Anita H. Kistler, honored gardener

THERE WAS A time when busloads of horticultural enthusiasts would arrive at a rock garden in West Chester to stand amazed at its collection of low-growing alpine plants peeking among the rocks.

Their guide and hostess would be Anita Hardin Kistler, an award-winning gardener who specialized in the esoteric discipine of growing tiny flowers and ground cover among artfully arranged rocks.

She and her late husband, John Sidel Kistler 2d, a renowned landscape gardener, would travel to the Rocky Mountains, the Swiss and Austrian Alps and other exotic climes to gather alpine plants and seeds.

In addition, friends in Czechoslovakia, China and elsewhere would send her seeds, so that her garden was not only beautiful but represented plantings from all over the globe.

Anita Kistler, a longtime volunteer at the annual Philadelphia Flower Show, where she often won prizes for her exhibits, died Thursday. She was 89.

Her husband was the designer of the Flower Show for several years and Anita was an architect. But when she saw her first exhibit of the local chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society at the show she was, as she put it, "hooked."

"Before I even got my feet wet in the field, I was meeting the elite of the rock garden world," she once said.

Before long, she was a director of the national organization and chairwoman of the Delaware Valley Chapter.

Her garden in West Chester was illustrated in two volumes of the "Time-Life Encyclopedia of Gardening" and other publications.

Visitors came from all over the world to see what she had created at her home.

Much honored, Anita received the Award of Merit of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society in 1990 for her achievements.

"She reminded me of the old E.F. Hutton commercial that said when E.F. Hutton speaks everybody listens," said her daughter, Bettina K. Barnes. "When Mom spoke about gardening, everybody listened.

"People at meetings of garden clubs would ask her questions. If she didn't know the answers, she would get them for you. She was so generous."

And her daughter added, "She was also a Mom. She had dirt under her fingernails, but she was a great mother."

Anita was born in Wynnewood to George and Anita Harding. She was a graduate of the Agnes Irwin School and an honors graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture.

She worked for several leading architectural firms in Philadelphia before her marriage.

She was past president of the Valley Garden Club, a life member of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and a member of the West Chester Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma.

Her husband died in 1984. She also is survived by two other daughters, Teal K. Michel and Charlotte LaDow Reinhard; a son, Matthew W.; a brother, George Harding, and two grandchildren.

Services: Memorial service 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 1105 E. Lincoln Highway, Exton. Interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Salvation Army of the Greater West Chester Area, 101 E. Market St., West Chester PA 19382-3152.