The Boca Grande Garden Club's annual Garden Tour April 4 covered three gardens designed by Mary Ellen Flanagan and two other unique Boca Grande gardens.
The Hamilton and Chapman gardens in the historic district and the Walbridge Garden on Shore Lane designed by Flanagan featured native plants, including a number of flowering plants.
"They all had interesting and unique places to sit and relax among the plantings," said Boca Grande Garden Club President Nora Lea Reefe.
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Artificial turf in the front of the Walbridge Garden.
All were low maintenance, especially the Walbridge garden on the Gulf, which had artificial turf so realistic members kept touching it to make sure it was not real grass.
The other two gardens included the Miller Garden at Casa Loomis, which included a playful copper sculpture of six children honoring their first six grandchildren, as well as a large pond and varieties of flowering shrubs, fruit trees and tropicals.
A tea was held on Loomis at the unique Irvine English Garden with its authentic English gates and wall fixtures, a formal rose garden and an herb garden designed in the shape of the blue and white Scottish St. Andrew's flag, which complements the Scottish lodge home design.
Tour co-chairs Lolo Weir, Judi Guy and Becky Nidiffer, did a great job of selecting the gardens and organizing the tour for more than 200 people, Reefe said.
"No garden ever seemed crowded with people, enabling everyone to truly enjoy the unique character and charm of each garden," Reefee said.
Artist members Bobbi Allardyce, Gina RIddiford and Lona Kissinger created signs for each tour site. Photographer David Pearah, husband of Vice President Jodie Pearah, handled photography for the four-color brochure on each garden.
