Rhodie Garden Tour Poster
I don’t really know much about rhododendrons. Just that in May the Peninsula is ablaze with their blossoms and that my dad re-landscaped our family’s derelict Oysterville garden in 1972 using almost 200 rhododendron plants. He bought them from Clarke’s Rhododendron Nursery on the back road and Paul and Steve Clarke, son and grandson of the nursery’s founder, gave him advice and did much of the actual planting. Oh, and one more thing – rhodies (as we locals often call them) are native to the Northwest and are the Washington State flower.
Jean Maries On Our East Fence
When Clarke’s Nursery closed a decade or so ago, I lamented along with many other Peninsula residents. “Clarke’s” (that was reference enough) was an institution that had spanned three generations and, even though I wasn’t a huge customer, I missed knowing it was there. Then, in doing research for Legendary Locals of the Long Beach Peninsula, I learned that Dr. J. Harold Clarke had first come to the Peninsula in connection with Cranguyma Farms back in the 1920s… Who knew? Look far enough into the history of our area and the connections seem endless!
Mrs. G.W. Leak Rhodies in Our Garden
Now, thanks to the Water Music Festival (and, inadvertently, the Community Historian Project) I’ll have a chance to find out more. On Saturday May 2, as part of the 2015 Long Beach Peninsula Rhodie tour, Steve McCormick and John Stephens will join forces with Steve Clark to do as Clarke Rhododendron Nursery History Presentation. For McCormick and Stephens, the talk is part of their project as Community Historians; Clarke’s ‘credentials’ need no explanation. I should also mention here, that McCormick and Stephens are the ones who bought the Nursery property some years ago and are into landscaping and rhodies big time.
Oysterville Churchyard 2006
The talk is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Shelburne Inn where attendees will be served a “Sumptuous Shelburne Breakfast Buffet” right along with the large dollops of history, a bit of rhodie lore and, hopefully (for me) a few tips about plant care etc. All that for $15! Space is limited to forty people and, according to the gorgeous Water Music poster, tickets go on sale the week before the event.
PLUS – the Rhodie Garden Tour will happen that very afternoon from 11 to 4. For $10 you can tour five gardens, one of which is McCormick and Stephens’ and all of which feature rhodies (of course!) Proceeds from the Garden Tour benefit the music programs in our local schools – a win-win proposition for sure.
My first husband was and is a landscaper. We used to drive his truck to the beach, camp at Ft. Canby, and buy rhodies for the stock he kept at our house or for specific jobs. Clark’s always had a big rhodie sale in the Spring and wasn’t the Dixieland Rh0die Festival connected to them? A little Dixieland goes a long ways for me, but it would be hard to get too much of rhodies!