The Cherry Grove Garden Club’s 16th annual Cherry Grove Garden Tour took place on a sunny July 2 and was attended by more than 100 people, maps in hand for the self-guided tour, benefiting the “Save Our Community House” fund.
Our tour began in the west. Jack Dowling showed off lilies and purple clematis, in his hilly garden, watched over by a Shinto symbol. A gnome and a Japanese lantern oversaw parts of the next garden on our tour. Ruthie and David showed us their red, orange and pink hibiscus, and Roland, his impatiens and a clay thermometer. Hydrangea in pink, blue and many shades in between were highlights on our next stop, where our hosts also offered home-baked cookies. Dan Evans and Jim Kelly’s electric trains ran past tiny evergreens, white lilies, and blue globe thistle about to pop. A hollyhock of majestic deep magenta, almost maroon, reigned supreme in Garden Club President Peter Chace’s garden realm. And Dominic DeSantis introduced us to flat-faced hydrangea on our final stop on the west side of town.
Regrouping in the east, a first stop was at Al Wolf’s, where a nude statue, draped in Mardi Gras bead, contemplated the pond below. Our furthest east stop, at Diane Romano and Pat Goff’s, needed no introduction to anyone who attends the annual Concerned Women of the Grove Breast Cancer benefits there—the next one is on August 6. At Bob “Rose” Levine’s, we saw roses, of course, and nearby, where lilies bloomed by the bay, we were offered refreshing cherry lemonade. At a favorite garden, past the Doctor’s House, lilies of every hue greeted us; there were water lilies, daisies, and poppies as well; and clematis helped usher us out. At a final destination, we saw buddleia, or butterfly bush, and astilbe and Echinacea.
Thank you, Cherry Grove Garden Club, for sharing some of the community’s hidden beauties with us.