MILEPOSTS #1022

By Bill Pumford, Image from the Laura Pumford Collection

TITLE: DAFFODIL GARDEN IN RUNNING SPRINGS: As spring comes to the mountains and daffodils are making their annual appearance, we are reminded of the Bauer Daffodil Garden in Running Springs which amazed and delighted local residents and visitors alike for decades. Many people brought their friends and family to visit the magnificent daffodils. Dale Bauer and Alma (Gene) Schroff were married in 1954 and in 1955 the Bauers purchased property in Smiley Park and over the next two years built a home. Dale, who was an architect by profession, provided the design. In 1957 Gene saw that one of her neighbors had some daffodils blooming. Gene went and got 50 bulbs and planted them on her property. That first season produced some very fine daffodils and after this Gene planted more and more bulbs. The next year she planted 500, then 1,000, then 10,000. The most bulbs she ever planted was 35,000 in 1993 but averaged 15,000 bulbs per year over 50 years. There are around 100 different varieties of daffodils planted including: Binkie, Bravoure, Camelot, Chromacolor, Decoy, Fortissimo, Fortune, Geranium, Hawera, Hillstar, Matador, Martinette, Peeping Tom, Pink Charm, Quail, Rustom Pasha, Tahiti, Tete-a-Tete, Thalia, Tunis, Unique, and World’s Favorite. In 1997 a devastating fire swept through the Running Springs area and destroyed the Bauer’s home and many trees on the property. The daffodils survived in large part because the bulbs were dormant when the fire came. As Gene got into her early 80s the five-acre garden became too much to manage, and the garden was closed to the public in 2009. Gene continued her passion for serigraphs that she began in 1972 by publishing a book called “Botanical Serigraphs: The Gene Bauer Collection.” Much of the detail for this column came from a paper written by Dale and Gene Bauer for the Fortnightly Club of Redlands in 2006.

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