The Garden of Paula & Duane Rutan

Meanwhile back on our July 27th tour of "Treasures of the South Sound," the next stop for Alison and me was the Rutan garden on Lake St. Clair in Olympia. 

 Scenes from the driveway.

Paula has a keen eye for color.  The leaf color of Pelargonum (zonal Geranium) 'Indian Princess' mirrors the color of the Antirrhinum (Snapdragon)

Paula is also has the magic touch with mixed containers.  Look at how the center coleus brings together all of the other colors.  Very well done!

I'm a fan of lilies, especially oriental lilies with their heavenly fragrance and this garden included large drifts of lilies at every turn.  Paradise!

This garden and it's setting are stupendous and since I've run out of superlatives, I'm going to share with you part of Paula's statement about her garden.

"Welcome to my crazy-quilt garden!  Here you will see a 3/4 acre home garden that I consider to be a very personal expression of my life-long love of gardening.

There are no plans from professionals or garden books here.  I am an old-fashioned flower gardener who has found the Pacific Northwest an exceptional place to enjoy experimenting with bulbs and perennials.  This is a layered garden.

I have planted thousands of spring and summer bulbs and perennials since 2005.  In summer the display of flowers is lush.

The front yard border is overstuffed with Asiatic and Orienpet lilies, poppies, daylilies, crocosmias, nepeta, and warm colors of snapdragon grown from seed every year.

The bark berm  along our property line is now a garden of roses, fragrant oriental and speciosum lilies, hardy fuchsias, bleeding hearts, and foxglove. 

 More lilies!  'Conca D'Or' towers over all of them.  There is no excaping their fragrance!

Arbors, some built by my husband, are draped with golden hops or clematis in my favorite blue hues, along with the rose 'Madame Alfred Carriere' and musk roses.

"Lakeside Blue" ceramic pots are everywhere, overflowing with edible and floral displays.  The back hill, a natural tangel of blackberries when we came here, is festooned with mophead, lacecap and paniculata hydrangeas in colors that reflect the lake's presence, reinforced by perennial geraniums."

A lovely surprise was coming around a corner and seeing the lake in the background!

 

The garden continues all the way down to the water! 

Close to the house is a raised garden of tomatoes, many grown from seed.

There are plenty of spots to sit and enjoy the fragrance, the view, the beauty of this special garden.

Looking back up from a lower seating area.

Paula's right, this pot perfectly echoes the colors of the lake!

Gorgeous Aconitum!  (Yes Scott, you need some!)  

 

 Ever closer to the lake.  I'll bet that the frogs sing the Rutans to sleep in the summer.  Sweet!

 Now this is what I call a well-integrated water feature!

This is one of those places where you can just point the camera anywhere and find something incredible to fill the lens.

I so would have loved to have stayed here, dipped my feet into the lake and savored the gorgeous day and the heady fragrance of lilies.  That sort of thing would probably not be appropriate although it's not specifically mentioned in the Garden Tour Etiquette section of the Northwest Perennial Alliance open garden  book.

Here's the bark berm that Paula mentioned with the roses and one of her husband's arbors.

 

 

"Sunglasses recommended!"

 

Many thanks to Paula and Duane for opening their garden to NPA members and for the yummy cookies and cold drinks!