Artsy oases on the North Shore
Finding solace in North Shore’s magnificent gardens
Art in the Garden, an annual two-day tour of gardens on Vancouver’s North Shore, offers the chance to explore beautiful gardens, see original art and hear live music.
It’s a cracking concept, one that Linda Fell, director of the North Vancouver Community Arts Council, came up with in 1999. This year a total of 16 gardens across the North Shore from Deep Cove to Eagle Harbour, will be open to visitors. Thirty-two artists will have their work on display and 20 musical acts will perform.
One of the top gardens on the tour that will excite all dedicated plant lovers is a beautiful work built over the past 25 years by Delphia Johnstone.
Located at 829 Fairway Dr., the garden is full of rare and unusual plant treasures, all presented in a well-organized, artistic layout designed to evoke a joyful response.
“Really good art moves people. And it is the same with gardens,” says Johnstone. “It is important to me how my garden makes people feel. I hope they experience a deep feeling of peace and happiness.”
A member of the Vancouver Hardy Plant Group, Johnstone regularly shops at specialty nurseries, such as Free Spirit Nursery in Langley and Phoenix Perennials in Richmond, for new and unusual plants.
Johnstone even orders hardto-find plants from mail order nurseries in other parts of the country. The result is an exciting and eclectic collection sure to thrill gardeners of all levels of expertise and areas of interest.
From the moment they arrive, visitors are treated to a compact front garden. Here, they’ll find Chinese fairy bells (Disporum cantoniense), Night Heron and an arbour covered with the less common form of chocolate vine, Akebia longeracemosa.
A winding path of pebbles slices through this section, past a pondless waterfall and through lush borders packed with osmanthus, leucothoe, sorbaria, Japanese maples, heathers, a towering Viburnum Summer Snowflake and a trio of Delaware Valley White azaleas. Anchoring the centre is a dense cluster of soaring dark green cedars.
Johnstone’s garden contains many of the plants coveted by the horticultural cognoscenti, such as Mayapple (podophyllum), black cow parsley (Anthriscus Ravenswing), seven-sons flower (Heptacodium miconioides), varieties of arisaema and valued specialties, such as pittosporum, umbrella leaf (Diphylleia cymosa) and the Chinese fairy flower.
On the right side of the house, Johnstone has a “fern walk,” where she has planted an upright Japanese plum yew (Cephalotaxus harringtonia), mahonia, sarcoccoca and a fence covered with ornamental kiwi (Actinidia kolomikta) with its strawberry-tipped leaves.
The way into the main garden is under the canopy of a large katsura, past a contorted willow and through an arbour covered with a Concord grape vine with skimmia for spring fragrance.
Inside, Johnstone’s passion for hostas immediately becomes apparent. These reliable perennials are prominently showcased in a variety of creative ways in stylish containers, hanging baskets and as featured specimens.
The garden was also built for socializing and entertaining. It has a large deck with hot tub and covered barbecue/bar area, but there are also numerous quiet, more secluded sitting spots dot--
ted around the garden. One is positioned under the canopy of a large Coral Bark maple and called the moon gazing area, because it is where Johnstone and her husband Bob love to sit when the moon is full.
A stepping stone path from here leads into a small woodland with rhododendrons. The path is lined by astilbe, epimedium and blue corydalis. The colours have been restricted to pale pinks, blues and soft whites.
At the back of the garden, where it abuts the Seymour Golf Course, there is a secluded “meditation” sitting space where Johnstone likes to enjoy her morning coffee.
“This spot gets the first light of day and is particularly peaceful and private,” she says. Amusingly, there is a gong positioned next to the bench, no doubt to alert Bob to bring the coffee. Behind the bench, a ginkgo adds screening while the metal fence has been covered with the lush leaves of a Dutchman’s pipe vine.
The path leads on again, around the garden, past a cottage-style storage shed with Dutch stable door. A plaque on the shed says: “Hope never dies within a real gardener’s heart.”
False Solomon seal (Maianthemum racemosum) acts as a ground cover while a climbing hydrangea smothers a fence and a Parrotia tree provides a graceful shape and stunning fall colour. Next, a series of arches supporting clematis leads on to the central lawn area where a stewartia tree has replaced a fallen mag- nolia and where flower beds are filled with white irises, aquilegia, thalictrum, amsonia and baptisia.
The border is anchored on one corner by a tall, elegant, multilayered water feature that adds the soothing sound of gushing water to the area.
“I don’t plant any annuals for summer colour,” says Johnstone. “I rely solely on perennials and foliage colour for that.”
STEEP BUT REWARDING
The steep, mountainside garden of Trudy Rey at 716 Maurelle Court, tucked between Alpine Park and Malaspina Park above Mount Royal Boulevard, will also be open for the garden tour.
It is an established rhododendron garden with at least 85 rhodos and azaleas, scattered over the slope and mixed with various perennials and companion shrubs.
Rey acquired the garden when she moved from Victoria 10 years ago. Her first love was not gardening, but hiking. “I loved being in the mountains as much as I could — hiking, climbing, backpacking, back-country skiing — but then I got sick with fibromyalgia and have suffered with fatigue and pain ever since.”
The garden became a source of relaxation and a substitute for hiking: it is on a steep slope with multiple levels of steps. But like all good hikes, there are rewards: places to pause and enjoy spectacular views of the ocean and Point Grey in the distance.
Rey has also created some restful patio areas, including one next to a cottage-like shed where gaps between pavers have been filled with blue star creeper and herniaria. Planted in other flower beds on the terrace are shrubby honeysuckle, euonymus, fig tree, day lilies, Oriental poppies, rose campion and euphorbia.
At the top of the hill, next to the house, a more shaded patio is accessed up blue steps between large blue pots. Borders nearby are filled with abelia bushes, lithodora, nandina and inula.
“When I am feeling I am dragging, I can step into my garden and feel connected again to nature. It always lifts my spirits.”