Great Gardens

Four Must-See Garden Destinations

May 13, 2016

SUNNYBANK

Traverse City

Back in 1991, Dee Blair began remodeling her Queen Anne Victorian home in Traverse City and decided that she also wanted to build a Victorian garden to complement the house.

While she had no gardening experience ("I had never planted as much as a blade of grass before," Blair chuckled), she poured over dozens of books and applied her new knowledge to what has become one of the most striking and frequently visited private gardens in northern Michigan.

"There was nothing back there at first but a 1950s chain link fence, a broken gate and 39 trees full of old roots and overgrowth," Blair said. "I read day and night to learn the science of horticulture, measured the sun to find out where the sunlight would fall and learned what kinds of plants and flowers would work best."

Building her garden in "rooms," like English gardens of the 1880s–1900s, Blair started with a Fairy Garden, which includes many hidden and unusual garden fairies.

"It’s a place you can put aside your troubles," she said.

Statuary abounds throughout Sunnybank, placed thoughtfully and carefully by Blair, who said the point is to enhance the flowers, not overwhelm them with knickknacks.

"If I want something new, then something else has to leave, so it stays in balance," she explained.

Huge doors separated the outdoor rooms, with seven gardens in all, and there’s an eight-foot fence surrounding them, so there’s no accidental stumbling upon them. Although, once you know they are there, admission is simple.

"For admission, people walk through the first area and ring a big Victorian bell so I know they’re here," Blair said. "I only ask that they don’t walk in the flower beds and that they leave things as they found them, with out damaging anything."

Blair said that she’s seen people sitting and reading quietly in the garden or even taking a nap. More than 5,000 graduation photos have been shot in Sunnybank and the garden has hosted dozens of weddings.

Blair has just rebuilt the garden ("because I’m a little older and I can’t maintain 300 plants any more," she said); it now consists of three larger rooms and is more an English park garden, where grass is part of the landscape and a gazebo provides shade.

"It’s all quite beautiful and there’s never a charge," she said. "This place is for people who love to get away. And I meet the most interesting fellow gardeners who will often tell me my mistakes. I grew a giant, interesting plant as big as me once, and one of our visitors informed me that it was a weed!"

For more information: deeblair.com

THE BOTANIC GARDEN AT HISTORIC BARNS PARK – Traverse City

"Preserving the past and planting the future" is the motto of this unique, 25- acre sanctuary on the grounds of the Grand Traverse Commons that pays homage to the past and has reconfigured the property into something new.

"We’re taking what had been here before and repurposing it in a beautiful and useful way," explained Karen Schmidt, The Botanic Garden’s board chair.

The Botanic Garden went through a long process to get where it is today. It all began in 1999, when a survey of 1,700 households was taken to determine if a botanic garden would be welcome in the area. The answer was a resounding yes from the public. But after a year of negotiations with the Commons, the plan fell through, so the board starting looking at other locations. It would take another five years to finally settle on the original site that the board and the public wanted in the first place – back at Grand Traverse Commons.

Construction on the garden began just three years ago and the visitor center was opened in spring 2014. The process of converting the building remnants and other landmarks into garden destinations continues today.

"We converted two silo buildings, one into a fountain and the other into a conversation circle," explained Schmidt. "Another old storage building wasn’t really usable, but it had a marvelous 1891 root cellar underneath it, so we kept that and turned it into an openair pavilion."

The fountain is one of the must-see spots at The Botanic Garden, as is the Native American garden, which carries a theme of healing and features plants used for medicinal purposes. The Walled Garden is another feature attracting more visitors.

"The Walled Garden was designed in a really interesting way," Schmidt explained. "It was originally a horse barn with stone walls, so now there are hedges dividing where each horse stall used to be and each "˜stall’ now has different colored themes of flowers, including lots of local wildflowers." More than 250 volunteers work to help transform and maintain the property, while the board hires contractors for the more complicated endeavors.

