was all just granite 20 years ago, and they dug it up and just shoved it over the cliff. We took advantage of the terrain. The rocks were terrible, but once you got them all out ..."
It didn't stop with removal, either.
"We had to bring all the dirt and wood chips in in 5-gallon buckets," Bloem said with a chuckle. "The basic structure was here but we hauled a lot in."
"We changed the grass and a lot of other things," Lowry added. "None of the foliage was here."
Bloem and Lowry say what makes their garden special is a "touch of whimsy."
"Everything we do is whimsical," Bloem said. "In all these nooks and crannies, you want to see something you didn't expect."
Despite the imperfect start, with a calming "tea house," a hand-washing pool to wash away your worries, and a hide — made of 100-year-old barn wood from Sagle — from which to watch the wildlife, their hard-won garden proves the worth of the motto Lowry and Bloem hung in the tea house, "The appreciation of the imperfect."
Even if the property isn't on the lake or a terraced cliff face, a garden can be beautiful like the one at the home of Nancy and Steve Heffter. Metal artwork joins abundant flowers there for a unique blend of modern and rural beauty.
"Just collecting stuff, that's all it is," Steve said. They collect hostas and shade plants (and a giant limelight hydrangea), as well as artwork that fits the garden's theme. Steve, as a metalworker, makes some of it himself, too.
"It's been a great day, with excellent turnout of people of all ages," Nancy said. "Some like the metal, some like the flowers, so there's something for everyone."
Their garden is "mostly devoted to flowers," Nancy added, "but we also grow fava beans, artichoke, and zucchini. Lots of zucchini," she emphasized.
The Garden Tour ended at 4:30 p.m., though some stragglers were still sure to show up late, Steve acknowledged. "But we've been planning this a year in advance. We got done what needed to be done."
And it shows.
"As the chairman of the Garden Club, I can say this is the best Garden Tour in 20 years," Warwick said.