Healdsburg girl's dream blooms to life at Russian River Rose Company

It’s not surprising Russian River Rose Company would be the dream spot for a 9-year-old’s fairy garden.

Butterflies, hummingbirds and bees flit through flowers. Mockingbirds, golden crowned sparrows and finches call from the trees while pelicans wheel overhead. And flowers, the Healdsburg venue is all about flowers, particularly roses, and the perennials and annuals in the butterfly garden.

When Kylah Picott, with grandmother Linda Huggins in tow, approached Russian River Rose Company co-owner Jan Tolmasoff in February about creating a fairy garden for children, Tolmasoff, who agrees fairies would find her gardens the perfect place to live, agreed to the girl’s request. Kylah brought a wish list of necessary accouterments to invite the fairies to live in the garden. Her detailed list handprinted on lined paper included “a bridge, flower garden, fairy house, fairy, animals, picnic table, river, art set and easel, bird feeder, paths, playground and gazebo.”

Tolmasoff has dubbed the youngster her “fairy consultant” and worked with her designing the fairy garden, which opens to the public the weekend of Aug. 25-26.

In addition to the creation of the fairy garden, Angela Sage Larsen, creator of the Petalwink children’s book series, will read from her books and sign them at the event. Since that initial February consultation, Tolmasoff has ferreted out roses to plant in the garden that follow the theme of children and fairies, such as “Child’s Play,” a miniature developed in 1991, and “The Fairy,” a polyanthus rose developed in 1932. It also includes “Hans Christian Andersen,” a floribunda created in 1986 and “Si,” dubbed the world’s smallest rose, created in 1957. Tolmasoff has plans to plant more child-related roses in the area in addition to the nine already there.

Kylah’s interest in fairies began when she got a fairy named Thistle from a friend several years ago. Now, Kylah likes building fairy houses out of natural found objects. She also has a large fairy house in her room. Kylah’s father and mother, Chris and Camille Picott, support her whimsical hobby and on their walks, the three pause to build fairy houses. Once, they built one out of pine needles and dandelions in the common area of her grandparents’ housing development. “Pine needles make a good roof,” Kylah said.

One day, she and her friend Bailey made a fairy house in a shopping center. When they went back, the house was still there. It’s a secret they delight in.

At home, Kylah sometimes makes fairy houses out of clay and rocks, though she’ll still finish them with found natural items, like bark, leaves or twigs. Thick redwood bark makes fine tables and benches.

Tolmasoff, who runs Russian River Rose Company with her husband Mike Tolmasoff, has been collecting roses for more than 20 years. She already had a number of the roses she dedicated to the Children’s Fairy Garden location, though they had not yet been planted.

Out of the blue, during the spring, Angela Sage Larsen contacted Tolmasoff to ask if she could have a fairy quest in the gardens to shoot a video and to search for fairy “evidence.”

Tolmasoff jumped on board and they created a video you can see here: petalwink.com/fairy-fun.

Larsen has written books that provide lessons on how to make friends. She sees them as a way to support girl power, while also bridging a gap she sees in character education. She and her husband, Whit Larsen, live in Healdsburg.

Attendees at the opening can create a fairy door to take home, using natural materials at the garden.