Orcas in Bloom — tour six gardens next weekend June 27 and 28

Whimsical sculptures inhabit the Kaplan garden, featured on the "Orcas in Bloom" garden tour

Six unique and lovingly crafted gardens will be on display next weekend at “Orcas in Bloom,” the Orcas Island Garden Club Garden Tour.

The tour will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 27, and from noon to 5 p.m. on  Sunday, June 28.

The tour is self-guided so the ticket has a map of the gardens.  People can start anywhere and go at their own pace. The tickets are available at Smith and Speed, Darvill’s Bookstore, Driftwood Nursery (Lorna’s), the Saturday Farmers Market and occasionally at the Island Market

1. Jim and Kathy Youngren Garden
With 300 acres, this late-19th century farmhouse is flanked by enormous beeches and surrounded by carefully preserved antique apple trees. In the spring there are flowering cherries, crabapples, and lilacs, as well as a pond by the house filled with water loving iris. Visit the “Long Live the Kings” hatchery to see how salmon are raised.

2. Ralph and Terrel Kaplan Garden
Surrounded by towering madrones above Eastsound and Rosario Resort, this is truly an artful garden with outdoor art throughout. Errol Speed of Smith & Speed has designed and constructed a path to enlightenment, a juniper gazebo, hillside rock garden, stone paths and stone vegetable beds with Asian style. There will be garden benches by local artists and Carruth Garden Art available for sale.

3. David and Barbara Evans Garden
Through a cedar gateway visitors make their way into a peaceful Japanese inspired garden with many “rooms.” Shade and scattered sun in this fenced portion of the garden provide meandering paths, outdoor spaces and woodland garden opportunities. The garden features evergreens and
perennials with annual accents in a framework of native madrone, maple, alder, red cedar, hemlock and Douglas fir.

4. Olga Salsa Garden
Venture into the hamlet today, and you will find a fence-enclosed plot of land, lovingly adopted by local neighbors who have spent the past three years planning, digging, experimenting, and transforming it into the “Olga Salsa Garden.” The garden features an array of flowers and berries, raised beds with a huge variety of vegetables, driftwood art and a sturdy hoop house to extend the growing season.

5. Dick and Judy Evans Garden
Located on its own cove in Deer Point off Obstruction Pass, this spacious garden slopes down to the water through plantings of salal, flowering currants, azaleas, rhododendrons and Japanese maples to a more cultivated garden at water’s edge. Lilies, roses, espaliered apple trees, boxwood hedge, a cutting garden and a vegetable garden complete this area.

6. John and Wanda Evans Garden & Nursery
Pastures full of Icelandic horses and Jacob sheep are just part of the charm of this island nursery. Here they provide islanders with known garden winners specializing in fruit trees, Japanese maples, conifers, and shrubs of all types. They apply their gardening experience for the benefit of Orcas gardeners.