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Yellow roses from the Penzkowski garden. |
In a major departure from previous Garden Walks, this year’s event will include the new Garden Faire and a judged Amateur Flower Show. Participants will enjoy workshops, demonstrations and the latest gardening advice from Omaha-area garden experts. There also will be a host of vendors offering a wide array of gift items and tasty foods for purchase. Guests who stroll through the Garden Faire will enjoy the talents of local musicians throughout the day as well as culinary, ironwork, stone sculpture and horticultural exhibitions at the Fort Omaha campus of Metropolitan Community College.
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The Wollberg garden. |
- Raymond and Wanda Wollberg, 2224 S. 85th Ave. The Wollbergs have an abundance of perennial beds as well as a collection of more than 170 varieties of hosta. They’ve acquired them through regional searches and have chosen them for plant size, color, texture, leaf shape, leaf size, mound habit and flower.
- Ron and Rozely Penzkowski, 3510 N. 85th St. Their blue patio is reminiscent of their travels to Spain and Portugal; and their Talavera pottery collection add to the Mediterranean flavor. The Penzkowskis have more than 80 rose bushes in their landscape and their greenhouse over-winters their fragrant tropical plants.
A statue of General Crook at the Crook Home on Fort Omaha campus.
- Metropolitan Community College, 30th & Fort Streets. Site of the Garden Faire and Flower Show. The Fort Omaha Campus hosts several gardens also for touring and is the site of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum. The All-American Display Garden is one of three gardens in Nebraska filled with flowers, herbs and vegetables designated as All-American Selections and maintained by the Men’s Garden Club of Omaha. The Pool Garden is the area that serves as the classroom lab for the Horticulture Program and has a variety of perennials, annuals, vegetables and shrubs. The Victorian Heirloom Garden is located at the historic General Crook House and contains more than 110 varieties of flowers, trees and shrubs that were either carried here by wagon trains in the 1880s or are native to Nebraska. The Neihardt Sacred Hoop Garden is an expression of the spiritual concepts of the Hoop of the Universe as described by Black Elk. The book, Black Elk Speaks, is the result of a visit in 1931 by John Neihardt and his wife, Mona, with the Lakota Sioux holy man.
- Dean Fife and Karen Kenkel, 1432 N. 131st Avenue Circle. The Koi ponds are a popular attraction around the garden with more than 20 large Koi mostly from Japan. They all have names and some can be touched. A 70-foot-wide trellis supports Climbing New Dawn roses, clematis and many vine vegetables. A beautifully landscaped swimming pool lies in the midst of some of their favorite plants such as Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick, Crimson Frost birch and Concolor fir tree. More than 15 varieties of Japanese maples filter throughout the landscape along with more than 200 varieties of hosta.
The Kenkel and Fife garden.
- Doug and Mary Trenerry, 15114 Miami Circle. The welcoming wreaths that adorn the gates and fences are from their Wisteria and grape vines. There is an extensive vegetable garden featuring a large variety of fruits, berries, vegetables and herbs. Doug has a bonsai collection along with his espalier apple trees. He has constructed a pergola which has become a clubhouse for the finches, chickadees and cardinals centered around the “sitting rock.” More than 40 trees grace the property.
- Chris Vogt and Julie Larsen, 631 N. 164th Circle. Visitors are welcomed to their two-story colonial by formal boxwoods and a gentle brick walkway leading through the Rose Garden courtyard. The landscape showcases 65 rose plants including teas, floribundas, grandifloras, Old English and David Austen shrubs. One of their favorites is Big Purple. The elephant hosta, monarda, bearded iris, asparagus, daylilies, peonies, orange poppies and delphinium thrive beautifully together for their viewing pleasure.
Numerous vendors and artists will attend the Garden Faire. Tickets may be purchased at a variety of locations (see www.mmigardenwalk.com for sites).
Advance tickets are $12. Tickets will be $15 on the day of the event at all gardens. Children under 12 are free. No strollers are allowed in the gardens. Advance tickets also are available by calling 402-964-9664 or via mail at: Garden Walk Tickets, Munroe-Meyer Institute, 985450 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, 68198-5450.
For more information about the 2006 Munroe-Meyer Guild Garden Walk and Faire or details about the Flower Show, visit the Web site at www.mmigardenwalk.com or call 402-964-9664.