Tickets for the Bibler Home and Garden Tours will be going on sale soon, according to an announcement from Flathead Valley Community College.
The self-guided tours, which offer a chance for the public to view the extensively landscaped private gardens and grounds of the former residence of the late Sam Bibler, routinely sell out.
This year, ticket sales will open up on Tuesday, April 1 at 9 a.m.
This year’s tour schedule begins with “Spring Beauty” from May 7 through May 10 during which the gardens will have thousands of tulips and other spring blossoms throughout the property. Those tours will go from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day.
On May 10, there will be a one-day only special viewing of the Bibler collection of Persian tapestries and weavings, as presented by Carol Bibler. Called “Tribal Weavings,” this event begins at 1 p.m. It is not recommended for children.
Garden tours will pick back up from July 14 through July 18 for “Splendid Summer Evenings.” At that point, the gardens will have been replanted with thousands of blooming annuals and perennials. Those self-guided tours will go each day from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
The season will wrap up with “Sweet Summer Days” tours from Aug. 5 through Aug. 6. Those self-guided tours will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day.
Tickets are $30 per adult and $10 per child. They have to be purchased in advance via the FVCC Foundation Office. The FVCC Foundation Office can be contacted for ticket purchases through fvcc.edu/foundation, by calling 406-756-3632 or by emailing [email protected]. The FVCC Foundation partners with Bibler Gardens to sell tickets as a way of raising money to support student scholarships.
The gardens were designed and maintained by Sam Bibler from 1980 until his death in 2002. A petroleum engineer, Bibler was passionate about gardening and landscape design, and had aspired to turn his property into what he called a land painting. The property includes ponds, waterfalls, sculptures and swans. The gardens are located west of Kalispell on a hillside with views of the Flathead Valley and Swan Mountains, as well as peaks in Glacier National Park.