Tickets are now available for one of the summer’s signature events in Portage County: The annual garden parade will be held July 15 and 16.

The 19th annual parade features spectacular gardens and landscaping ideas featuring annuals, perennials, shrubs, a conifer collection, vegetables, fruit trees, water features and garden art. It offers an inside look at six residential properties in the Stevens Point-Plover area:

* Sara and Tom Burch, 1810 Hamilton Court, Plover, created scalloped beds with berms and borders. Texture, fragrance, height, color and bloom time are factored into their cottage style mix of perennials. Trees, shrubs and other plants were chosen to attract song birds and butterflies. Shrubs include weigela, moptop cypress, hydrangea, forsythia, burning bush and smoke bush.

* Tim and Mary Gremmer, 2231 Shadowview Circle, Plover, incorporate the entire color wheel in their yard. Perennial daises, bee balm and black-eyed Susans combine with more than 100 containers of annuals, primarily impatiens. Colorful garden accessories, birdhouses and lawn furniture complement the flowers, as does a garden shed.

* Jan and Bruce Pierson, 2341 Shadowview Circle, Plover, have witnessed a sunny, cleared yard gradually become shady as trees matured. Hostas, astilbe and other shade perennials are featured throughout the well-manicured yard. A brick patio, sidewalks and rock wall provide a neat border to a more natural, wooded area.

* Mary and Dennis Schultz, 1150 Eighth St., Plover, have developed more than a dozen garden beds in the last 31 years. Perennials – including several brought from their family farm and home – annuals, berries, vegetables and water features provide color and variety throughout the year. They still have room to play games, swing and have fires.

* Paula and Robin Spindler, 5578 Jack’s Drive, Plover, have planned, planted and pruned their way to a yard they describe as an eclectic mix of flowers, vegetables, bushes and trees. Their mix of weeping trees, specimen daylilies, more than 130 varieties of hostas and colorful container plantings fit their vision of an oasis in the pines. 

* Kirby and Elizabeth Ann Throckmorton, 3101 Jefferson St., Stevens Point, have gardened this space for 40 years. Four beds of evergreens, hostas, sedum and vegetables are featured, with a river of lawn between. There’s space for woodland plants and a miniature garden. Enjoy Solomon’s seal, prairie dropseed, Echinacea, switchgrass, false cypress and Ruby Spider daylily.

Also returning this year is Art Bloom at Gallery Q, 1108 Main St., Stevens Point. Floral arrangements are inspired by original works of art in this special display at the artist cooperative. An artist reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, featuring the work of Kristie Cecil.

University of Wisconsin-Extension (UW-Extension) Portage County Master Gardener volunteers co-sponsor the parade, and members are available to answer questions at each garden.

The parade will be held from 2 to 7 p.m. Friday, July 15, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 16. Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 on parade days.

Tickets are available at several locations:

In Stevens Point, tickets are for sale at Jung’s Garden Center, 5620 Highway 10 East; Stevens Point Area Co-op, 633 Second St.; Gallery Q, 1108 Main St.; and the Master Gardener information table at the Farmers’ Market on the Public Square (Saturdays).

In Plover, tickets are at Village Gardens, 2811 Porter Road; and Shulfer’s Sprinklers & Landscaping, 2430 Plover Road. In Amherst, tickets are at Landmark Coffee Shop, 102 S. Main St.

The garden parade also features special drawings for a quilt donated by the Piecemakers quilting group and one-of-a kind containers and garden art. Proceeds benefit the Boys & Girls Club’s “Green Thumb” summer program and the Giving Gardens Program of the Hunger and Poverty Prevention Partnership of Portage County.

For more information, contact Portage County UW-Extension at 715-346-1316.