Francisca Darts was a passionate plants-person who spent a lifetime building a beautiful garden called Darts Hill on 168th Street just outside White Rock, B.C.
In 1994, she gave the garden to the city of Surrey who have since turned it into a private park/garden.
Francisca died at 96 in December, 2012.
Today, the 7.5 acre garden is preserved and maintained as one of the municipality’s special horticultural treasures.
When Surrey got its hands on the garden, it added 15 acres to bring the total size of the property to 22.5. Today, the Garden is operated jointly by Surrey and the Darts Hill Garden Conservancy Trust Society.
The history of the garden and the work and passion of its founder, Francisca, has now been skilfully told in a new book, A Secret Garden: The Story of Darts Hill Garden Park, by Margaret Cadwaladr.
The book is a very generous gift to Surrey and the supporters of the garden.
Cadwaladr did all the work of researching and writing the book for free. Yes, she volunteered after it appeared no one else was capable or willing to complete the task.
She did not get paid for the hours and hours of work she put in. The project took more than a year to complete. She will not be receiving any royalty. Profits from the sale of the books will go to the garden.
The municipality and especially the Darts Hill Garden group should get down on their knees and thank their lucky stars that such a talented and dedicated freelancer as Cadawaladr volunteered to produce this definitive and historical document.
It will undoubtedly have a long shelf life and will serve many levels of interest. New gardeners will find it contains advice and inspiration. Those who knew and loved Francisca Darts will enjoy reading the history of her life and work and they can also treasure hearing how the garden came together bit by bit.
But most of all, the friends of the garden and the municipality will now have a document that will stand the test of time and will keep the story of Darts Hill alive for future generations.
Before going further, I should quickly point out that Francisca was supported in creating her vision of a botanical paradise by her husband, Ed, who helped clear the land of tree stumps and helped plant a large fruit and nut orchard and was an immense encouragement to Francisca in all her efforts and enthusiasms.
In the book, Cadwaladr traces in detail the Darts life together, from early days in Vancouver to the time in the early 1940s when they acquired the land at Darts Hill and began planting what was later to become a garden that gardeners from all over the Lower Mainland would visit and fall in love with because of its eclectic mix of rare and unusual trees, shrubs and perennials.
Above all, Francisca was a passionate plants-person. She loved collecting unusual specimens and was famous for sharing her extensive botanical knowledge in a kind, generous and gracious manner.
She was often described as “a gardener’s gardener” meaning she never lost the ability to explain and inform without intimidating or making the other person feel belittled.
The book covers all the angles, including naming many of the experts, who assisted Cadwaladr in getting botanical names correct. (They had better be. The audience for this book is not well known for forgiving errors.)
Fortunately for Cadwaladr, this is not her first literary effort. She had a Canadian bestseller some years ago with her book about Veronica Milner and the Milner Gardens and Woodland she created in Qualicum Beach.
As well, Margaret Cadwaladr’s husband, Jim, was the former director of the garden and therefore is himself a knowledgeable plantsman who was able to back-read his wife’s work on the Darts Hill story. Nice to have such reliable support.
The book is full of old photos, some in colour, as well as some diagrams showing how the garden came together as well as many shots of Francisca with friends in the garden.
Today, the generation of gardeners who knew Darts Hill garden well is pretty much on the verge of disappearing. Many the old guard who were Francisca’s friends, contemporaries and allies have either passed on or are now in their late 80s and 90s.
Margaret Cadwaladr is well aware that her words are also preserving the names of many of B.C.’s long-established gardeners who otherwise would perhaps soon all be gone and forgotten. Again, this project was blessed to have such a generous and thoughtful soul as Margaret Cadwaladr to see it through to fruition.
She is also right in thinking that her gift of this book is one way of preserving the history of a time in the 80s and 90s when gardening was arguably at its peak in the Lower Mainland.
My only advice to Cadwaladr is this: Ask for a royalty for the next print run. You deserve it.
A Secret Garden. The Story of Darts Hill Garden Park by Margaret Cadwaladr is available at www.dartshill.ca for $29.95
