A 100-year-old wisteria has curled and twisted its way up, up into a towering Ponderosa pine. Its leaves catch the sunlight and throw whimsical shadows on the lawn below while its swags of flowers drip lavender-colored petals.
A tightly clipped, spiny-leaved holly hedge frames a series of formal rose gardens. Damasks, centifolias, gallicas, bourbons, hybrid musks, teas, rugosas, floribundas, even a few wild roses, fill the beds. Already, the Austrian Copper rose is covered with bright orange-yellow petals.
Sweet woodruff, coreopsis and comfrey carpet the ground beneath a Lady Banks rose that has clambered up an old elm.
The garden at the Empire Mine in Grass Valley provides a glimpse into the past. It's a peek into another century, another lifestyle.
More than 100 years old, the 13-acre garden surrounds a 4,600-square-foot "cottage" built in 1897 by William Bourn Jr.
The family spent holidays and summers at the cottage, says garden tour coordinator Jeanne Powell. They called it the cottage to distinguish it from their other homes, including Filoli mansion in Woodside. The garden, one of the earliest estate gardens in Northern California, is actually a series of gardens, some formally designed, others more relaxed.
The cottage and garden stand alongside a now-closed but very profitable gold mine. In fact, the Empire Mine – also called the Ophir Hill Mine and the Empire Quartz Hill Co. – was the richest gold mine in California. It produced 5.8 million ounces of gold over 106 years. The mine owed part of its success to the hard-rock Welsh miners who brought needed skills to extract the gold.
So just outside the garden gate, so to speak, were the miners and their mules, while inside the garden life was gentler, and certainly more comfortable and affluent.
The Bourns loved flowers, Powell says, and the grounds were part of the master plan developed by architect Willis Polk. "The Bourns wanted the main garden to have a formal presence," Powell says, "then it faded out to the wilder areas."
Stately maples and magnolias flank the cottage. Strawberry pots, a favorite of Bourn's wife Agnes are tucked near doorways and in recessed nooks along rock walls.
A wide swath of lawn leads to a reflecting pool, and below that a grassy walk. Norway maples and hydrangeas define both sides of the walk. Huge weigela shrubs throw their lax branches, covered with pink and white blossoms, onto the grass. Visitors mosey across the lawn, laughing and talking.
The kitchen garden and cutting gardens have been scaled back to save volunteer hours. The cutting garden is filled with irises and daffodils. A nearby arbor framed with rock walls and planted with the Gold of Ophir rose leads up to the house. Gold of Ophir was considered the best yellow rose of its day.
The arbor highlights the formal rose garden, which contains about 950 roses. Many are old fashioned, antique roses.
"The roses are organized oldest to newest," Powell says. "You can almost see the development of the rose from old- fashioned to modern as you go from bed to bed."
The arbor collapsed a few years ago and was rebuilt. The roses had to be trimmed back almost to the ground, but are beginning to scramble back up the arbor.
The property became part of the California State Parks system in 1975. At that time, the house was covered with ivy. Much of the garden was in ruins. Plants had overgrown each other; many had died. Park employees and volunteers used old photographs and original plans to restore the grounds.
Bourn's trees have grown old and tall. They give the garden a feeling of seclusion. You'd never know Highway 49 is a short distance away, or that Grass Valley and Nevada City had grown into sprawling, busy towns.
You can almost imagine women in their full skirts and petticoats playing tennis near the clubhouse. You can almost hear the laughter from the parties the Bourns must have thrown. Close your eyes and you can see picnics on the lawns, kids playing near the pool.
It's a beautiful reminder of times past.
Call The Bee's Pat Rubin, (916) 321-1075.
