As area residents marveled at Nancy Duggins Vostal's home garden, particularly the variety of hostas, the local homeowner chatted with a group of visitors as the skies darkened.
Thunder rumbled. But for everyone at 733 Hobbs Road, one of six locations for Sunday's annual Bittersweet Garden Tour, their collective wish for rain appeared greater than their wish to stay dry.
Those on the tour kept viewing the well-manicured garden, which stretches from the front of the home to the back.
"I think it looks gorgeous," said Cheryl Carter, a local resident. "And it must be so time-consuming. There's a lot of work in it."
Duggins Vostal has lived in the home for nearly 30 years.
"I've practically put everything in the ground here except for the big trees," she said.
Now, the retiree gets help with her garden, but she still enjoys working in the dirt herself.
Growing up in Pulaski County near the Gasconade River - "God's Country" as she calls it - she developed a love of the outdoors early in life. Her father was an agronomist who served on the Missouri Conservation Commission.
She credits her love of gardening to her parents, and she has a hard time picking a single favorite plant.
"I love everything," she said. "I love the lilies. I love the wildflowers. I just have a love of flowers."
When she sees something that catches her eye, she goes to Longfellow's Garden Center to find it. After bringing it home, her friends and family ask her where she plans to plant it. "I say, 'I'll find a place. There's always a place to put one more thing.'"
For Nancy Knipp, 819 Eastern Air Drive, gardening is her therapy. She often spends 45 minutes daily to water her ferns, impatiens, hostas and other plants.
Patricia Dohmen and Patti Aleweh toured the garden, marveling at her drinking cup hostas, with large leaves that cup rainwater and funnel it down to the base of the plant.
"I like something different if I can find it," Knipp said.
The garden club said the garden is a "shady backyard retreat" with a decorative shed with window boxes containing annuals. "Perennials mingle with the annuals, creating a blast of color. Containers and garden art add to the beauty of the garden," the club wrote in describing the garden.
Aleweh said Knipp's garden has given her ideas for her own. "Oh my gosh, it's gorgeous," she said of Knipp's garden. "And everyone (on the tour) has been just so hospitable."