A Master Landscaper: At 95, Chris Moritz’s eye for bringing beauty to spaces is impeccable

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

Japanese anemone. Rudbeckia, Forsythia. Hydrangea. Iris. Coral Bells and day lilies. And geraniums, a blanket of them.

These are just some of the flowers and bushes growing in Chris Moritz’s Columbia Falls garden. Under his skilled hand, the plants are laid out like an orchestra, each complimenting the other in a rather gorgeous array, even as the garden itself is in its waning days of the fall.

Moritz, 95, knew he wanted to work with plants and gardens at an early age growing up in what was then Prussia near the Baltic Sea. His mom and dad had given him a book in 1942 entitled “Garter Gestaltung Der Neuzeit.” Translated, it means garden design in the modern era. 

 In January 1945 his family fled the oncoming Russian Army to Germany.  They left many things behind, but Moritz kept that book and still has it today.

Hilter’s Army, even in that late stage of World War II tried to draft him, he recalled. But he was too small to hold up a rifle, so they sent him home.

A few months later, the country was liberated, the war ended, and Moritz spent the rest of his teens in Berlin. His father had a job that took him back and forth across east and west Berlin and when Moritz finished high school he was able to obtain a student visa and study in the United States.

Moritz considered a career in forestry, but in Germany at the time, those jobs were difficult to get. Nepotism was common in the field and getting a job was nearly impossible, he recalled. But he had always liked gardening, designing them in the sandbox even as a child, so he pursued a degree in landscape architecture.

His college experience in the U.S. led to a job in Denver and he moved there permanently in 1956. He would go on to have a distinguished career, designing landscapes in what are now high-profile communities like Vail, Colorado. 

He also did work for high-profile families, like the Coors family (think Coors beer) as well.

He was one of only a handful of landscape architects in Denver and won multiple awards for his work.

Moritz moved to Bigfork in 1984 and continued his work there, doing homes in high-end developments like Iron Horse as well as commercial properties like Flathead Electric Co-Op. He even designed a wonderful landscape for Plum Creek’s Cedar Palace and for the property across the road to the east. He still has the drawings.

“It never got done,” he laments.

About 10 years ago Moritz and his wife Carolyn decided to downsize their home a bit and moved to Columbia Falls. Once their home was built he went to work on designing the landscape. Today it is lush with life, immaculately designed to begin blooming in the spring, through summer and maintaining its color through fall.

The couple met, by chance in a bistro owned by Bebe Kazar, a well-known artist in Kalispell. They’ve been married ever since and have five grown children between them as well as a host of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Stepping into Moritz’s backyard beneath two towering Ponderosa pines is entering a secret garden. You wouldn’t know they even have neighbors, or that a busy city street is nearby.

In addition to the landscaping, the couple are both talented watercolorists and artists. Moritz said he always thought the area should have a commercial garden, a place to visit with a small restaurant perhaps before going to Glacier National Park. He designed one for Columbia Heights, but it never came to fruition.

Today he still works in his garden daily.

His secret to longevity?

“I’ve always walked enough,” he said with a smile.