English tea will benefit heritage gardens

The Friends of the Moore-Turner Heritage Gardens is putting on a traditional English tea on April 29 to benefit the gardens.

The tea which will be held at Corbin Art Center will have two seatings at noon and again at 2 p.m.

Groups from both seatings will get the chance to hear horticulturist Kathy Hutton talk about native perennials as the original garden plants.

Garden tours will be given at noon and 2 p.m. The cost is $25 for Friends members and $30 for nonmembers.

To reserve a spot, go to heritagegardens.org. The deadline for reservations is April 24.

The Arts and Crafts-style gardens were planted in the early 1900s behind a spacious mansion for Judge and U.S. Sen. George Turner and his wife, Bertha, who used the grounds for entertaining and relaxing.

The 1889 mansion, which was designed by architect Kirtland Cutter, originally was built for F. Rockwood Moore, the first president of Washington Water Power Co., now Avista, and his wife, but Moore died early in 1895.

The reclaimed gardens feature arbors, planting beds, tea house, reflecting pool, a large pond and foot paths along the lower reach of the South Hill below Cliff Drive. The mansion was torn down in 1940, and the gardens fell into disrepair, but scrapbooks and records kept by Bertha Turner were used as a basis for restoration.

The gardens are just west of the center, 507 W. Seventh Ave., in Edwidge Woldson Park.

The tea events have been held twice yearly as the garden gets ready to open in May and again before it closes at the end of the garden season.

Linda Yeomans, a board member of the Friends organization, said the tea raises money that goes to maintenance of the plants, garden structures and adjacent Corbin House through the city parks department.

“Of course we don’t make a lot of money to benefit the gardens, but we are committed to helping any way we can,” Yeomans said in an email.