Join Us Sign In

Powered by California Local

Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

Maple Rock Gardens hosts special reopening

After no visitors in 2020, spectacular private gardens to hold one-day event

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED MAY 21, 2021

Maple Rock pond and fountain

Some of Maple Rock's many garden "rooms" feature ponds. (Photo: Debbie

More good garden news after 15 months of uncertainty: Maple Rock is reopening!

Located in Newcastle, the unique destination will host “A Day At Maple Rock Gardens,” from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 29. Now on sale, tickets are $15. For an extra $10, visitors can pick “as much lavender as you want.”

Activities include a self-guided tour through Maple Rock’s many garden “rooms.” The miniature railroad will be winding through garden terraces. Food and drink will be available, too, with plenty of spots for picnicking.

Pathway through green garden

Maple Rock will be open for a day of strolling and lavender picking

May 29. (Photo courtesy Scott Paris)

Admired as one of the best private gardens in the West, Maple Rock Gardens is the home of Scott Paris, owner of High-Hand Nursery and Conservatory in nearby Loomis. A working farm as well as a garden showcase, Maple Rock is occasionally open to visitors for tours, lavender harvest and more.

But since the pandemic started in March 2020, Maple Rock has been closed to visitors.

While focusing on health and the survival of his businesses, Paris continued to tend his gardens, making small renovations and improving on this living masterpiece.

Right now, the gardens look so good, Paris decided he had to share.

“I was walking the garden last night and a thought flashed through my head,” he said in an email blast to his newsletter subscribers. “I wish people would come and enjoy this.

“Over the last year or so, I haven't walked the garden too much, I have been focused on other things as we all have,” he added. “But as I turned the corner here and there, I constantly came across something that I wish I could share.

“We didn't open the garden last year and I was waiting for the timing this year to present itself. So we are going to open it for the day!”

Paris noted that time off from visitors may have actually helped Maple Rock look better than ever.

“While the gates of Maple Rock remained closed, life inside its walls moved along as nature does,” he explained. “The garden has bloomed, grown, matured, and stood the test of this time.

“Without foot traffic, it's as if the garden healed itself here and there. Some plants grew and took over a pathway. Some plants in the garden that went unnoticed have grown and reminded me that they are still there. When I look around here and there, there are parts of it that are not perfect, but who am I to say? Nature makes its own rules and redefines what the meaning of perfect really is.”

Large field of lavender

Huge lavender fields are a feature of Maple Rock Gardens.

See for yourself. Besides the massive lavender fields and many fruit trees, the 30-acre Maple Rock features a series of enchanting garden “rooms” and spaces, each different and filled with garden whimsy. Dozens of statues dot the grounds, which wind up a hill with photo-worthy vistas. Along the paths and in the “rooms,” hundreds of blooming shrubs mix with perennials, framed by stone walls. Water features – ponds, fountains, waterfalls, streams and more – add sound as well as refreshing coolness. On special days such as this, the miniature railroad – one of the largest garden railroad layouts in the state – comes to live, uniting two miniature “communities” nestled among the garden terraces.

For the lunch menu, Paris is bringing in some popular dishes from his cafe.

“We are serving our famous rotisserie chicken salad sandwich and barbecued pulled pork, both on High-Hand fresh baked bread,” he said. “In addition, everyone's favorite grilled shrimp salad will also be served. Enjoy a glass of lavender lemonade or a selection of our best wines and beers.”

Wear comfortable shoes. No pets please.

Maple Rock Gardens is located at 100 Clark Tunnel Road, just off Hwy. 193 in Newcastle.

For tickets: https://conta.cc/3hOw61d .

For directions and more information about Maple Rock: www.maplerockgardens.com .

Questions? Call 916-660-0117 Ext.4 or email events@highhand.com .

