Santa Fe may be high desert, but glorious gardens of varied hues and complexity flourish. The Santa Fe Botanical Garden's 15th annual garden tour, which takes place the next two Sundays — June 6 and 13 — will showcase some of these.

Selected gardens range from the spectacular to the intimate, from those designed and maintained by professionals to those whose owners delight in doing all the work. "We have something for everyone," said tour chairwoman Carol Johnson.

Different neighborhoods will be featured each day. The June 6 tour includes five gardens in the Railyard District plus two on the north side. Also available is an optional gourmet picnic lunch with an extensive dessert buffet at a Brownell-Howell Road estate.

In a nod to Santa Fe's 400th birthday, the June 13 tour focuses on five gardens in the historic Acequia Madre area. Tours are self-guided using maps.

Participants can learn about gardening and water-conservation methods from docents and also see plans for SFBG's proposed Museum Hill Garden.

The winding, multi-level gardens at the home of Phyllis and Stanford Lehmberg near Old Taos Highway are on the June 6 tour. Exploring the garden is akin to opening an exotic jewel box and finding treasure upon treasure inside.

The list of grasses, plants, trees and flowers incorporated in its design by Mark Cherry is six pages. According to Johnson, the Lehmberg garden will be featured in Horticulture Magazine.

The secluded front of the property, ringed by piñons and aspens, surprises with a weeping blue atlas cedar whose bowed, twisted trunk suggests a Japanese garden or a fantastic sculpture.

Entry to the courtyard is through wooden doors in an adobe wall with verdigris lanterns. Further along the pathway bordered by poppies and peonies, tour-goers will be greeted by a life-sized stone angel, a bronze secretary bird and a copper rabbit. On the right, a wooden arbor wears an ancient crown of wisteria.

The Lehmberg grounds vibrate with movement as the wind moves through mobilelike sculptures. The artwork plays with scale; near a six-foot sculpture reminiscent of Alexander Calder's playful works rests a miniature bronze cow.

"During the drought we wanted to fill the garden with sculpture but it takes an awful lot," Phyllis Lehman said. They also replaced the lawn with a flagstone amphitheater, the perfect spot for a magnificent view of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

On the east side of the Lehmbergs' house, a rocking chair-filled portal looks upon lavender and a serene, undulating red willow fence. A sand path leads down flagstone steps to a rock-rimmed pathway abundant in irises, lilies and a golden chain tree. Further along, a massive weathervane, petroglyph-style bear sculpture and an iron bench await.

Near the guest house is a spread of cactus, one of Phyllis' favorite plants, along with Spanish broom, a redbud tree and sweet-smelling clusters of white spirea. Hanging from the portal is a tin birdhouse whose tiny inhabitant watches everything that occurs.

The circular path ends at a north-side gate into a delicate space of white and pink bleeding hearts, columbines and wild roses beside a fence draped with honeysuckle.

A contrast to the Lehmbergs' extensive grounds is Jerry Richardson's petite garden in the Railyard District, also being shown June 6. "I enjoy having a little garden that's small and manageable," he said.

It's quite a difference from the big garden and orchard he maintained in El Rito before moving to Santa Fe 30 years ago. Now Richardson has an apple tree, an ornamental semi-dwarf cherry tree and a dwarf peach tree that provide masses of fruit each year. He also has aspens, an ash tree and a crimson cloud hawthorn tree. "Most hawthorns are white," Richardson said.

There's an old-fashioned feel to Richardson's fragrant backyard with its tulips, violets, roses, lily of the valley and 10-foot lilac bushes he estimates to be 50 years old. A Halls hardy honeysuckle bush that keeps its leaves year round covers a coyote fence, and petite bleeding hearts thrive on the west side.

"It feels a little like my grandmother's garden that she had in Nebraska," he said.

For water conservation, Richardson utilizes rainwater catchment, "grey water," French drains and drip irrigation. He even revamped the tiny strip of earth that fronts on Barela Street with aspens, yarrow and chocolate flower. "It's my gift to the neighborhood," he said.

