A spellbinding Halloween boutique is where you’ll find ghoulish gourds and witchy wares

A trio of black-cloaked witches hover over a willowy arch inviting Halloween enthusiasts into a seemingly foreboding forest at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar.

For those who dare to step inside the Gathering, an unrivaled immersive retail experience awaits in the form of a themed boutique full of unique spooky seasonal décor and merchandise.

Seven themed areas in all, including the collectibles crevice, midnight nook, and mystical pumpkin patch room, offer everything from rubber rats to decorative skulls, foggy jack-o’-lanterns and even the Evil Queen’s poisoned apple.

Featured artist Vergie Lightfoot’s ghastly variegated gourds with expressive eyes bulging out of them exemplify the ethos of Roger’s Gardens’ approach to Halloween.

“It’s a special place to be able to house one-of-a-kind pieces that you can’t find at Michael’s or at Home Depot,” said Crystal Pittman, holiday and home décor buyer for Roger’s Gardens. “That’s what sets us apart.”

Guests walk around a centerpiece witch prop in the main showroom of the Gathering.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

The Gathering opens this weekend and carries on until Halloween.

For much of the year, the nook nestled in the nursery is stocked with indoor plants and decorative accessories. But in preparation for the Halloween season, a crew of visual merchandisers and prop artists transformed the space into an overgrown woodsy coven of witches in about two weeks’ time.

The conceptual planning began much earlier, in the thick of last year’s the Witching Hour boutique.

“When you’re putting something like this together, you’re already getting inspired with new ideas for the future,” Pittman said.

Pittman began purchasing merchandise as early as January.

The “smoldering pumpkins” on display at the Gathering.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

The head start also gave artists like Lightfoot, Marianna Nardin, Stacey Mead and Allen Cunningham time to curate their creations in accordance to the new theme.

“These artists have worked with us for a long time,” Pittman said. “They are curious about the theme each year. It gets them inspired. They want to create pieces around that.”

Roger’s Gardens has hosted Halloween boutiques for decades but its annual spooky season transformation has soared in popularity in the past five years.

Last year, the Witching Hour took guests inside the imagined realm of a witch’s house. Like a scary movie sequel, this year’s boutique creates a garden party gathering of witches in the forest.

Inside the Gathering, a shadowy witch summons a flapping flame from a cauldron while a broom whirls around the floor in an impressive centerpiece display.

A “gathering” of skeleton witches at Roger’s Gardens’ annual Halloween boutique.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

About 500 items are currently displayed on shelves for purchase, but as unique as some of the décor pieces are, they don’t hang around the Gathering for long.

That may be especially true of the originally designed cloches that run from $500 to $700. Each comes with a card telling the backstory of the art inside like the skeletal “Frost” king imbued with powers to spread chaos through darkness and ice.

The bigger prop pieces that decorate the space are set to be released for sale on Oct. 21.

For Pittman and crew, there’s a sense of magic in delivering a spellbinding experience like the Gathering.

“There’s nowhere else around here where people can go through a total experiential, retail experience like this,” she said. “We want guests to feel completely immersed. We want them to leave happy and excited about Halloween.”