The wonders of it all

Guided gardens tour pleases the senses

By LINDA M. LINONIS

Vindicator Staff Writer

YOUNGSTOWN — Babe Mann traveled some 50 miles from her home in Aliquippa, Pa., to tour Fellows Riverside Gardens on Sunday. She was among about a dozen people who followed volunteer tour guide Richard “Dick” Smith around the gardens as he gave insights into the plants and trees. Mann observed, “Our eyes aren’t keeping up with you.”

And no wonder because the wonders of spring unfolding were many. Those on the tour dallied at blooming plants, admiring the flower or scent, or touched trees with intriguing bark.

“I love these gardens,” Mann said, adding she has visited Mill Creek MetroParks to participate in kayaking excursions.

But Sunday, she and a friend, Nancy Gray of East Liverpool, were among the hundreds at the park.

Some came to sample a Mother’s Day buffet in the Garden Cafe in the D.D. and Velma Davis Education & Visitor Center. A display of floral quilts, handcrafted by members of That Quilt Group I Belong To, were featured in the Weller Gallery and drew appreciation from onlookers. Others stopped by the John C. Melnick Museum, which highlights the history of Mill Creek Park and Fellows Riverside Gardens. And many people visited the Garden Shop with its array of garden and plant-related wares.

The true star of the day, though, was Fellows Riverside Gardens. As Mann said, “There is so much to learn here.”

And Smith was an able and informative guide, who led the tour group from the Davis Center into the gardens, stopping at points of interest, winding around highlights of the garden and then returning to the center.

The group passed the fountain, which is being “redesigned, reconstructed and refreshed,” and walked down the long mall, where various tulip beds are located and summer annuals will be planted, Smith said. This area includes river birch, magnolia and crabapple trees.

Smith told the group that Dr. Richard Murry was responsible for the four-seasons statues around the Victorian-style Centennial Bed. An informational sign added that Murry designed the statues to represent four stages of adult life. Joseph Ronci also contributed to this effort, which became part of the park in 1965 and ’66.

As the tour group progressed, they saw various kinds of daffodils, beech trees including weeping, tri-color and American, and a trial garden. Smith explained plants here are being evaluated by gardeners and might turn up in catalogs and nurseries in the future.

When the group got to the north terrace, they took in city sights including Youngstown State University’s Stambaugh Stadium. Moving on, tour-group members talked among themselves, commenting on the beauty of the gardens and the pleasant day. Matt Zeller, who works at the chemistry lab at YSU, and is from Bamberg, Germany, said he comes to the park a lot to enjoy the natural space.

Bill and Charlotte Evankovich of North Lima also were on the tour. “We came to do something on Mother’s Day,” he said. “We haven’t been here in years; this is beautiful.”

It was a family affair for the Evankoviches, who were accompanied by their daughter and son-in-law, Debbie and Greg Repasky of New Springfield, and the Repaskys’ son and daughter-in-law, Matthew and Carrie Repasky of Austintown.

“It was nice to get out in the fresh air here at the park,” Greg Repasky said. “After the long winter, this a nice for Mother’s Day.” He grew up on Youngstown’s South Side and said he spent many hours at the park fishing and skipping rocks at Lake Newport.

His wife, Debbie, said, “This is a nice outing for Mother’s Day — to get out of the house.”

Smith told the visitors about some unusual trees — the camouflage tree that looks like the color scheme, the striped maple with unique bark with stripes and the paperbark maple, which looks like it is shedding its bark in various layers.

While the herb garden provided an array of colors, textures and smells in plants such as lavender, hops, hyssop, spearmint and Italian parsley, those on the tour really admired the effort it takes to maintain the rose garden.

Smith said some 1,300 roses — varieties of hybrid tea, floribunda and grandiflora roses — bloom between June and October.

During a pause at the south terrace and view of Lake Glacier, Smith noted this spot is favored by newly married couples for photographs. The group also saw the perennial garden.

Then Smith pointed out a statue of St. Fiacre, the patron saint of gardeners. St. Fiacre, Smith said, is usually depicted with an open book and spade. He was known for his capacity to heal and his use of herbs.

As the tour neared the end, Smith talked about the Dawn Redwoods, which aren’t a true redwood. “They are ancient trees and might be an ancestor to California redwoods,” he said. The two in the garden were planted in 1965, he continued, and said they are fast-growers — about a yard every year.

A walk through the shade garden, with its hostas, snowdrops and Japanese primrose, brought the tour group back to the center.

Smith has volunteered at the gardens for some 20 years and been a tour guide for four. “I’ve been a gardener all my life,” he said. “I learn something myself about the garden when I do this.”

He said his favorite aspect of the gardens was “changing from one season to another. Every month there is something new to see and something to learn.”

Smith said many students from Mahoning Valley schools tour the gardens.