By MICHAEL PENNACCHIA

“It’s not realistic to expect your garden interest to come mainly from flowers,” said Louis Raymond, landscape designer and principal of Renaissance Gardening Ltd. in Hopkinton and New York City www.rgardening.com.

A trip to Raymond’s garden, located on one-and-a-half-acres in front of, around and behind  the 18th century Thomas Wells House on 495 Main Street in Hopkinton will prove his point.  Rather than relying on the dominance of flowers in the garden, Raymond emphasizes the importance of color, texture and foliage.

His garden is one of eleven distinctive South County gardens being featured in the Rhode Island Wild Plant Society’s (RIWPS) http://www.riwps.org

2008 Garden Tour this Saturday, June 21st, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
According to the Plant Society, the tour will “provide ideas gardeners can use in their own landscapes, and though the emphasis is on the beauty and sustainability of native plants, the gardens are not limited to wild plants only.”

“We’re all native from somewhere,” said Raymond.  “We’re not from Pluto!  If their theme is ‘go wild’,” he said, referring to the RIWPS tour, “this garden is really wild in all of the senses!”

Raymond’s garden is not your traditional fussy grouping of Astilbe backed by a stand of evergreens and accentuated by some pink impatiens in the foreground.  In fact “pink” is anathema to this renaissance gardener, though the color does exist in his garden, albeit predominantly in spring.

“Spring is pink-friendly,” he said, but come summer, “pink is irrelevant.  The yellow palette is so much larger.”

During a two-hour tour of Raymond’s garden earlier this week, the seasoned gardener, retired opera singer, writer, auctioneer and scientist demonstrated the “wildness” of his botanical experiments.  
“No sane client would let me do a garden like this, because I’d spend every cent they have,” he said.  
Few of Raymond’s plants appeared to be Rhode Island natives, though there were some to be found among the exotic specimens planted throughout this eclectic landscape.

The Chestnut Rose (Rosa Roxburghii) near the right corner in front of the house, for instance, is a native to East Asia, where it was introduced in 1824.  The Japanese Stephanandra (Stephanandra Tanakae) with its subtle display of tiny yellow-green flowers heralds from, well, Japan.
The Easlea’s Golden Rambler Rose that softens the top of the white picket fence next to the driveway was bred first in the United Kingdom in 1932.

“This is the best year ever” said Raymond about the Rambler.  “It’s not a recurrent rose either, so I don’t have to worry about Japanese beetles.”

“June tours are easy,” said Raymond.  “The real test is to have one on August 15.  It’s a much more significant achievement because you have to think it through,” he said, referring to the ability to create floral interest in August.

“And, it’s a real achievement to have something in bloom every week between April and October.”

Raymond’s garden is a work in progress.  The rear landscape is dense with hundreds of plants that become less so as one moves away from the house.  There’s a central alley, accentuated by a galvanized steel pergola where a riot of red roses (Eddie’s Jewel) climb.  

The alley leads away from the house toward the rear, where a 70-foot reflecting pool mirrors the house and alley.  Four potted yucca plants are situated at each corner of the pool’s bluestone surround.

To the left of his garden, in the rear of the house, is an espaliered linden, which serves as a 10-foot high screen and a lush backdrop to an intimate dining area.  “If I were Balanchine,” said Raymond, referring to the noted Russian choreographer, “these would be my ballerinas,” he said, pretending to stretch the branches of the linden.  “You could spread them right out.”

A few feet away from the linden is a galvanized tripod, about 20-feet high.  “It’s not a cell phone tower,” said Raymond, who’s training a giant morning glory to climb to the top.
Raymond said people should tour his garden,  “To see a great garden in its adolescence,” he said. 

“It’s exuberant and eccentric in equal measure.”

Raymond’s garden contains many of the elements of the operas, in which he used to perform:  drama, transition, sudden outbursts, surprise, romance, intimacy, birth and death.

“You have to have a cold heart to have a great garden,” said Raymond.  “If it doesn’t work, you have to kill it.”

If you’re on the tour, go to this garden and you won’t be disappointed, but you might be overwhelmed; and be sure to bring pen and paper, because you’ll want to take notes as Raymond shares his breadth of knowledge about plants, design, color and more during the tour.

“Thank God I’m immortal,” he joked, as he rattled off all the ambitious plans he has for this work in progress.  “I should live a long time,” he said referring to his healthy, elderly parents.  “I have to.  I’ve got a lot to do.”

Tickets are $20.00 to the general public and $15.00 RIWPS members and may be purchased at Clark Farms in Wakefield, Wildwood Nursery in East Greenwich, the Farmer’s Daughter in South Kingstown and the Secret Garden in Jamestown.

Tickets will also be available on Saturday only at Lambert Garden at 209 Tower Hill Road in Wickford.