My wife's garden was on the Placer County Master Gardeners Mother's Day Garden Tour in 2000. But what is important to understand is that she has gardened here at our home in Auburn for the last 40 years.
Since 2000, the garden has undergone change - not only has the garden evolved, but my wife now tries to use plants that look good year- round and do not require high maintenance. She chooses most plants for their leaf combination rather than their bloom.
She is choosing plants for an informal woodland look.
We now have more shade because the native trees have grown taller. She now has what she refers to as a woodland garden. She gardens under the oaks, meaning that most of her plants get either direct morning sun or filtered shade during the day.
The "bones" of the garden, the trees and shrubs, the black, live, blue oaks, English laurel and azaleas, were here when she began.
She added more "bones" - Japanese maples, flowering cherry trees, crepe myrtles kept as bushes, sasanqua camellias and rhododendrons.
Each year for a number of years she would buy herself a different variety of a one-gallon rhododendron as a Mother's Day present.
Now some of her rhodies are more than 25 to 30 years olds and measure 12 feet tall and 15 feet wide. She has "Mrs. Charles Pierson," "Christmas Cheer," "Anna Rose Whitney," "Point Defiance" and others.
She now has 14 rhododendrons, and I remember the blooming rhodies were one of the highlights of the 2000 Mother's Day tour. They will be blooming this Mother's Day.
The only direct sun area she now has is a small patch on the south side of the house.
We took out most of the lawn area in 1998 and replaced it with perennials planted on mounded beds separated by brick paths.
On one of her mounded beds she has a mixture of perennials including a ground cover burgundy verbena and clematis "Monte Cristo" in full bloom with matching color.
What is interesting is what plants no longer interest her after the 2000 tour. Because of her interest in different plants, she now has planted Karume and Sazuki azaleas, which are small flowering and later blooming, bay laurel, numerous columbine, tradescantia, bletilla, epimedium and many others.
Also she has become interested in hardy geraniums, planting "Biokova," "Bill Wallace," "Sugar Plum" and "Rozanne."
She now has a big swath of white flowering Japanese anemone "Honorine Jaubert" that blooms in September and October.
Of late, she has an interest in peonies, both tree and herbaceous.
She has also started planting more varieties of clematis, some early and later blooming.
Now she has both clematis and a potato vine growing up on each side of her moon gate, which was an anniversary present last year.
Her latest interest is ferns.
After gardening here for 40 years, my wife is now concerned with growing plants that require less maintenance. However, she still enjoys gardening.
It will be interesting to see the blooming gardens on the Mother's Day garden tour this year.
Saul Wiseman can be reached at swiseman368@sbcglobal.net.