R. David Adams designed creative, notable landscapes

R. David Adams, a landscape designer whose bouquets and gardens grace many Seattle homes, set out to banish the boring from tabletops and yards.

Favoring exotic plants and objects seen on his world travels, as well as ponds and waterfalls, he waved his hands like magic wands over an outdoor space, described what he pictured, and brought forth Edens and wonderlands.

"David worked hard and played hard, loved all the arts and was a great entertainer. He threw wonderful parties and loved to cook," said his sister, Joan McGehee of Marshalltown, Iowa. "He was always there for his family, just as he was for friends."

But Mr. Adams was also happy out digging in the dirt with his workers, transplanting plants or putting in stones or artwork.

"It was all to please the homeowner," said his bookkeeper, Donna Neff. "He could look at people and know what kind of garden they should have."

Mr. Adams died Sunday (July 30) of melanoma. He was 63.

Outside work, he would volunteer his designing skills to churches and parks such as the jewellike Kubota Gardens.

His award-winning gardens have been showcased on television, garden tours and in Northwest publications as well as in magazines such as Sunset.

Plant and architectural elements from Bali, his favorite vacation spot, grace his Edmonds home.

Born to a decorator and an amateur gardener in Marshalltown, Iowa, he cultivated his first garden, a geranium patch, at age 3.

He moved with his family to Seattle in 1948. He worked at a nursery before and after graduating from O'Dea High School in 1955.

After a tour in the Air Force, he studied landscape architecture at the University of Washington.

He founded his first flower shop in Pioneer Square, then moved near the Pike Place Market. He established the landscape-design firm later but still kept a namesake flower shop on Seattle's Fourth Avenue.

One of his first projects was restoring part of the Olmsted Bros.-designed parkway along Lake Washington Boulevard South. He volunteered work for Friends of the Conservatory, the Seattle Art Museum and the UW Center for Urban Horticulture.

"He was innovative in his use of exotic materials," Neff said, "and was famous for going to a job site and waving his hands around and saying, `Oh, this is how we want it done.' He was short, cute and exuberant, and people loved him."

Mr. Adams reportedly was proud to have judged a Sunset magazine garden-room design contest.

"The best outdoor rooms are as comfortable and inviting as any room indoors," he told Sunset in 1997. "Create a comfort zone - a place surrounded by vegetation and pleasing to the eye. Use dropping water or even a theaterlike sound system to mask unpleasant noise, and furniture that's as cozy as indoor furniture."

For his own home spa he had used hand-etched surfaces and mossy tones on fake stone to make it look like a real grotto, and created a jazz-and-ballet stage out of an imported Indonesian temple.

Also surviving are siblings Joe Adams of Bothell, Bill Adams of Edmonds and Diana Arroyo of San Diego.

A Mass is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at Holy Rosary Catholic Church, 630 Seventh Ave. N., Edmonds.

Carole Beers' e-mail address is cbeers@seattletimes.com.