Preparing a garden for a public tour is an epic task under the best of circumstances. Bushes must be trimmed and annual planters filled at just the right time. Borders must be weeded and mulched, dead perennials replaced. The to-do lists, written many months before, go on — really — until the moment the gates open.
But if you attend a garden tour this Saturday — or any tour anywhere this summer, really — there is so much more to be thankful for than beautiful blossoms lolling over verdant drifts of rain-quenched foliage.
This spring tested the mettle of the hardest of the hard-core gardeners on the Old Town Lafayette tour as they prepped.
Winter-killed trees, including a fancy espaliered apple, had to be taken down and replaced. One gardener worried his carefully curated cactus collection might drown in the rain. Others mourned pounded-down peonies and hoped that green buds, stunted by cool weather, would burst into full color.
And consider the lush memory quilt one gardener stitched together from her deceased parents’ Minnesota plants. That these specimens survived in our droughty climate should be victory enough.
But three times this month, she has stood out in terrifying thunderstorms, holding a giant patio umbrella to shelter the tender giant hostas from hail.
She did it for the love of the garden, and to meet the promise made to tourists expecting the best and the most beautiful from her yard.
Lafayette’s garden tour runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $10 at Scarlett Rose, 101 E. Chester St.
Dana Coffield: dcoffield@denverpost.com, 303-954-1954 or
