GARDENS

10111/niskt,,„

From far left: The walkway in the Chosid garden

Ruth Chosid enjoys her butterfly seat.

A "book" of garden poetry

West Bloomfield garden designed to
attract birds and animals.

BY LISA BRODY

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN SOBCZAK

rom the street, Ruth and
Paul Chosid's home looks
like many other attractive
houses in the subdivision. But walk
around to the back and, Toto,
we're not in West Bloomfield any
more.
"My son calls it my 'Secret
Garden,'" Ruth says.
Her garden is a magnificent,
magical oasis where slate walkways
lead visitors down different paths
into the heart of a very special jun-
gle. "I love having a hobby I can

F

share with everyone," she says.
Ruth, with the help and imagi-
nation of James Slezinski of
Pontiac's Goldner Walsh nursery,
created a garden with both
indigenous and tropical plants,
statuary, benches, arbors and bird
feeders everywhere. As a matter
of fact, birds are what made Ruth
into a gardener.
"I started feeding the birds and
then the animals," she says. "I
had heard about Jim Slezinski,
and he was very busy, but he's a

birder, too, and he fit me in. I feed
the birds all winter, every day; and
there's something pretty now every
day"
The first thing they did was add
plants with berries to provide food
and shelter for the birds and ani-
mals Ruth invites into her garden.
On a typical day she enjoys watch-
ing the cardinals, blue jays, wood-
peckers, chickadees, robins, yellow
finches and even the occasional
hawks that visit her garden.
Soon, Ruth wanted more than
just berry-bearing trees.
Brainstorming with Slezinski, they
created a magical hide-way.

"The animals gravitated to the
theme plants, and we wanted
height to enable Ruth to see things
from the distance of the home,"
Slezinski says. "Now, it's exotic
and serendipitous."
Hardy plants also were installed,
such as serviceberry, viburnum,
bee balm, day lilies, coral bells,
hibiscus and astilbe, which also
invite the hummingbirds and but-
terflies. There also are large orna-
mental grasses, a purple wildflower
called Joe Pye weed, rocket with
tall yellow spikes, larger day lilies
and enormous guacamole hostas. In
the summer months, tropical plants
are added, like the Abyssinian
banana tree, with its large, dark
foliage; Sumatran blood leaf
banana, with foliage that has red on
the green leaves; a fig tree; Pele's
smoke sugar cane, a tall grass with
purple foliage; elephant ears; and
white and pink angel trumpet flow-
ers, which are fragrant only in the
late evening.
"We tried to get special perenni-
als that give a tropical effect
because of their large foliage and/or
their large flowers," Slezinski says.
"We over-winter them in the
ground, and then we till them up
in the spring."
Continued on page 24

A gorgeous example of Goldner's Bouquet

JNPLATINUM •

MAY 2005

• 2 3