With crystal branches in the golden sands, In this immortal garden stands the Tree, With trunk of gold and beautiful to see. –The Epic of Gilgamesh
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Page left: Irene walks through her front garden. Above : A quiet seating area in her paradise. Below middle: The metal horse among the tropicals. Bottom left: Irene among her “babies”.
a walled enclosure – a garden, eventually. And paradise is the perfect word to describe what Irene Choboty is working to create in the space behind her house. A passion for plants, a taste for the romantic, an obsession with beauty, all are tied into this fantastical garden. A Winnipegger who spent 20 years in Ari-
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zona, Irene became engrossed with her gar- den’s possibilities several years ago. She be- gan by reading about the history of gardens and soon became enchanted with the Per-
The flower of a banana plant, top. Above: A fountain and thriving citrus trees by the pool.
hat does the word paradise mean to you? To the Persians in the an- cient world, it was the word for
sians and their concept of water and plants co-existing in an enclosed space, where one could sit and talk with friends or simply in- hale the scented air. In Irene’s garden, a large pool occupies one end. It is surrounded by a courtyard, which is hemmed by raised gardens over- flowing with colour. The courtyard itself is occupied by a vast collection of large plant- ers filled with exotic and colourful plants. “I wanted it to be tropical, yet floral,” she says. To achieve this, she has indulged her containers with a luxury of leaves: large canna leaves and banana leaves rise eight to 10 feet in the air. Colourful coleus and char-
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Beautiful Gardens 2012 • 9
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