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

garden tour gardening Sacramento coronavirus Maple Rock Gardens events Newcastle lavender Loomis Placer County May

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Flowers in My Back Yard Series

Aug. 4: Dianthus a deceptively hardy flower

July 28: Naked Ladies put on summer show

July 21: Thank Luther Burbank for these long-lasting beauties (Shasta daisies)

July 14: How to keep hydrangeas happy

July 7: Grow these bright cosmos for bees and butterflies

June 30: Agapanthus adds blue fireworks to the garden

June 23: Easy-care gazanias fill those hot corners

June 16: Daylilies are perfect for water-wise gardens (and a lot more)

June 9: Grow coneflowers for pollinators -- and yourself

June 2: Sunflowers capture Sacramento's summer attitude

May 29: Are your roses going 'blind'?

May 26: Zinnias are the summer flowers every garden needs

May 19: Plant dahlias now for late-summer flower power

May 12: Know your coreopsis from your bidens

May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend

April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look

April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

April 14: Small flowers with outsized impact

April 7: Calendulas do double duty

April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come

March 31: In praise of a pollinator magnet (small-leaf salvias)

March 24: Azaleas brighten shady spots

March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums

March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come

March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy

Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?

Feb. 24: Treasure spring daffodils now and for years to come

Feb. 17: How and why to grow wildflowers

Feb. 10: Let's talk Valentine's Day roses

Feb. 3: Why grow flowers?

Local News

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

Find our summer recipes here!

Sites We Like

Garden checklist for week of Aug. 2

Get out early in the morning and monitor your garden’s moisture needs. Deep water and add temporary shade structures for plants that are feeling a little burned. In particular, protect developing peppers and eggplant.

* Put off fertilization until this heat passes; plants need to concentrate on hydration instead of growth.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don’t let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Pinch off dead flowers from perennials and annuals to lengthen their summer bloom.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips. Make sure to keep seeds and seedlings consistently moist.

* Plant potatoes.

Contact Us

Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Find our spring recipes here!

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Find our fall recipes here!

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Find our winter recipes here!

Food in My Back Yard (FIMBY) Series

Lessons learned during a year of edible gardening

WINTER

Is edible gardening possible indoors?

Hints for choosing tomato seeds

Starting in seed starting

Why winter is the perfect time to plant fruit trees

When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants

How to squeeze more food into less space

Potatoes from the garden

Plant a fruit tree now -- for later

Win the weed war by tackling them in winter

Tips for planting bare-root trees, shrubs and vegetables

Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space

Ways to win the fight against weeds

FALL

Dec. 16: Add asparagus to your edible garden

Dec. 9: Soggy soil and what to do about it

Dec. 2: Plant artichokes now; enjoy for years to come

Nov. 25: It's late November, and your peach tree needs spraying

Nov. 18: What to do with all those fallen leaves?

Nov. 11: Prepare now for colder weather in the edible garden

Nov. 4: Plant a pea patch for you and your garden

Oct. 27: As citrus season begins, advice for backyard growers

Oct. 20: Change is in the autumn air

Oct. 13: We don't talk (enough) about beets

Oct. 6: Fava beans do double duty

Sept. 30: Seeds or transplants for cool-season veggies?

Sept. 23: How to prolong the fall tomato harvest

SUMMER

Sept. 16: Time to shut it down?

Sept. 9: How to get the most out of your pumpkin patch

Sept. 2: Summer-to-fall transition time for evaluation, planning

Aug. 26: To pick or not to pick those tomatoes?

Aug. 19: Put worms to work for you

Aug. 12: Grow food while saving water

Aug. 5: Enhance your food with edible flowers

July 29: Why won't my tomatoes turn red?

July 22: A squash plant has mosaic virus, and it's not pretty

July 15: Does this plant need water?

July 8: Tear out that sad plant or baby it? Midsummer decisions

July 1: How to grow summer salad greens

June 24: Weird stuff that's perfectly normal

SPRING

June 17: Help pollinators help your garden

June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests

June 3: Make your own compost

May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?

May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days

May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can

May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success

April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?

April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)

April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers

April 8: When to plant summer vegetables

April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths

March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth