A blue tree grows among the vines of the Sonoma Valley wine country. Brightly colored plastic pinwheels spin in an ersatz flower border. And over in the hay bale maze, Johnny Cash is singing "Ring of Fire," over tiny loudspeakers.
The location is the Cornerstone Festival of Gardens, an unusual exhibit showcasing the work of some renowned landscape designers.
Don't look for formal flower beds and tortured topiary. This is a place where hedge-cutters meet cutting edge and gardens are designed on themes as diverse as miniature golf and Japanese woodblock prints.
"They're dynamic and they're in motion and they're fun. Its quite an experience," says founder Chris Hoagie, a former toy company owner who got the idea for the Cornerstone gardens after visiting the International Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire in France.
Towering over the avant-garde gardens is the tree covered with thousands of pale blue balls initially destined as Christmas ornaments. Against the ever-shifting sky, the weaving tentacles of branches stand out in Technicolor brilliance.
Another garden pays tribute to the immigrants who work the fields of wine country, with representations of the sometimes dangerous trip across the border and wooden boxes filled with fruits and vegetables that visitors are invited to prune and water.
A garden by Berkeley designer Tom Leader has a rural feel with screen doors set in a maze-like configuration inside a sturdy barrier of hay bales. The sound of Cash singing comes complete with the staticky buzz of a bug-zapper.
Leader sees the gardens as a continuation of the roadside attractions - exotic sites like snake farms and mysterious trees - he yearned to visit as a child taking family trips from Southern California to Washington State.
A visit to the gardens, he says, "is sort of like being invited to a really good Halloween party and everybody works really hard on their costume."
If You Go:
CORNERSTONE FESTIVAL OF GARDENS: 23570 Highway 121, Sonoma; www.cornerstonegardens.com or (707) 933-3010. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday. Admission: $9 adults, $7.50 seniors, $6.50 students, $4 children.
