MBRS
Annual Open Garden Rose Tour - 2009
June 13, 2009
Overcast skies and drizzle in Watsonville probably kept a number of people from visiting the first of our featured gardens, but Soquel was dry and comfortable. Sherry Austin's garden was a spectacular vision, located in the mountains six miles from downtown Soquel. A popular local singer/songwriter/guitarist
with her own band, Sherry is a horticulturalist as well. She completely relandscaped her garden last year in time for her daughter's wedding, and she can tell you the botanical names of every tree and plant in her garden! Dragonflies were a motif found throughout the garden. Roses were tucked in among a huge variety of interesting trees, shrubs, and perennials.
From Sherry's garden, we moved to Otto Lund's garden in Santa Cruz, where we found Otto barbecuing turkey and beef burgers for lunch. He then gave us an educational tour of his historical garden. Having inherited his house from his grandmother, many of her old roses are still there; and not surprisingly, Otto has an indepth knowledge of old garden roses. He has added to her collection and it was wonderful to see how his roses thrive.
The tour's third garden, belonging to Allen and Maria Reames, was in Scotts Valley and had an interesting genesis. Allen had discovered an almost dead rose in the garden which had been one of his mother's favorite roses. After reviving the rose, he was curious about it's name; so he brought it to one of our MBRS meetings to get it identified. To date no one has been able to give it a name, so it's called "Mom's Rose" in his garden. Soon one rose became four, then twelve, and of course you know the rest of the story. It took two years for Allen to build the deerproof wrought-iron fence surrounding the property which he and Maria filled with roses. A formal garden, it's a beautiful sight with a fountain, a gazebo, an outdoor kitchen/barbecue area, and a special dog yard with a custom gate emblazoned with "Kara" for their beloved dog!
Thank you to Sherry, Otto and Joyce, Allen and Maria, for sharing your gardens with us.
For pictures of the three gardens visited, click here: photos.
