Snohomish Garden Tour has plein-air painters and live music

The Snohomish Garden Club wanted to add some extras to this year’s garden tour.

So look for plein air painters at each of the six gardens, and in one, live music.

“We decided we wanted enhancements, we wanted to keep adding value to the garden tour,” said Steve Macaulay, who with his wife, Terry Macaulay, are co-chairs of the tour.

One of the gardens developed by Kathy and Dave Hope informally is known as “The Park.”

“It’s sort of landscaped in that way,” Kathy Hope said. “We’re constantly doing something in the yard.”

Her husband, Dave, is known in the family as “The Reluctant Gardener.” “He’s been a good sport about it,” she said.

Kathy Hope said there’s been a tradition of gardening in her family beginning with her grandparents and then with her father.

She said her father was so accomplished, she considered him a master gardener even though he never formally had the title. “I learned from him growing up,” she said.

Kathy Hope’s favorite garden plants are the purple, pink, yellow and red rhododendrons. Their property has trees so large Dave Hope calls the Alaskan weeping cedars “The Lord of the Rings” trees.

Mount Pilchuck, Three Fingers and Mount Baker can be spotted from their home, as well as a nearby horse boarding farm. It’s land that attracts deer, coyotes, rabbits, birds and even a weasel.

“We’re just so blessed to live here,” Kathy Hope said. “We sit out here and are just amazed with rainbows, the colors and changes, storms coming and storms going. There’s something new every day.”

Another addition this year to the tour, now in its 34th year, is a destination garden. It’s outside Monroe, a bit of a drive from the cluster of the other five gardens in the Dutch Hill area.

“It’s really a special garden,” Steve Macaulay said, adding that its developed by landscape professionals.

The garden has views of the Snohomish Valley, Mount Rainier and an Italian design garden with flowerbeds. It also has an orchard with figs, peaches, Asian pears, plums, cherries, cider apples and nuts.

This is the garden that will have live music, a guitarist who will be singing and playing Spanish folk songs.

Two plein air artists, members of the Stanwood Camano Roaming Artists, will also be on site. The group has plein air meet-ups during the summer. It’s the first time the artists will use the Snohomish garden tour sites for inspiration.

“That sounds like an enjoyable day,” said Norman Kelsey, an oil painter who will be at the Monroe-area garden.

Native plans increasingly are being included in the gardens on the annual tour. “They have their own beauty, appearance and wildlife benefits,” Steve Macaulay said.

“What we’re trying more and more to show is the diversity and beauty of all the plants we have in the region, both imported from other parts of the world and what Washington has always provided.”

Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.

If you go

The Snohomish Garden Tour, featuring six gardens, plein air painters and live music, is scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. June 30.

Tickets are available at McAuliffe’s Valley Nursery, 11910 Springhetti Road, Snohomish; McDaniel’s Do It Center in Snohomish, 510 Second St., Snohomish; Molbak’s Home and Garden, 13625 NE 175th St., Woodinville; and Sunnyside Nursery, 3915 Sunnyside Blvd., Marysville.

Tickets purchased in advance online are $12. Tickets are $15 at local nurseries and the day of the event and will be available beginning at 10 a.m. at the Snohomish Senior Center, 506 Fourth St., Snohomish.

The Snohomish Garden Club’s plant sale begins at 10 a.m. June 30 at the senior center. More information is available at www.snohomishgardenclub.com.

Correction: An earlier version had incorrect information about ticket prices.