"Our volunteers are very talented, with a big cross-section of skills," Schmidt said. "The whole project is just so wonderful. I love sitting up on the pavilion and looking down over the fountain, conversation circle and our Native American garden. We’ve worked hard on this."

For more information: thebotanicgarden.org

DEPOT HERITAGE GARDEN

Charlevoix

This Charlevoix Area Garden Club project also features the garden "rooms" of old, which you’ll notice when you enter from its southern black iron gates circa 1900.

Antique irises, sweet woodruff and geraniums make up the fence border as you gaze into the garden and step onto the Saginaw brick patio, the beginning of Room I, which includes serviceberry trees in an archway, asters, lavender and hydrangea.

"This garden was built in 2001 and was designed by landscape architect Brian Delvin," explained the garden club’s Nancy Cleland. "It actually includes plants that were started in the 1870s to the 1930s. These plants were in private home gardens around Charlevoix and were transplanted to the Depot Garden."

Depot Heritage Garden features four rooms in all.

"It’s an old-fashioned garden where each of the different rooms is a different theme," Cleland said, "and boxwood divides the rooms as a kind of wall between them."

Room II borders a wooded area and features a wide range of colorful perennials, including iris, day lilies, black-eyed susans and lupin, with a patterned border of zinnias, dahlias and begonias.

Room III is the historic Peony Room, with turn-of-the-century peonies that originated at the Loeb Farm, just west of Charlevoix. This room has striking views of the historic depot building, as well as Lake Charlevoix.

Room IV has a predominantly white theme, with a range of white annuals, a pergola, winter gem boxwoods and two large plantings of white begonias.

The Charlevoix Area Garden Club offers even more ways to learn about these flowers, as well as many others. You can browse and buy at their flower show on July 12, for starters, and visit their other garden projects, including their Meditation Garden.

"We are also holding our garden walk on July 13, which includes a tour through the Depot Heritage Garden," Cleland said.

For more information: charlevoixareagardenclub.org

CASTLE FARMS GARDENS

Charlevoix

Castle Farms has had many lives, from its beginnings as a model dairy farm in 1918 to serving as a concert venue from the "˜70s to the "˜90s, with stints as an art gallery and working artist studio, too.

When Linda Mueller bought the Castle in 2001, she had an eye for turning it into something even more extravagant. She began that transformation herself when she started building the Castle’s gardens in 2004.

"Linda started small," explained Alissa Post, Castle Farms marketing assistant. "One of the first gardens she planted was the East Garden, which was inspired by a French castle garden; she planted flowers that only had feminine names, like lilies and roses."

Since then, Mueller has expanded the gardens dramatically; 15 gardens can be visited across the grounds, included a kids’ garden that features a plant for every letter of the alphabet ("she had to be really creative with some of those!" Post said.)

And then there’s Norm. Norm is Castle Farms’ own dragon. A 100 percent recycled metal statue with 7,000 scales, he weighs just under 4,000 pounds and was acquired from Grand Rapids’ ArtPrize competition.

"And, of course, the plants around Norm reflect where he lives, which is called the Dragon’s Lair Garden – prickly pear, sea holly and yucca – so, more ferocious types of plants!" said Post.

The largest and most popular garden at Castle Farms is the King’s Grand Courtyard Garden, which is also the most majestic.

"The King’s Garden includes Mueller’s own favorite view of the Castle," Post said. "There’s a big, beautiful fountain with a horseshoe path leading up to a bench where you can look over the entire Castle Farms grounds, and there are also four statues representing the four seasons, surrounded with themed flowers."

Whichever garden you prefer, there are several different tours you can take to experience the grounds, including a twilight tour and dinner that lets you explore the Castle after most people have left for the day and the paths and stone walls are illuminated. And, if you’re looking for a wide variety of flowers, Castle Farms is where you’ll find those, too.

"There are gardens for everyone here," Post said.

For more information: castlefarms.com