In the 1970s, Richardson gardened for Georgia O'Keeffe and prizes the Crocus sativus she gave him whose dried stigmas provide saffron.

The property abounds in sculptures and lanterns. A sign with a quote from The Little Prince seems to speak of this fragrant garden: "What is essential is invisible to the eye."

The garden of Anne and Kelly Shannon, who live in the historic 1939 Colonel Jose Sena house near Acequia Madre, will be one of those featured June 13. "When we moved in, it was all grass with a few cosmos," Anne Shannon said.

Now the property, long ago an apple orchard, abounds in iris, day lilies, larkspur, columbine, poppies, lady blue bells, delphiniums, honeysuckle and daisies. "One year the lilies got five feet tall. It was almost scary," she said.

A nest of wisteria perches on the adobe arch at the entrance to the house while an olive tree is to the left. "In June the blossoms make it smell like a perfumed garden," she said.

"Then there's the surprise of feather grass, which makes things graceful. Everything that dies, I try to replant with something drought resistant," said Shannon, who uses a water-saving drip irrigation system for her garden.

Inside the front gate is a dry rock streambed and drought-tolerant plants such as Russian sage and lavender.

Under the back portal, a massive wooden dining table awaits guests and the lower patio has an outdoor fireplace. Summer signals it's time to put up a hammock. "We live there in the summer. During Christmas time it's decorated with fir garlands," she said.

Anne Shannon revels in designing and caretaking the garden herself as she did in Fort Worth, where the couple lived before moving here 20 years ago.

"What I like about Santa Fe is you can let plants do what they want to do. In Fort Worth everything's so manicured. I love the gracefulness and looseness of our gardens here," she said.

In late April, Shannon worried that a predicted cold snap might damage her apricot trees. "One year the branches were almost touching the ground, there were so many apricots. I'm holding my breath," she said.

There are also alliums, a red bud tree (common in Shannon's native Texas), a little apple tree, a 10-foot flowering plum tree and a small Japanese maple tree, thriving after Shannon replanted it three times.

The garden attracts butterflies, hummingbirds and other birds, which make their nests in displays of chile ristras, onions and dried flowers hanging above the French doors. The Shannons can observe the proceedings through the glass.

"We had an old birdbath. A big crow sat on it and knocked it over he was so heavy. Now there's a new one," she said.

Also shown on June 13 will be the garden of Jonathan Altman, which has undergone many transformations, according to an information sheet provided by Donna Bone, who designed some of the grounds. Altman's late wife, Kathleen, had succeeded in creating a perennial garden on a steep slope abundant in day lilies, columbine, geranium, yarrow and ornamental grasses.

For his studio garden, Altman wanted a Zen approach that focused on serene spaces filled with boulders and native grasses. He worked with architect Subie Bowden and later landscape architect Faith Okuma to develop his vision.

The resulting natural look was created with contours, boulders, dry streambeds and gravel walkways. Movement was emphasized by choosing dynamic plants and a stone water feather. Bone helped create the latest phase of the garden — an outdoor room with yellow grove bamboo and flagstone under the canopy of a Russian olive tree.

The emphasis was on creating "flow" between the different aspects of the garden. Now the varied plantings of colorful flowers and Spartan grasses are said to be integrated, combining the visions of Jonathan and Kathleen.

What: Santa Fe Botanical Garden Tours

When: Railyard District on June 6; Acequia Madre neighborhood on June 13, 1-4 p.m. both days.

Cost: In advance, $35 one day or $65 for both; day of event, $40 one day $75 for both. Age 16 and under free.

Other: Gourmet picnic lunch June 6, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. $25. Reservations required; seating is limited. 

Tickets: Available through The Lensic 505-988-1234 or website www.Ticketssantafe.com. Available the day of event at The Lensic or by calling 471-9103.

More information: www.santafeBotanicalgarden.org