The 2011 U City in Bloom Garden Tour - The Gardens
| UNIVERSITY CITY PRIVATE HOME GARDENS, OPEN TO TOUR GUESTS - Some of the most beautiful home gardens are open to the public during the U City in Bloom Garden Tour & Artist on the Lawn event on Sunday Sept. 18th from 1 pm -5 pm. Enjoy a rare glimpse into the front and back gardens of those hidden gems of urban gardens. These sun and shade gardens vary with beautiful ponds, mixed perennial borders, shady retreats, garden trains and more. Here is a sneak preview of these beautiful gardens. | |
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SERENE HARMONY - Drawing on Japanese tradition, it is a microcosm of the elements of sky, mountain, river and sea. Emerging from a hidden corner, water burbles down a small waterfall and courses between mossy rocks and under a small bridge. |
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AN ARTIST'S INSPIRATION - In the front, hostas and hydrangeas mingle with unusual flowering plants, such as corydalis and calla lillies, and are interspersed with zinnias and other vibrant annuals. The access to the backyard garden leads through an arch covered in mandavilla and hyacinth beans vines. |
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THE ACCIDENTAL LANDSCAPE ARTIST - An exuberant cottage garden is filled with blooms throughout the growing season. A small vegetable garden in the back yard also contains herbs and flowers. A shady pergola is draped in grapevines. The artistic vision and skill this landscape designer brings to her work are evident throughout her own gardens. |
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ECLECTIC BEAUTY - The gently rise of the front yard presents a sweep of variations of green and white - azaleas, hosta, hydrangeas and rhododendrons shaded by a red bud and kousa dogwoods. In back, several micro-climates provide the opportunity to satisfy a love of an eclectic variety of plants. |
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FRAGRANT WAVES OF BLOOM - Plants were also carefully chosen to provide not only waves of bloom from March to November, but haunting fragrance as well. The front herbaceous border curves around the side of the lawn to the foundation plantings, enclosing a sitting area. The bright south side of the drive features heat tolerant species while trellises of clematis and roses clamber up the brick wall of the house. |
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ALL ABOARD - Perhaps the last thing one might expect to hear on the garden tour is the mournful whistle of a midnight freight train passing through – but step into the backyard and discover not one, but two, model railroad tracks circling through beds of colorful annuals; past a mixed garden of herbs and flowers; through miniature villages; and over a tiny trestle above a stream emerging from a waterlily pond filled with flashing goldfish. |
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CURB APPEAL - These gardens curve around a front patio with stately sago palms and a stone retaining wall which is completely hidden by sweet potato vines and a mix of cheerful perennials and blooming annuals. A basswood tree centers a front oval garden of peewee hydrangea, hibiscus, Japanese iris, zinnias and cosmos. |
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THE GRAVITY OF STONE - The landscape designer who lives here specializes in incorporating natural stone and sculptural boulders into her designs, and many examples in her own garden reflect her fascination with the textures, shapes and colors of granite, limestone, and other specimen rocks. Throughout the landscape, the dignity, gravity, and permanence of stone provide counterpoint to the transitory nature and fragility of the plants and flowers surrounding them. |
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GROWING THE NEIGHBORHOOD - The spacious three-lot site is the largest of the three community gardens in the neighborhood. Thirty 5’ x 10’ raised beds are tended by residents and each reflects the personality of its gardener. In one, a riot of colorful zinnias and cornflowers bloom, another is comprised primarily of dill and cucumber plants for the gardener’s famous pickles. Lush tomato vines clamber over their cages and bees and butterflies flit from plot to plot pollinating vegetables, herbs, and flowers. A large curly willow provides restful shade. |
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TERRACED HILLSIDE - Young columnar oaks line one side of the lower lawn, while tree roses bloom on the other side with climbing euonymus forming a dense dark-green backdrop. Whimsical figures of sheep browse in one area. Three terraced gardens, each filled with delightful plantings, rise above the patio and lawn. |
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CELEBRATING OUR HISTORY - When University City celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2006, U. City in Bloom broke ground to develop the gardens around the newly refurbished historic City Hall, which opened in 1904, just in time for the St. Louis World’s Fair. Now well established, the gardens surrounding City Hall showcase popular plants from that era including such annuals as cosmos, coleus, petunias and ageratum, and perennials and shrubs like “Sarah Bernhardt” lilies, peonies, roses, serviceberry, viburnum, red twig dogwood, crepe myrtle and witch hazel. |