Midwest Home
Fall 2006

To Nature, With Love

By Meleah Maynard

As she makes her way around the tufa waterfall near the entrance to Rice Creek Gardens, owner and founder Betty Ann Addison leans in close to examine some compact plants clustered among the rocks. “This little one is from Japan,” she says, brushing it’s nubby green stems gently with her fingertips.

“And here’s one from the Alps. Oh, and over there is a Jacob’s ladder from the Rockies growing next to a wild blue clematis from Lake Superior. Here, we have plants from all over the world growing next to each other,” she continues, her tanned hand pushing a stray hair back under the worn bandana she wears on her head. “They’re happy because they’re so at home.”

Addison is also clearly at home at Rice Creek Gardens, the 16-acre nursery she and her late husband, Charles opened in 1986 on the site of a former junkyard in Blaine. The couple gradually replaced rusted-out automobiles with a park-like setting that allows visitors to see plants as they would appear in nature.

Addison moved to Minnesota from Long Island 44 years ago and set out to expand plant choices for local gardeners, introducing alpine plans and conifers from around the world. She sold plants that thrived from the nursery at her Fridley home, near Rice Creek. Today, the Blaine location offers a wide selection of Minnesota-hardy plants, including dwarf conifers, unusual rock garden specimens, as well as daylilies and rhododendrons that she and Charles hybridized. And her business partner, Harvey Buchite, contributed a storied peony collection.

Through the years, Addison has designed numerous rock gardens around the state, including the Peace Garden near Lake Harriet. At age 70, she shows no sign of slowing down; she is in the process of designing a rooftop rock garden for the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory in Como Park.

With heavy heart, Addison is also preparing to move Rice Creek Gardens to a new location in Spring Grove. Rising taxes and assessments in rapidly developing Blaine have made the seasonal business unsustainable there. Rice Creek Gardens will remain open at its present location through September 23, the end of its season.

Addison plans to return to selling specialty plants from her home, while Buchite takes over day-to-day operations for a to-be-renamed Rice Creek. “I’ll miss this place, all the nature,” she says in a halting voice. "But we are all here to learn and experience. I don’t take a lot of pictures or write a lot in a diary. I will remember how blessed I’ve been and I will go on living every moment and, well, isn’t that good enough?”

© Meleah Maynard