Art in Bloom Garden Tour offers a study in contrast
Six local gardens to be featured in Black Mountain Center for the Arts fundraiser
Jessica Klarp
Guest contributor
The Valley Echo
July 6, 2021
Roynan and Griff Jones have a three-lot garden with sweeping views. It will be on the Black Mountain Center for the Arts' Art in Bloom Garden tour scheduled for July 9 and 10. Photo courtesy of Joye Ardyn Durham
Three acres here, a postage stamp there, hot and sunny, steep and shady, well established, brand new, the diversity on display with this year’s Art in Bloom Garden Tour is a study in contrasts. Despite their differences, all the garden owners hold a certain resilience, a “go with the flow” attitude that is perfect for the times.
Six gardens will be on display during the two-day tour from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Friday, July 9 and Saturday, July 10, as part of the Black Mountain Center for the Arts popular Art in Bloom fundraiser. These gardens stretch from one side of Black Mountain, in the Settings, to Cheshire, to Montreat Road and then around to the west end of North Fork.
Tickets are $25 and offer discounts to five local restaurants. Ticket holders will have access to the BMCA Upper Gallery where 20 stunning floral arrangements are paired with art curated from regional galleries.
For those who would prefer to view the floral arrangements and skip the garden tour, tickets are $5. Access to the gallery is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday and Saturday.
The tour has been designed to minimize parking for ticket holders. This starts with a change in the way tickets can be purchased. In previous years, tickets and maps were picked up at the Arts Center, but tickets are now available through the BMCA website.
The digital ticket can be displayed on a smartphone at each location, or printed into a paper ticket. A digital map and descriptions of the gardens are available for viewing starting the night before the tour. Online sales end at 4 p.m., Thursday, July 8, and the tickets are released the next day.
Ticket holders can visit the gardens in any order, though the map suggests an order with the smaller gardens sandwiched by the larger ones.
Roynan and Griff Jones are garden number one. Their three-lot expanse has a breathtaking view, meandering trails leading to separate garden rooms filled with seating and artful arrangements of perennials and shrubs and trees creating a feast for the eyes.
Guests then drive to the Cheshire community. This now well-established neighborhood is filled with beautiful yards, two of which are featured on this year’s tour. One, owned by Kathleen and Steve Miller, is densely packed with charming clusters of color and texture.
“I am an outdoor girl at heart,” Kathleen said. “Working in my garden brings me great peace and joy in the beauty of plants, their colors, their scents, their textures, their magic.”
Just down the street is a diminutive shade garden that utilizes every inch of space with intentional plantings. This steep, mossy garden is not for the faint of heart, so some ticket holders will prefer to stay on the sidewalk where there is still plenty to admire.
Next stop is up Montreat Road where the Box garden surrounds an old farmhouse with salvaged plants and years of Christmas trees. Just next door a brand new construction strives for low maintenance and water runoff control by creating outdoor rooms with boulders dictating the flow on a delightful gravel surface filled with hearty, thoughtful plantings.
The final stop is three acres of commercial organic specialty cut flowers owned by Black Mountain’s Abigail Moffitt. Whole plots filled with blooming dahlia, sunflowers, zinnia and celosia among others make the drive to the other side of town worth it. Moffitt’s home garden where she started her business was on the 2019 tour before she purchased this location in March of 2020.
With all the differences on display, all participating homeowners have a similar philosophy or point of view.
Gardens “are a source of tranquility,” according to Jones, while Amy Tripp called the gardening practice one that is “never done, but very rewarding.”
In addition to the garden tour ticket and the gallery-only ticket, there is an option to purchase an everything pass that offers access to the gardens, gallery and Preview Party, scheduled for 5 p.m., Thursday, July 8. The party features floral arrangements at their freshest and attendees can meet the floral designers while sipping wine and enjoying appetizers out on BMCA’s three decks.
For more information or to purchase any ticket for an Art in Bloom event or workshop go to blackmountainarts.org/artinbloom. The Black Mountain Center for the Arts is located at 225 West State Street.