Have you ever driven past a home and thought its yard so stunning that you wanted a closer look? Or wished you had the nerve to knock on some- one’s door and ask for a garden tour and a few of the gardener’s secrets for success? If you thought no one was watching you or that you would not get caught would you take a quick peak behind a stranger’s garden gate? I know on more than one occasion I have been tempted to trespass in hopes of seeing an exceptional garden. Just when I think I have worked up the nerve to answer the call of one of these garden sirens I remember the stories about uninvited guests at Martha Stewart’s home and the rumors that these gawkers are sometimes arrested.
Thanks to the upcoming Open Days Garden Tour in Raleigh we can be spared the embarrassment of intruding (and possibility of being arrested?) while touring six of Raleigh’s private gardens. These gardens have been selected by the Garden Conservancy as “outstanding examples of design and horticulture practice”. For the Open Days event the National Garden Conservancy has partnered with the JC Raulston Arboretum, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
If you have never heard of the Garden Conservancy you are not alone. It is one of the South’s best kept secrets. The Garden conservancy is a national nonprofit organization that was founded in 1989 to “preserve exceptional American gardens for the public’s enjoyment and education”. Probably the most visited of the 50 projects that the Conservancy is presently assisting is the garden at Alcatraz Island, CA. The conservancy partnered with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy to repair and maintain this garden. According to the conservancy… “Nearly every bit of soil and plant life found on Alcatraz is the result of 150 years of tenacious gardening by superintendents, officer’s families, and inmates”. Thanks to the involvement of the Conservancy more than 140 plant species, many of which have naturalized into the thin soil at Alcatraz have been enjoyed by more than 1.3 million visitors.
The Garden Conservancy has tapped two North Carolina gardens for preservation: A 61 acre property in Hillsboro, N.C., Montrose Garden and the garden of writer Elizabeth Lawrence in Charlotte, N.C. These gardens are inspiration for books by both Elizabeth Lawrence and Montrose Garden owner, Nancy Godwin.
According to Helen Yoest, the local Garden Conservancy representative for the Open Days tour, “The Garden Conservancy is much more popular up north.” In 1995 when the Garden Conservancy launched it first Open Days tour with 110 private gardens in New York and Connecticut, the event sold out in a matter of weeks. The Open Days program is the only national private garden visiting program. Ms. Yoest is hoping that this years Raleigh tour will create enough interest to make this an annual event.
Whether you are a novice looking for ideas for plants that will thrive in your sun/shade garden or a seasoned gardener looking for that specimen plant or idea for an architectural piece that will fill that void in your garden, you will leave this Raleigh private garden tour feeling inspired.
Looking to start your own Japanese garden or clear a small space for a few plants for a tranquil garden setting? To inspire your Zen state of mind check out the plants bordering the stream that meanders through the garden of Tommy and Linda Bunn. Just off Edwards Mill Road, at 3800 Camp Mangum Wynd Rd., this garden is filled with willows, conifers and a unique variety of plants from the JC Raulston Arboretum’s Connoisseur plants program.
If it is plants from around the world you are looking for then make sure to check out Cindy Allison’s garden. These unusual plants can be found through an archway, inside a stacked stone retaining wall, under an oak canopy, and surrounding an Italian fountain. Year-round color surrounds this 30-year-old traditional Southern homes garden that can be found just off Spring Forest Rd. at 1411 Hedgelawn Way.
If you are interested seeing a relatively unspoiled garden with native plants, the Joslin garden is a 4 ½ acre woodland lot designed with sensitivity to this area of North Carolina. This garden was begun in 1951 and is still being cultivated by the addition of rare plants. Thanks to a generous gift from garden owners, William and Mary Coker Joslin, this garden is now an official satellite of the JC Raulston Arboretum. The garden is located just off Glenwood Avenue and Anderson Drive at 2431 West Lake Drive.
All within close proximity of the Joslin Garden (and right off Glenwood Ave.) are the gardens of Lacy and Carol Reaves at 2304 Wheeler Rd., Helen Yoest at 3412 Yelverton Circle and Sylvia Redwine at 1801 McDonald St. Each of these Inner Belt-line gardens offers a different take on suburban gardening. On approach to the Reaves Federal style home you think you are stepping into an English garden. Behind the garden gate awaits a traditional rose garden around the corner from an elegant patio resembling what you might see in Charleston, S.C. Helen Yoest garden demonstrates that you can have beautiful plants, whimsical garden art, and a child friendly yard, all at the same time. This organic master gardener of Tiger Lily’s Display Garden anchors her backyard garden with two wonderful corkscrew willows. Her informal garden plantings attract butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, and even a few practically pet bunnies. If you ask Helen she will point the way to her “secret garden” tucked away on the side of her home.
If you are weak at heart it is best to stay away from Sylvia Redwine’s garden because it will literally take your breath away. There is so much beauty it is hard to know what to look at first: the outdoor children’s chairs pulled up to a slab of rock desk, the succulent flower box, the lily pad pond and the huge architectural windows whose glass panes are now filled with mirrored panes reflecting back the dense, lush, plants that make up this one-of-a-kind garden.
Visitors may start their tour and pick up tickets Saturday or Sunday at the JC Raulston Arboretum at 4415 Beryl Road in Raleigh or purchase tickets at any of the six private garden locations. Tickets are $5.00 each or 6 for $25.00. For more local ticket information you may contact Autumn Keck at the arboretum autumn_keck@ncsu.edu or call (919) 513-3826. To receive garden listings for 16 states you can order the National edition of the Open Days for $20.45 (the Southern edition for $6.95) by calling the Garden Conservancy at (888) 842-2442 or by writing to: The Garden Conservancy at PO Box 219, Cold Spring, NY, 10516. Their website with detailed maps and information for the Raleigh Open Days tours is available at www.opendaysprogram.org. The tour is Saturday from 11 to 4 and Sunday from 1 to 4 September 23rd and 24th.