GH author tells a kids’ tale that jolly well should have happened, even if it didn’t
It might be likened to a less-baleful Lemony Snicket tale, with a little of Skoobie Doo mixed in, mashed up with “The Crown.”
Take four spunky kids, plunk them down in London, give them a mystery to solve and mishaps to befall, and you have Gig Harbor author Karen Triplett’s book, “4 Kids on An Adventure.” The subtitle gives a hint of the plot: “And a Rhododendron named Karen.”
The adventures are fictional, but the children are real. They’re Triplett’s grandchildren and grandnephews. So is the rhododendron. And so is the Queen, in whose garden at Buckingham Palace the rose resides.
Here’s the backstory: Triplett is a retired middle-school teacher who grew up in Gig Harbor. She had a second cousin, Hjalmar Larson, who ran a nursery in University Place.
While the young Karen knew him only as “Uncle Hjalmar,” — it’s pronounced “Yelmer” — the Norwegian-born Larson was an accomplished botanist who earned worldwide fame as a breeder of hybrid rhododendrons. Over the years, he produced more than 60 variations of the Northwest’s iconic flower, and they spread all over the world.
All those hybrids needed names, which Larson often gave to family members, including his wife, Bergie. When it came Karen’s turn, she picked a cream-yellow variety with ruffled flowers and dark-green, glossy foilage. Larsen called it rhododendron Karen Triplett. That was in 1980, and she didn’t think much more about it.
The royal rhodie
Fast-forward to the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. At the request of the Royal Botanical Society, no less, Larson was asked to send a new hybrid for the Queen’s Garden, where the newlyweds were to be feted. He sent rhododendron Karen Triplett.
There was a condition, Triplett said: “It could not be commercially sold here in the United States until the wedding had taken place. The Queen did not want any ‘common’ plants in her garden.”
“It’s still there, as far as I know,” Triplett said. But when she began making inquiries, everyone, even the Royal Society, was a bit vague about just where in the garden the yellow rhododendron wound up.
It sounded to her like just the quest to give four curious and adventurous grandchildren. And that’s just what she did — fictionally of course — in “4 Kids on an Adventure,” a children’s book published this month and available on Amazon.
The adventurers are Triplett’s own grandchildren, Tylie, who was 13 when she began writing two years ago, and Gavin, then eight; and the grandchildren of her twin sister, Kay — twin boys named Caleb and Levi, both also eight at the time.
Their adventures, which involve a tea party, a maypole, a leaky rowboat and an irate royal gardener, are illustrated in pen-and-ink drawings by co-author Don Snowden, a Gig Harbor artist perhaps better known as The Gateway’s editorial cartoonist.
“It was just such a hoot working with Don,” said Triplett, “And the illustrations are just wonderful.”
In the Queen’s Garden
The Queen’s Garden at Buckingham Palace has been described as “the world’s most famous ‘secret garden.’ It occupies 39 acres next to the the palace and contains thousands of species of flowers and plants, including a 400-year-old mulberry bush dating to the reign of James I. Until recent decades, it was closed to the public, but Queen Elizabeth II began the custom of holding annual tea parties for invited guests there in the 1950s.
The children’s assignment: Infiltrate the Queen’s garden party and find the lost rhododendron.
“The Queen’s garden tea parties are quite formal,” explained Triplett. “Children are relegated to off areas. In the book, they leave these areas and explore the gardens to see what they can see.”
Adventures ensue. They get lost in a maze. Tylie is is swept up in a maypole dance. They are chased by the Queen’s gardeners and escape in a rowboat, which springs a leak.
“They’re just little adventures, not too dangerous, with a bit of a lesson to them,” says the author. “The grandmothers are along, but they’re clueless, as adults should be in a children’s book.”
No spoiler here
It would be a spoiler to reveal just how and where the “rhododendron named Karen” is found, but suffice it to say, the kids come through in the end.
Along the way, they learn about English customs and ways (driving on the wrong side of the road!) and visit all the famous sites in London. That’s the teacher in Triplett, who taught in Bremerton middle schools for 31 years, then was a Kitsap County librarian for 10 years more.
“Some of my former students have gotten together on Facebook, and they’ve all promised to buy ‘Mrs. Triplett’s book,’” she said. “That will be my 15 minutes of fame.”
Triplett is Old Gig Harbor, having been practically raised on the waterfront. She’s the daughter of Walt Williamson, who ran the Gig Harbor Marina — the old Skansie boatyard — for 45 years. She and her husband, Darrell, still live on the family homestead on the shore of Henderson Bay in the north Rosedale area.
After the royal wedding, by the way, rhododendron Karen Triplett went on to be come a best-seller in the rhody world. Gardener’s World magazine says its “compact habit” makes it well-suited to growing in containers and small gardens. Locally, it’s available at Rosedale Gardens in Gig Harbor, among other places.
“4 Kids on an Adventure” by Karen Triplett and Don Snowden, is available in paperback on Amazon at $12 The suggested reading ages are 8 to 12 years.
Reach Kerry Webster at editor@gateline.com
This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 12:33 PM.