The Pleasure of Plants

 I had been looking forward to Saturday for a few weeks, and when it finally arrived, I was nearly beside myself with excitement. The Northern Shenandoah Valley Master Gardener Association were hosting their yearly garden tour, this time in Luray, VA, 40 minutes down the road from us. We'd gone last year in Woodstock, VA, and thoroughly enjoyed it, picking up tips from the gardens we visited. Master Gardeners are on site at each venue to answer questions and offer advice. Bill and Jen were joining us for the day, but Bill had to host a class in the morning and couldn't come, but Jen could, even after a late night before returning from San Francisco. Go girl!

The garden I absolutely had to visit was Birdsong Pleasure Garden which I've been following on Facebook. It isn't open to the general public but they will give you a tour if you make an appointment with them. So I was extremely pleased to finally be seeing this beautiful garden after looking at photos on Facebook for about 2 years. We made it the first stop and drove out to the quiet countryside outside Luray, where we found a small group of Master Gardeners under a canopy and directing people into the grounds. 

The day was stifling. The sun beat down and there was no wind to evaporate the rivulets of perspiration that ran down my face. A few other people were present, but apart from their voices the world was silent, an occasional bird twittered and a few bugs buzzed, it was wonderful. The fields in front of us were hedged by day lilies in full bloom, a herd of cows were crowded under a shady tree, ears flapping, and the mountains soared up into the blue sky. I could have sat there for hours admiring this tranquil natural artistry, but not in this smothering heat. We checked in then and then gratefully made our way to the shaded coolness under some trees in the garden. 

The garden is owned and was created by Lesley and Tom Mack, who since 1992, have worked on creating a haven to escape from busy lives and luxuriate in the joys of nature. The garden is home to many native plants, as well as pollinating flowers, shrubs and trees. They have about 3 acres interlaced with grassy footpaths, corners that turn round into private sitting areas, shaded walks and beautiful pieces of garden art wherever you look. And look closely, as many are purposefully tiny, and can be missed, as they're sometimes tucked under a shrub or sitting in a shadow. It's a bit like negotiating a blooming maze, you walk about not knowing what's around the next corner, but are excited to find out.

The Japanese area was shady and cool, a welcome retreat as we stopped for a while under the leafy canopy to adjust to the temperature while letting our eyes adjust to our dimmer surroundings. There were many small ornamental features, strategically placed, each bonsai tree had tiny figurines, and I spotted a canoodling pair of frogs behind some rocks, which a couple of ladies found amusing, never having heard the word, 'canoodling' before. I'd never really noticed before how wonderful the jack-in-a-pulpit leaves were. I've seen the plant many times but always focused on the flowers and berries, yet never admired the intricacy of the leaves with that unusual border.

 There were delightful surprises wherever we went. I actually had to stand still and do a 360 degree turn on many occasions to ensure that I wasn't missing anything. As well as adding ornaments, or free standing art pieces made of glass or metal, there was also artistry in their fencing. I loved the use of branches inside the fruit enclosure, so vines could climb up them. They had also bent and weaved thin branches to create a low fencing around some of the beds.

This little VW van caught our our attention. It was highlighted by dappled sunlight, or we could have missed it completely, and upon closer inspection we noticed a 'doorway' leading into the redwood tree, emulating a photo taken years ago, and popular on the internet, of the same van driving through a redwood tree at the Sequoia National Park in California.

A Sweetshrub captured my interest, a ruby red bloom nestled among translucent leaves, illuminated by the sun, while below was in dark shadow. This is a native plant in Virginia, and is now on my shopping list. We saw a few in other gardens throughout the day, and I loved it. Unfortunately, I failed to get the name of the intriguing tree with the peeling bark. Light beamed through the raised bark layers creating the illusion of it being on fire. I was transfixed.

A couple of photos of Elliott and Jen posing under shady shelters. It was way too hot to stand for more than a few minutes in the sun.

The other gardens on the tour were a commercial tree farm and a fruit farm, not really gardens to walk about, enjoy and be inspired by, like Birdsong Pleasure Garden, so we decided to give those a miss. There were a couple of homes that had been added to the tour downtown so we drove to the parking lot, where we met a dear old man, sitting and giving directions, who lamented to everybody how his beautiful old tree that stood shading the front of his home, had been massacred by the local power company because its huge heavy limbs were encroaching on the power lines. It did look unsightly, and some of the damage appeared unnecessary, and we sympathized with him, feeling his pain. But he did have another fabulous tree in his garden, a large shade offering umbrella, covered in lemon yellow fronds. I looked it up later and think it could possibly be a Golden Raintree which, although it isn't native, it actually absorbs car exhaust fumes and noise pollution. It's highly recommended for its 'tidy habit and well-behaved root system' It's on the list, any civilized and refined plant is welcome in my garden!

We tramped down hot silent back roads to 2 other homes where we were taken on a short tour and had the plants identified. Once again, I made notes of some interesting plants to look up later and possibly put on my shopping list. There were some milkweed plants in one of them, attracting bees, but like mine, without any monarch caterpillars or butterflies. I've been reading other reports of folk not seeing them either, it's worrying.

This beautiful wreath was made by the owner, a local florist, at the last home we visited. She had a delightfully decorated, shady front porch, and we sat and chatted for a while. Somehow, the subject of welding came up, and when I explained I was teaching myself so I could make art and functional items for our garden, she gave me her name and number and asked me to get in touch once I was ready to sell. My potential first customer! The next surprise was finding myself giving my information to one of the Master Gardeners. Having been on the garden tours for the past 2 years, Elliott convinced me that our garden was good enough to be on a tour also. This had been my goal in maybe 2 years from now, but there's a strong possibility that Warren County may be hosting the event next year. I described our garden to the Master Gardener who was very enthusiastic about it being on a tour, so I relented and a couple of days later received an e-mail from the president saying someone would be in touch. There's still much I want completed in the garden before the tour, but I think with good gardening weather and hard labor in the fall and next spring, we can achieve most of my eventual goals. We're on a mission, and the rest of the hot summer will be a good time to plan. Watch this space!