ENCINITAS —— Modern dance and some of the city's most beautiful gardens will be the showpieces of Saturday's Encinitas Garden Festival, a new daylong celebration of the city's creative and floricultural prowess.

Organizers expect hundreds of visitors to board double-decker buses at Cottonwood Creek Park and ride to the neighborhood just east of City Hall where gardeners at 30 private homes will display their creations.

At five of the gardens, dancers will delight visitors with movements choreographed to be part of the exotic surroundings.

Tickets are required for the self-guided, self-paced garden tour on Cornish, San Dieguito, Arden and Stratford drives between D Street and Santa Fe Drive. Organizers call the neighborhood Encinitas Highlands.

At Cottonwood Creek Park, free dance performances at a gardeners marketplace will run continually from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Encinitas' Cultural Tourism Committee —— a panel that promotes the city's historic, natural and artistic resources —— spawned the idea for a garden festival.

The festival is an offshoot of the Encinitas Flower Celebration, a discontinued behind-the-scenes tour of some of the greenhouses responsible for Encinitas' floral legacy.

"We want to honor and preserve our floricultural heritage," City Councilwoman Maggie Houlihan said last week.

Organizers also hope to provide botanical inspiration.

"If we can inspire one person to go home and pull out a trowel," coordinator Nan Sterman said, "we will have accomplished our goal."

Undersea garden

Jolee Pink said the ocean inspired her garden on Triton Circle, which deviates slightly from the main tour route.

A trickling fountain, koi pond and undersea mural provide focal points in a back yard that's smaller than a tennis court. Walkways are coated with aqua-green rock, beach sand, cobblestones and sea shells.

"We couldn't afford an ocean view so I created one for us," Pink said.

Planted mounds undulate among ficus-shaded walkways. Colorful succulents mimic corals. So does a lettucelike plant called the blood leaf.

Swimming among the plantings are ceramic sea creatures of Pink's creation, such as yellow flatfish and a blue-spotted moray eel.

Pink's creative canvas pushes right through a gate into the tiny front yard, where still more ceramic fish swim in an "edible garden" of lettuces, arrugula, chervil, golden thyme, pineapple sage and African blue basil.

Ceramic "edgers" resembling rolling waves contain the planting beside her front porch. The garden patch is no bigger than a beach towel but has drawn fire from the homeowners association of the master-planned neighborhood, Pink said.

"It's been slightly problematic," she said. "In the regulations they have approved plants."

Open-air dances

Artistic director Patricia Rincon said she set one rule for herself and five guest choreographers participating in the festival: that their creations be site-specific and that they repeat themselves for visitors throughout the day.

Rincon has enlisted her own seven-member troupe —— Patricia Rincon Dance Collective —— and dozens of guests to participate in the open-air performances.

A rope swing and elaborate headdress are elements of a dance planned in a Thai garden.

In another garden, with a massive tree as its centerpiece, a dancer will descend from a deck perched in the branches to a lower deck. The dancer's costume will be painted brown like the branches of the tree, Rincon said.

Meditative movement and a kimono are elements of a dance created for a Zen garden. A "sultry" piece set to 1930s blues will play among the fronds of a sprawling palm garden, she said.

A dance planned at a fifth garden will interact with two chairs, Rincon said.

Free performances are planned at two parks.

At Cottonwood Creek Park, among exhibitors and vendors at the gardeners marketplace, Tony Calaganan will present salsa dancing on the basketball court, Christina Jones will show African dancing on a deck overlooking the creek, and Sarah Kaye will present a tribute to B-movie actress Fay Wray beneath the gazebo.

The choreography of Rincon and her sister, Alicia Rincon, and Maria Cleary is included in the creative blend.

At Viewpoint Park, at D Street and Cornish Drive, a red-themed modern dance is planned at the spot where the red buses will drop off passengers. Also at that park, a master-gardeners' exhibit is planned.

Tickets are required for the garden dances, but the dances in the parks are free.

"That was really important to me," said Patricia Rincon, a member of Encinitas Commission for the Arts and of UCSD's dance faculty, "that this is a family event open to all ages."

Tickets for ages 13 and up cost $15; tickets for ages 6 through 12 cost $7. Tickets are for sale at the Encinitas Chamber of Commerce's office, 138 Encinitas Blvd. For information, call (760) 753-6041.

Organizers suggest that visitors wear comfortable shoes and sun hats. Anyone wishing to volunteer can call (760) 943-1950.

Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 943-2312 or akaye@nctimes.com.