As Vicki mentioned, we just returned from our Garden Conservancy trip to Sun Valley, Idaho which was especially interesting to me because we have a small home there which we use mostly in the wintertime. I think more about winter sports than gardens during these months. So I was curious what people were growing in their gardens during the summer.
In this post, I will share some of my highlights from the first day of the gardens we visited. We began at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden, which I had never visited before. This botanical garden showcases many high altitude native and cultivated plants. My favorite section of the SBG was the Garden of Infinate Compassion, to which the picture above belongs. This contemplative garden was created with the support of locals, to honor the Dalai Lama’s visit to the Wood River Valley in 2005. This botanical garden is definitely worth visiting when in the area.
We saw many more colorful gardens than I expected, containing foxglove, clematis, peonies, roses, coneflowers, daisies, irises, nepeta and many more – all arranged in surprisingly colorful perennial borders. It was not what I expected to see in an Idaho garden with a short growing season!
One garden had a large woodland garden full of whimsical birdhouses – far more than I could possibly share here. They were fantastic.
I heard several gardeners talk about the importance of their Sun Valley bees and are actively planting flowers to attract these important companions. It was easy to see their successful efforts as bees buzzed around nepeta, coneflowers, daisies and this eryngium.
Thank you to Garden Conservancy board member Toni Breck, pictured here alongside West Coast Council leader and landscape designer, Elizabeth Everdell, for the amazing job you did to organize the Sun Valley trip!
More to come about the rest of the gardens we visited…
