When you walk past Steve Kotsines’ house in Soulard, you’ll see bunches of summer sun flowers peeking over a stone wall. Beautiful, yes, but perhaps not worthy of a first place prize in our annual Great Garden Contest. Walk up a few steps though, and that’s when Kotsines’ “Unsuspecting Soulard Surprise” makes its debut.
Japanese forest grass sweeps through the center of the 20-year-old garden, surrounding large pots of sun impatiens, mustard ferns and purple hearts. Around the rims, the garden is packed with foliage and dapples of color, with lenton roses, Japanese anemones, rose bushes, Asiatic lilies and perennials. Kotsines’ personal favorite is the spiderwort, which, unlike any implications by its name, are dainty purple flowers cradled by sprawling leaves.
“There’s a lot of stuff going on in this yard,” Kotsines says. “There’s a lot of places where you can rest your eyes, but collectively it all comes together.” The judges were also impressed by the busyness of the garden and its many plant varieties.
“We appreciated the fact that it seemed to be in a front yard, which many city homes don’t have the front yard completely designed, usually at most one area is designated as a garden,” says Hanna Kolaks, horticulturalist with the Kemper Center for Home Gardening at the Missouri Botanical Garden. “It seemed very attainable.” This year, a team of experts from the Missouri Botanical Garden sifted through nearly 100 entries to crown the top t.
