Our Laguna: Open house at garden is in bloom

The late Hortense Miller once was quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying that age had done nothing for her, but it had done wonders for her garden.

Reserved tours of the garden are offered Tuesdays through Saturdays all year, but the Friends of the Hortense Miller Garden are inviting everyone to an open house from 11 a.m to 4 p.m. March 24.

“This is mostly to celebrate spring when the garden is at its best, especially the wild area,” said Marsha Bode, president of the Friends, a nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation dedicated to the continuing support, preservation and improvement of the unique property.

“It is amazing how many locals say, ‘I have always wanted to see the garden, but I just never make a reservation.’

“The tour is also a way to introduce new people to the garden and perhaps volunteer. And there will be no parking problems,” Bode said.

Access to the open house will be limited to riders on the continuous shuttle service from the First Church of Christ The Scientist, 635 High Drive.

Visitors are advised to wear walking shoes. Miller installed a reported 400 steps made from felled redwoods, chipped riprap and salvaged railroad ties so she could traverse the hillside.

Cameras are suggested.

Admission is free, but donations are gratefully accepted

Miller died in 2008, just shy of 100, but her garden and her home are maintained by volunteers and devoted Friends.

“Volunteers love being in the garden. The serenity, the beauty, the compatibility — they have way too much fun,” said Teri Johnson, who was recently reelected to the Friends board along with Bode, Ruth Stafford, Norma Young, Leah Vasquez, Bonnie Fogarty, Kevin Laskowski, Erika Giordano and Sherry Stephens.

The open house will also include the interior of Miller’s refurbished mid-20th century home.

Johnson said the Friends are applying for a Community Assistance Grant this year to improve a deck railing that is compatible with the architecture and does not obscure views. Unsafe areas are blocked, Johnson said. A railing at the upper entrance to the property is being improved with funding from the 2011 grant.

The home’s eclectic décor is stamped with Miller’s personality.

“She did a lot of arts and crafts,” said Vasquez, former administrator of the studio arts project and fine arts gallery at UC Irvine and chairwoman of the Laguna Beach Arts Commission from 1983 to 1987.

Vasquez is art director for the Friends board and serves on the house subcommittee.

“I research the provenance of the furnishings and Hortense’s personal artifacts, including her paintings, stitchery, writings and the murals she painted on the interior and exterior of the house. She also photographed the site and the wildlife there — she loved animals,” she said.

Vasquez is working on a catalog of the architecture of the house and the furnishings.

Miller lived in the house from 1959 to 2008, all but a few months alone. Her husband, Oscar, died shortly after their home was completed. Thereafter, the feisty Miller devoted herself to her arts and crafts, gardening in the 2 ½-acre plot and writing about it.

“A Garden in Laguna: the Garden Essays of Hortense Miller,” a hardback published in 2002 and “The Garden Writings of Hortense Miller,” a 140-page paperback published in 2008, are on sale at the garden.

“She was a curmudgeon, but she had a big heart and she was thoroughly immersed in her garden,” said Marv Johnson, a past president of the Friends and a docent for 15 years.

“I was the only rooster in the hen house for all 15 years. A couple of men started the training, but they never finished.”

Miller executed a quit claim in 1976 in favor of the city, with the stipulation that she be allowed to live on the property until she died. Under the terms of the deed, the city cannot sell the property and must keep it open to the public forever, Bode said.

The property is now on the city’s Historical Register and last year, the City Council approved a new five-year lease with the Friends, despite complaints from a neighbor about maintenance and safety.

All-View Terrace resident Wayne Wright, whose home is near the Miller property, complained that vegetation was 15 to 20 feet high, obstructing views and creating a fire hazard.

The garden had been nearly destroyed in the 1979 and 1993 fires.

Wright distributed photographs that he said showed the garden was inadequately maintained, and claimed his offers to help fund tree-trimming had been declined.

Johnson said she had met with Wright a year earlier and several trees and vegetation had been trimmed. She said regrowth had been substantial and new trimming and maintenance would be scheduled. She also said she could not recall Wright offering to help pay for the tree-trimming.

The Friends raise funds for maintenance, operations, improvements and the salary of garden manager Brooke Taylor, through the sale of Miller’s books and garden plants, donations, grants and membership fees, Johnson said.

There are five categories of membership:

•Benefactor, $1,000

•Life, $500

•Sustaining, $100 per year

•Family: $50 per year

•Individual: $30 per year

•Junior (18 and younger): $10 per year

Members receive four newsletters a year filled with facts about plants and the garden. An annual meeting is held.

For more membership information, visit https://www.hortensemillergarden.org.

Fees and donations are appreciated, but the garden also needs docents to conduct the tours and help maintain the garden, Bode said.

For more information about volunteering, contact Taylor at https://www.brookert2@Cox.net or call (949) 499-4846.

Regular tours are arranged through the city’s Community Services Department and last from two and half to three hours. Visitors meet at 10 a.m., Tuesday through Saturday, at Riddle Field on Hillcrest Drive. Docents escort visitors through the gated All-View Terrace community and up to the garden. Admission is free. For more information, call (949) 497-0716.

OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Call (949) 302-1469 or email coastlinepilot@latimes.com with Attn. Barbara Diamond in the subject line.