Nalini Raghavan
Walter Imahara, pictured in his garden in 2014.
Walter Imahara, 80, is selling his and wife Sumi’s 54-acre botanical garden on Mahoney (Tunica) Road below Catholic Hill.
The buyers, Brad Barber, 45, and wife Rachel, plan to build a main house and three guest houses on a ridge overlooking a landscaped ravine of Japanese ponds, trees, shrubs, flower beds and Imahara’s version of Mt. Fuji. The guest houses will welcome the couple’s children and future grandchildren when they visit, Barber said. The Barbers have a child in high school and two at LSU.
Barber is president of H & E Equipment Services. The family lives in French Settlement. Sale of the Imahara property could be finalized as early as the end of February with construction starting next year. The public has until April 29 to tour the garden before it closes after nine years.
Imahara paid $200,000 for unimproved land between Mahoney Road and the Mississippi River. He estimates he put $1 million of his own money into establishing the gardens in the memory of his family. Imahara’s American-born parents were imprisoned with their children in Arkansas internment camps during World War II. James Imahara, Walter’s father, was a nurseryman in California before the war.
After the war, the Imaharas moved to Baton Rouge, eventually starting Imahara’s landscaping and nursery.
Walter and Sumi Imahara have lived in nine houses in their married life. The sale of the botanical garden is different, Imahara said. He had hoped a foundation might manage the gardens, but that didn’t work out.
The garden rises from swamp near the Mississippi River to a122-foot-high ridge. Imahara and hired hands cleared ravines and ridges of thick vines, brambles, hardwood and parasol trees. The landscaping consists of forty varieties of camellias and 3,000 azalea bushes. Thirty-five varieties of crape myrtles in bloom are the highlight of the summer gardens. Live oaks planted not ten years ago appear older because of Imahara’s technique of getting fertilizer to the tree roots and regular pruning.
When he’d decided to sell, he told realtor Gaye Landry, “No signs.”
Barber, who’d never visited the gardens, saw the property listed on the internet.
Nalini Raghavan
“We contacted the realtor, went out there and met Walter,” said Barber. “Driving in, I knew it was the place for our family.”
Barber will keep the landscaping much as it is.
“I’m not going to hand rub the bark off the crape myrtles the way Walter did, but we’ll substantially maintain the property,” he said. “I’m not sure where the house is going, but it will look like it’s been there a hundred years.”
The public has until April 29 to tour the garden one last time. Contact waltimahara@gmail.com, (225) 635-6001 (garden), or (225) 413-4256. imaharasbotanicalgarden.blogspot.com.
This article originally appeared in our March 2018 issue. Subscribe to our print magazine today.
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