STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Katie Beacham’s children love to play in the creek that gurgles through the Sawtooth Botanical Garden. And she is particularly fond of the prayer wheel that was blessed by the Dalai Lama. Diane and Bill Banta’s children love the sandbox, which offers them a day at the beach in landlocked Sun Valley.

And Judy Meyer?

“Well, I love the flowers, the landscaping, the prayer wheel—it’s just a beautiful place,” said Meyer, who was accompanied by her granddaughter.

Everyone who took part in this week’s second annual Wine and Walk at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden seemed to have a favorite niche or nook. And the wine and hors d’ oeuvres being passed out on a lovely summer evening didn’t hurt.

“This is a fun event to take part in,” said Amy Boyer, as she visited with Susan Kvestick and Tim East. “And I love rediscovering plants and discovering new plants.”

The event—a fundraiser for the garden—was created last year as a physically distanced alternative to the garden’s longstanding Gimlets in the Garden fundraiser. But it proved so popular with attendees that the garden brought it back this year, in addition to Gimlets in the Garden which will be held Sept. 8.

“It’s lovely to see people in the garden,” said Jen Smith, executive director of the garden. “We laid it out so that people can walk around and see everything we have to offer. We’re especially excited about the Serenity Garden, which is almost complete. And right after that we’ll be tackling the last of the five biomes—the lava garden.”

Nearly 150 people attended the Wine Walk, which featured salmon bites, bacon-wrapped dates, pork sliders with coleslaw and other hors d’oeuvres prepared by caterer Judith McQueen.

“The stuffed mushrooms are to die for,” ventured Anne Jeffery. “And the wine at the Prayer Wheel is so good, as is The Closer.”

Kelly O’dell and Stacey Ward poured a chardonnay from Holesinsky Winery in Buhl, which Ward noted is  “very organic, light and crisp—and not like what you would think of for a chardonnay.”

Up the path Cherie Kessler poured a Red Blend of malbec and merlot with plum and black cherry undertones.

“I’m a heavy pourer,” she told one of her customers, who didn’t seem to mind.

“I’m not complaining,” he told her.

The relaxed nature of the event offered many opportunities to meet new people.

Jack Sept and Sandra Flattery ended up talking horses, while Katheen Corey tutored Chiyo Parten on the days she worked for 75 cents an hour at the Ore House between 1970 and 1975. That would be the days when everyone met in the hot tub at the Prospector after watching Kitty Litter and the Vuarnettes belt out their satirical songs of the 1950s and ‘60s.

Later, she said, she worked for the Peace Corps and in refugee camps in Southeast Asia before becoming a diplomat in Latin American countries.

“I now give motivational talks to diplomats and I tell them of Sun Valley—how it’s a community where when somebody falls down we pick each other up –and that’s what you do.”

The prayer wheel, she added, is her favorite part of the garden

“I was a practicing Buddhist for three years so to think that the Dalai Lama blessed it….”

Betsy Cromwell drank in the alpenglow on the far hillside as the sun dipped behind the mountains to the west, shading the garden.

Cromwell, who splits her time between Virginia and Sun Valley, serves on the board of the garden.

“I’ve been volunteering for a while, pulling weeds and deadheading,” she said. “It’s fun and I love to learn about the different plants because they’re different from Virginia. I come out here to escape the muggy heat in Virginia every summer and it amazes me how many gorgeous wildflowers there are out here. We don’t have that in Virginia—I don’t know why.”