The garden of Ione and Emmott Chase is showiest in April and May when the groundcovers are in bloom.

We're a comparatively young country, yet it is estimated that more than two-thirds of America's great gardens have already been lost to neglect or development, and along with them an unrecoverable cultural legacy. "Gardens remain alive only so long as there is a passionate and knowledgeable gardener tending them," says Bill Noble, director of preservation projects for the Garden Conservancy, which is dedicated to turning private gardens into nonprofit organizations with a future.

It was the Chase Garden in Orting, east of Puyallup, that attracted the New York-based Garden Conservancy to the Northwest. Why did this naturalistic sweep of meadow and woodland, with its magnificent view of Mount Rainier, so excite the conservancy? Because it seemed both quintessentially Northwest and an elegant period piece from the 1950s and '60s.

Ione Chase uses large stones in the garden, reflecting her love of Japanese aesthetics and our Northwest mountains.

The design is artfully simple and modernistic, with overtones of Japanese aesthetics in the use of stone and design of the house. Conservancy evaluators were impressed that Ione and Emmott Chase, with a modest budget and 50 years of hard work, did it all themselves. The Chases preserved Douglas firs, cedars and hemlocks, hauled rock from the Puyallup River, collected and propagated native plants, and used familiar plants in extraordinary patterns. High-school sweethearts now in their early 90s, Emmott honors Ione for "all the brain work" while Ione claims Emmott accomplished everything she set her mind to. The garden, visited by more than 400 people each spring, is now maintained by a full-time gardener paid for by the conservancy, plus volunteers.

For an organization dedicated to such an obviously important mission, the Garden Conservancy is surprisingly new, founded just 12 years ago. "Everything we do is an experiment," says Noble, who was in Seattle earlier this fall to rally support for the Chase Garden and to talk up a roundtable series on emerging Northwest public gardens. These discussions, hosted by various public gardens, encourage collaboration in identifying and preserving our very best gardens.
 

			Now In Bloom Bergenia species are old-fashioned, easy-to-grow evergreen perennials that flower in early spring and have odd common names such as pigsqueak or elephant's ears. They're at their most magnificent in November, when the cooling weather causes the fat, paddle-shaped, glossy leaves to take on tints of bronze, purple, maroon and vivid scarlet, resembling clumps of ruffled, wavy cabbages dressed up in autumn finery. Bergenia tolerate shade, poor soil and drought, but plump up and look their best with some watering and feeding.

While only eight gardens nationwide have been selected for the conservancy's full attention, it has played a brief but intense role in helping save the Abkhazi Garden in Victoria, B.C., Historic Deepwood in Salem, Ore., and the Mukai Farm and Garden on Vashon Island. The successful National Trust Scheme in England owns gardens; in contrast, the Garden Conservancy provides expertise and funding while encouraging local ownership. Despite this, Noble says the conservancy may well buy the Chase garden, but will continue to emphasize the importance of local support.

Luckily for all of us who love to tour gardens, one of the conservancy's strategies is to encourage the public to visit private garden masterpieces. Conservancy officials figure the more we have a chance to see gardens of special merit, the more committed we'll be to helping preserve them. To this end, for the last eight years they've published the Open Days Directory, a list of selected private gardens open to visitors one or more days each year. Directory in hand, you can tour gardens all across the country or find exciting ones closer to home. The conservancy plans to publish a first-ever West Coast edition of the directory in 2003, available in bookstores early in the year.

For more information, or to join the Garden Conservancy, call 888-842-2442 or visit the organization's Web site at www.gardenconservancy.org.

To become a Friend of the Chase Garden, or to visit when the garden is open mid-April to mid-June, call 206-242-4040. The Web site is at www.chasegarden.org.