Photos by Dimitra Lavrakas
This year 294 people attended the Easter Star Flower and Garden Show Aug. 12-15. They came from 11 countries and 29 states to enjoy the 150 displays from 31 contributors.
WINNERS
Edith Lee Award: Christine Ellis
Best of Show: Nancy Schave, flowers
Best of Show: Ivadell Rapuzzi, doll display
Best of Show: John Berry, vegetables
First and Second Place by category
Children
Overall: Sierra Moran, sunflower; Sierra Moran, pansies
Flowers: Sierra Moran, pansies; Kristen Moore, daisies & lobelia
Vegetables: Kristen Moore, berries; Kristen Moore, rhubarb
Adults
Begonia: Ivadell Rapuzzi
Dahlia: Gladys Moran; Wanda Warner
Glads: Wanda Warner
Roses: Barb Elliott; Eva Beeks
Sweet Peas: Anita Haskins; Colton Belisle
Snaps: Barb Elliott
Marigolds: Donna Moore; Lynne Ruff
Veggie Tray: John Berry; Jeff Ruff
Potatoes: Barb Kalen; Jeff Ruff
Cabbage: John Berry; Jeff Ruff
Onions/peppers: Jeff Ruff; Gladys Moran
Herbs: Nancy Schave; Lynne Ruff
Fruit: Eva Beeks; Nancy Schave
Most Unusual: Joan Wohake; Nancy Schave
Most Spectacular: Nancy Schave; Gold Rush Lodge
Overall Participation: Gladys Moran; Nancy Schave
Most Creative: Judy Mallory; Gladys Moran
Petunias: Jackie Herring; Corey Dorn
Pansies: Sierra Moran; Sierra Moran
Variety Lettuce: Nancy Schave Donna Moore
Charlotte’s Garden
Historic garden resurrected after remediation
By DIMITRA LAVRAKAS
Next time you take a plane out, check out the area north of the Seventh Pasture ballfield.
Charlotte Jewell’s been busy.
There’s a giant flower connected to a leaf with curling wooden boardwalk. The brilliant colors nearly blow you out of the sky.
It’s a signal to all that Jewell Gardens is in bloom once again after the remediation by the Haines Terminal & Highway Co. that cleared up the contamination of fuel oil from the old White Pass Alaska tank farm next to the property.
The big trees had to go, something Jewell said altered the back drop.
“It takes five years to establish a garden,” she said. “I lost a few trees from that transplant.”
HT&WC brought in soil from the Skagit Valley in Washington to replace the lost topsoil.
“The one positive note is I got to redesign the garden,” she said. “I haven’t made changes for two years, because they were going to come in and tear it up. I’ve been able to do things I wasn’t able to do, like put in a boardwalk. But I couldn’t get the building permit until I got the septic tank in, and I couldn’t do the septic system until the remediation was finished.”
Jewell’s new building houses a garden center and the florist shop, but also a bright porch with a vista of the gardens where she serves tea to visitors on tour.
The 1.36-acre garden didn’t officially open this year until July 12 because of the construction.
There’s a raised bed with a miniature WP&YR train gliding on 200 feet of track winding through a miniature, old-time Skagway.
Local jeweler Casey McBride’s brother-in-law, Randy Brendle, was here this summer for a visit , and, as he specializes in water ponds, helped Jewell with hers. Nearby there’ll be a bird sanctuary area with plenty of feeders and plants they enjoy.
As with the old garden there’s a salute to Skagway women in small crib-like gardens with walls made of old iron bedframes.
She also has several rose bushes from cuttings that the late Oscar Selmer’s mother brought over from Norway during the gold rush.
Jewell Gardens sits on part of the site of the original 44 acres of Henry Clark’s renowned garden.
“He was a huckster,” she said, of the gold rush truck farmer. “He sold vegetables off a horse and cart.”
So the tradition of gardening in the “Garden City of Alaska” continues.