Happy birthday, Steilacoom

When residents of Steilacoom, Washington state’s oldest incorporated community, set out to preserve its mid-19th century heritage by gaining recognition as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places, no one suspected that one of the town’s greatest treasures lay in a local orchard.

Among the more-than-century-old apple trees of the historic Nathaniel Orr Home was the Sweet Summer Paradise, a species already considered extinct. Horticultural experts at universities from Oregon State to Cornell rejoiced at the discovery of this living heirloom.

Steilacoom, named for the Native American word for the profuse pink Prairie Star flowers that blanketed its hills, marks its 150th birthday this year. Fittingly, one of the first celebrations for this scenic community overlooking Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains will be a garden party. On June 19, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Pierce College joins with the Town of Steilacoom and other community partners to present Celebrating Steilacoom Gardens: 1854-2004, a commemoration of the town’s horticultural legacy. All proceeds will benefit the nonprofit tutoring program at the college.

The two-year-long nationwide Lewis and Clark bicentennial commemoration now in progress also dovetails with Steilacoom’s past and present. Many of the plants the Corps of Discovery gathered were pressed, dried and brought back from the Pacific Northwest.

Peter Hatch, garden and grounds director at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, will give a one-hour presentation concerning the current restoration of the estate gardens to their 19th-century splendor, the plants Jefferson cultivated that came from seed or roots brought back by the Lewis and Clark expedition and the art of heirloom plant cultivation. Hatch cites the significant role of such conservation and restoration in interpreting the history of an area through its plants.

The rebirth of Monticello as it was in Jefferson’s time represents “a case study in the field of historic landscape preservation,” Hatch says, explaining the meticulousness with which they approach the process. In a phone interview, he described the state-of-the art archeology used to explore the grounds of the fruit and vegetable garden to discover “the bones of these gardens, where fruit trees were planted and what kind of walls supported the vegetable garden terrace.”

“Every time you disturb the soil you leave a very lasting imprint in terms of texture or color so that, hundreds of years later, archeologists can go over it and, by very carefully troweling the soil off, discover stains where trees were growing hundreds of years ago. They found many of the places that Jefferson planted his fruit trees, enabling us to replant them, putting things back in the exact same places.”

Although few can pursue historic restoration to that extent, environmental and ecological concerns prompt more and more of us to include plants that are endemic to the habitat in which we garden. Pat and Paige Woodward from Chilliwack, B.C.’s Pacific Rim Native Plant Nursery, which grows hard-to-find as well as common varieties, will be in Steilacoom to discuss the process of successfully reintroducing such plants into home gardens.

In addition, the Washington Native Plant Society will create a Pacific Northwest native plant sanctuary which will include samples of plants that thrive in various home habitats. Visitors to the garden, adjacent to the Bair store on Lafayette Street, will be able to purchase plants and confer with Master Gardeners and other experts available to answer questions about gardening with indigenous species.

Among the incentives for doing so, horticultural expert Anna Thurston points out, is “their adaptation to the Pacific Northwest climate, which makes established native plants naturally resistant to local pests and diseases. They also require no fertilizer or pesticides, which protects both soil and water quality, and can even be used to replace invasive plants without becoming pests themselves.”

The tour includes the Orr Pioneer Home and Orchard as well as a garden first displayed 50 years ago for the town’s centennial celebration. Another garden has been restored around a 1930s-era home, using a previous homeowner’s detailed planting journal as a guide. Contemporary homes on the itinerary include a formal European-style rose garden, with breathtaking views across the Sound to offshore islands, and a garden lush with shade-loving plant varieties.

The Tacoma Youth Orchestra will provide chamber music throughout the day in one of the gardens while a harpist performs in another. Along with garden plants, ornaments and other displays, visitors will find the town’s tennis courts transformed into a rose garden. And yes, that’s a promise.