Community Corner
Garden Party: Tour a Master Gardener's Not-So-Secret Garden
Anne Tansey has many gardens at her St. Charles home. The First Capitol Garden Club president gives a tour, tips and tells why gardening interests her.
Anne Tansey is a gardener extraordinaire and 2011 president of the First Capitol Garden Club.
She holds a master gardener certification from the Missouri Botanical Garden, is a member of the Henry Shaw Cactus Society and the Philanthropic Educational Organization.
Tansey said her gardening passion was instilled at a young age. Her father tended a vegetable and rose garden. Frequent visits to the Missouri Botanical Garden Club and the Jewel Box in St. Louis deepened her love for plants.
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She applied for the Missouri Botanical Master Gardener program and was accepted. She attended school once a week for five months, training was on various topics.
“The program teaches students the botanical names of plants. The difference between bulbs and tubers was one particular study,” Tansey said. Completing the program was a deep sense of accomplishment and made her feel good.
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A tour of her greenscape reveals a seven-foot oak leaf hydrangea complimented by pink lacy blooms, a Japanese red maple, hostas, and Japanese painted ferns in the front yard.
The side yard is a sweet retreat of purple coneflowers, yellow coreopsis, yarrow, asters, day lilies and columbine. The shade garden boasts a celandine poppy, a green and white lungwort, ferns and hostas.
She has a vegetable garden and a sunroom that is a haven for over 100 cactus and succulents.
To keep her garden looking beautiful, she waters flowers at least twice weekly during the summer. Anne sprinkles gardener’s special 12-12-12 on her plants in spring and summer and "deadheads" every other day.
“When plants make seedheads, they use extra energy” Tansey said. Strolling through the yard, she gives TLC to each plant and checks for dried seedheads, carefully snapping them from the plants.
The 20-member First Capitol Garden Club pays it forward twice yearly by visiting nursing homes, allowing residents to arrange cut plants and flowers from members’ gardens.
As part of the committee, Tansey assists with the Smoky the Bear and Woodsy Owl Poster Contest, teaching children to "lend a hand, care for the land."
Anne likes perennials the best. One of her favorites is the day lily and the bright colors the garden variety brings. She enjoys giving cactus and succulents to friends as gifts.