Great News! We’re looking forward to our garden tour on June 14, 2025.

2025 Tour Gardens

Proceeds from the tour are used for the club’s grant program, which provides funds to Shawnee schools, churches, museums, and non-profit organizations to support their gardening projects which help fulfill the club’s objectives.

Tour tickets will be available in April and available online and at the following retailers:

• Family Tree Nursery (Overland Park and Shawnee)
• Wild Birds Unlimited (Shawnee and Olathe)
• Earl May Garden Center (Shawnee)

The Weishaar Garden – Petite but Mighty

The Weishaar garden displays how one can garden vibrantly in a small space! Marlene has filled the areas around her townhome with color and texture, creating a cozy sanctuary for herself and the entertainment of friends.

She has carefully selected plants and garden décor items that complement and soften the hardscape of her beautiful open-air patio, including the Tree of Life patio gate. The gate, as well a metal sunflower sculpture on the side of the house, were designed and handmade by a family friend, a talented iron worker in Topeka.

Additional custom touches include a corner pergola with handmade lattice to resemble a set of bay windows. Here you will find clematis and heirloom climbing roses enjoying the shade provided by the pergola. Elsewhere visitors will enjoy Marlene’s favorite plants, including bougainvillea—Marlene loves the tropical show of this plant—as well a weeping cherry tree, various Alliums, and Cotoneaster.

These and other plantings, as well as the many potted flowering plants, provide a delightful living space for Marlene and friends to enjoy the beauty and peace of nature.

Jorgensen Garden – Garden of Gifts

The Jorgensen garden is a 22-year-experiment! Starting with a barren hillside overlooking an 8-acre pond, Eric and Laurie began planting pines, fruit trees (2 cherry, 2 plum, 3 peach, 2 apples), hazelnut bush, crabapples and redbuds. The goals for these plantings were two-fold—first, to stabilize the hillside and second, beautification.

Most of the original trees and plants have come and gone, but they continue to experiment. Remaining trees of note are a Star, a Two Jane and a Bracken’s Brown Beauty magnolia, while a large weeping cherry is the star of the front yard, as well as a Harry Lauder’s walking stick. Peony bushes number in excess of 20—many are gifts from Laurie’s grandfather, mother and friends.

Other favorite plants include hydrangea, iris, clematis, and several hosta varieties which reside on the shaded north side of the home and under the deck. All the beautiful plantings not only bring joy to the Jorgensen’s, but also provide habitat to the furry friends that reside in their neighborhood—the Jorgensen’s garden has been a certified wildlife habitat since 2010.

While Laurie oversees the plantings and vegetable garden, Eric is the hardscape guy. He added a pizza oven to the backyard in 2018, which has become a gathering place for friends and family. Pizza in a beautiful garden—what more can one want?

Wilhoft Garden – English Cottage

The Wilhoft’s garden is part English cottage garden and part woodland retreat. The front garden has an English cottage feel with a sun border and fenced potage garden, which keeps the rabbits from eating the lettuce and peas in the spring. In the summer the vegetable garden has tomatoes, cucumber, pole beans, and raspberries along with lots of flowers. Curved edges and stones lend a natural look. Native plants and drought tolerant perennials are used as much as possible.

The Wilhoft’s backyard is a peaceful woodland retreat with a natural creek and waterfall. All kinds of hydrangeas abound throughout the garden. Despite their flopping, annabelles are a favorite as well as several varieties of oakleaf and panicle hydrangeas. Brunnera, hostas, solomon’s seal, Japanese maples and coleus add foliage interest. Because space is always at a premium, Kate tries to use all the vertical space as much as possible by layering larger shrubs and vines climbing up homemade trellises. Groundcovers spill over boulders and rock walls and add green to areas where nothing else will grow. This is a garden created on a budget, with many plants divided from friends and neighbors.

Kate studied fashion design in college, but now her passion is for gardening. She doesn’t feel like this is too much of a departure from her art and design background. “I consider Gardening to be a special kind of art, where you have your plans, but God does his part, too. I give Him the credit for all my happy accidents.”

GG’s Garden – Pollinator Garden Buffett

The Pollinator Garden Buffet provides food for pollinators from early spring through the fall season. Although only a few years old, this garden received certification as a Monarch Waystation, as well as a Certified Wildlife Habitat site with the National Wildlife Federation and Kansas Wildlife Federation.

Even though the garden’s primary focus is on butterflies and caterpillars, it is also a habitat for other pollinators such as bees, birds, and hummingbirds.

The family moved into this house during the Pandemic in August 2020. The front yard and backyard were just plain with some trees but no garden. That year Gigi started the Rose Garden, and planted some hydrangeas, hostas, and lilies.

Gigi is interested in plants that attract pollinators, especially butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. During the fall of 2022 she started a small Backyard Butterfly Garden, planting some host plants for monarch and swallowtail butterflies. In spring 2023 she expanded the Pollinator Garden by adding more nectar flowers and less grass. She then decided to register the garden as a Waystation Habitat at Monarch.org and planted more milkweed, native plants and other host plants for butterflies. That year (2023) she released over 20 monarchs and 20 swallowtail butterflies. Gigi found it very satisfying and fulfilling to watch the butterfly cycle for both the monarchs and swallowtails, so she decided to turn their front yard into a Pollinator Garden Buffet as well.

Ezell Garden – Wildlife Haven

We moved into our home 27 years ago and at that time it was pretty much a blank slate on 1.5 acres. We quickly realized that we were on top of solid rock and at that time we started hauling in truckloads of dirt and building raised beds. Over the years, we have added more flowerbeds and trees, mainly focusing on hardy native and perennial plants while letting some of the yard go back to its natural state. We have attempted to create a haven for birds and wildlife, and enjoy journaling the yearly arrival of hummingbirds and bluebirds. The yard is such a big open slate that we are fortunate to constantly add gardens and make changes, most recently adding a bed of feather reed grasses. It is truly a never-ending project!