Event celebrates art, music, as well as natural beauty
By Shirley Goodman
For the Salisbury Post
The Symphony Guild’s Festival of Summer Gardens tour the last weekend in June was a smashing success!
The two-day event was a major fundraiser for the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra. Over 400 attendees strolled the nine country and historic gardens. The tour’s varied selection of gorgeous gardens showed that, despite the challenges of keeping a summer garden colorful and flowering, it can be accomplished.
Tour-goers were treated to the music of several children’s groups, including the Children’s Strings, the Granite Quarry Elementary After School Strings, Summer Strings Camp and the Salisbury Junior Strings. Their director/instructor provided lovely renditions on the flute, Susan Trivette at Yadi and Dr. Renu Bale’s garden and Karen Franks at Jean McCoy and Rick Travis’ garden.
Despite the fact that some of their number have moved out of town, the Polka Dots are alive and well! Five of their group, which included Lorna Brown, Anne Cave, Dr. John Cave, Dr. Steve Etters and George Hill, provided a number of rousing polkas for the Robert Myers and Jack Page garden guests; then Lorna wowed her audiences by going solo on the accordion at the Norvells’ historic garden.
Other musicians included 14-year-old Paul Cline, grandson of Dr. Gordon and Barbara Senter, on the violin at Barbara and Cliff Sorel’s restored garden on South Fulton Street; and Scarlette Speaks, who played the violin at Millie and Grover Ward’s gardens on Gheen Road. Nick Luciano, shared his mastery of the clarinet at the Myers and Page garden in Glen Forest; Robert Howle played the guitar in the classical style for Betty and Jim Carli’s and Ann and Sam Meredith’s tour guests. Jim Gobble played the acoustic guitar at the Carolina Lily and performed at the Wards’ garden in the shade of the lovely gazebo, with tunes that brought back memories for most who saw and heard him. Dr. Clyde Young did the same on the trumpet at the Norvells’ garden, relishing the opportunity to share the fact that he attended kindergarten right there where he was performing on the porch of what was the summer kitchen for the home in the 1800s.
In addition to having the opportunity to tour the informal gardens at Julie Apone’s Carolina Lily, located on Kern Carlton Road, luncheon guests enjoyed lunch under the shade trees. Plein Air artists from the local area had their easels set up in each of the gardens and surprised the owners with a painting of a selected site in their garden. At many stops along the tour, the Master Gardeners were available to answer questions and offer advice about successful summer gardening in the region. Debbie Dean and MarChella Cerda of Garden Greenhouses demonstrated the art of container planting. And as was stated in articles on the society pages of many a newspaper from yesteryear, “A good time was had by all!”
Thanks to all who were a part of making this the successful event that it proved to be!