(Photo above: Linda Stephenson of L & S Gardens | Photos by David Clewett)
Linda Stephenson and her husband Sonny have operated the two and a half acre nursery at L & S Gardens in La Pine for 27 years and specialize in cultivating a variety of home and garden plants that can withstand Central Oregon’s high desert climate.
At 70 years young Linda stays busy running the gardens, performing speaking presentations and planning the annual La Pine Rhubarb Festival.
People come from all over the country to see L & S Gardens, meet Linda, purchase a quality product and hope to take in some of her gardening experience.
“I can usually tell where people are from based on what plants they want to grow. People will come from all over and are always excited when they get here. I don’t guarantee my products once they leave the nursery but we are available every step to make sure the plants are properly cared for,” Linda said.
As visitors arrive they step back in time to a quaint western themed nursery with reclaimed barn wood buildings that Sonny has constructed over the years.
While Sonny loads a truck for a local compost delivery Linda busily prepares the gardens for another season. She wears bright red sunglasses which aptly reflect her energetic and
welcoming personality.
In addition to operating the gardens, Linda has published several books on her areas of expertise. Her Cold Climate Gardening book features advice for growing the hardiest of plants in Central Oregon. Her Home Grown Cooking book includes recipes and instructions for cooking with fruits and vegetables once gardening has yielded a return.
There is one plant that has captured Linda’s affection. The rhubarb has never seen more uses than under Linda’s care. She uses rhubarb to make jam, salsa, BBQ sauce, hand lotions and soap in addition to the more common desserts.
Seven years ago La Pine’s annual Rhubarb Festival first began.
“I just wanted to invite some friends over and have a party,” Linda said.
Since then the festival has grown into the largest annual rhubarb festival in Oregon attracting more than 2,000 visitors from all around the country. The one day event includes over 60 vendors, four bands and several rhubarb based food contests. Linda donates all proceeds to local non-profit organizations.This year’s festival will be June 11 from 9am-4pm.
“The non-profit vendor spaces are free and they keep their earnings. The Senior Center sells pies and the YaYa Sisterhood has a big yard sale,” Linda said.
Linda’s Master Gardener’s Seminars feature various gardening and craft topics to educate local gardeners and share her knowledge and experience.
Although Linda spent several years of her professional career in real estate it is safe to say she was born into gardening. In 1849 on the Oregon Trail, her great great aunt brought a Sweet Briar Rose from her garden in Indiana and planted it in the family’s Brownsfield homestead in the Willamette Valley.
In 1900, the family began moving to Central Oregon where Linda’s great grandfather planted a large vegetable garden. Simultaneously her other great grandfather was gardening in Prineville, selling plants and advertising a delivery service of vegetables to people in
the region.
Linda recalls how being in the garden with her father likely inspired her passion.
“We would sit out in the vegetable garden and he would peel and quarter turnips for us to munch on while he explained mixing the soil just right with compost and adding fertilizer. I just enjoyed being a part of the whole concept of digging something out of the ground and eating it,” Linda said.
L & S Gardens is an homage to the past with vintage gardening tools, neighborly advice and the highest quality of hardy plants for Central Oregon gardeners.
Take Highway 97 into La Pine. Turn east onto Finley Butte Rd. (beside the Sugar Pine Café). Take a SHARP right onto South Huntington Rd. (behind the Sugar Pine Café). Proceed 1¾ miles. 50808 South Huntington Road in La Pine.
Open Monday through Saturday 9am-4pm, www.lsgardens.com
