Dallas Open Days Tour 2011: Rister-Armstrong garden
Our second stop on the Dallas Open Days tour last Saturday was the Anglophile garden of Alan Rister and Greg Armstrong in the Knox/Henderson neighborhood. Beautifully crafted formal hardscaping by landscape architect Susi Tompson is softened by lavish plantings designed and maintained by the owners. Anchoring the double lot are three fairy-tale-like Tudor structures (a remodeled 1926 cottage and a more-recent garden pavilion and carriage house), with enticing decorative details at every turn.
Curbside you’re greeted by this dramatic, royally named combo: Buddleia davidii ‘Black Knight’ and Pennisetum rubrum ‘Prince.’
A restrained, formal planting frames the entry gate and charming gable of the carriage house.
Inside the gate, you step into the most open area in the garden: elegant paving, a sunken lawn, and an obelisk fountain in a pool of pastel water lilies.
Magnolias bloom beside the gate.
Water lilies
The sunken lawn is the only grass within the garden.
Looking left, arches in the architecture are echoed by an arching ‘Prince’ pennisetum, underplanted with green and flowering groundcovers.
On the right a loose, perennial border is anchored by a ‘Shoal Creek’ vitex in full flower.
The stone terrace becomes an elevated catwalk between the sunken lawn and the perennial border.
Numerous containers are planted with bright annuals.
Another bright container
This may be my favorite area of the garden. Less grand than the main terrace, this secondary patio, laid out on axis between the carriage house and the back door of the main house, has a lovely lion fountain as a focal point (also seen in the top photo).
The owners added this turret when they remodeled. The windows have a heraldry design; that with the “exposed” stone in the stucco contribute to the fairy tale atmosphere.
Oakleaf hydrangeas and clipped boxwood contain a small dining terrace.
Variegated New Guinea hybrid impatiens (‘SunPatiens’)
More heraldry symbols in a window’s stained glass
Another view of the lion fountain. If you turn right at the fountain…
…you pass through a low fence…
…and enter a tiny garden shaded by ginkgos and palms and anchored by this “Italianate folly,” as the owners dub the theatrical wall fountain.
The circular star flooring detail echoes another at the garden’s front entry (not pictured).
White flowering plants glow in the shade, like this pretty combo of oakleaf hydrangea and ‘Red Dragon’ knotweed (Persicaria microcephala).
Recycled bricks make up a utility path behind the folly.
Flowering echeveria
Swagged with clematis, an arbor beckons you down a path lined with nandina and mahonia, back toward the front of the garden.
I love these Mahonia eurybracteata ‘Soft Caress,’ which the owners are trialing in a shady spot.
Between the carriage house and the garden pavilion, a shady arbor offers grapes for picking.
An iron bench rests amid pittosporum, hydrangea, and potted purple oxalis.
Twin porcelain busts adorned with butterflies sit atop the fence—representing the garden owners?
Variegated lacecap hydrangea
The Arts and Crafts-decorated garden pavilion was also open for the tour, and we took a quick peek.
This is a beautifully designed garden. While parts of it were as overstuffed as an English easy chair, I found the mix of plants to be quite nice, amply filled out with many xeric natives and adapted species. Like any gardener’s garden, even an expensively built one like this, it’s full of personality and charm.
Tune in tomorrow for a look at our next stop, the inviting Munsterman garden in the Kessler Park/Oak Cliff neighborhood. For a look back at the exotic Blue Lotus garden in the Casa Linda neighborhood of east Dallas, click here.
All material © 2006-2011 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Wow! What a lovely place to pass time!
overstuffed ;~)
Amazing stone and brickwork. Reminds me of the post Deborah Silver put up yesterday on stonework.
Pam, as I browsed your post, I had the same feelings as you. I appreciated their zeal for their English passions, even if not my style. And the use of plants was fabulous. Those oakleaf hydrangeas are so gorgeous, as is the variegated one. The brickwork is gorgeous and that looks like you had to be in Highland Park or Preston Hollow neighborhoods?
I’m always keen to know which part of town a garden is in too, Robin, so I added it to the post. This garden is in the Knox/Henderson neighborhood—a neighborhood of small bungalows. —Pam
Such a pretty place. I love those oakleaf hydrangeas. I’m thinking that garden fit right into that neighborhood.
Looking forward to your Kessler Park post. That has always been a lovely area. It fell on some hard times, for a while. But, it’s been coming back to life.
Thanks for taking us along with you.
The Kessler Park garden was my favorite, Linda. My post about it will be up tomorrow morning. —Pam
Wonderful “tour”. Thank you!
Wow…that is amazing…so lush and verdant.
Thank you for posting all your garden ‘travels’. I really appreciate it and love that you update your blog so often.
It’s my pleasure, Barbara. Thank YOU for visiting and commenting! —Pam
I really did get a wonderful sense of coolness and quietness from the “tour.” Obviously not my style, but very lovely anyway. You said the neighborhood was small bungalows? That place looked like a mansion. Was it?
Not really, Mamaholt. The original home still looks bungalow-sized from the street, but in back you can see the two-story addition with the turret. The owners bought the house next door a few years ago, tore it down, and built the garden and their other two structures (both reasonably scaled for the neighborhood): a carriage house (i.e., garage) and a garden pavilion (pictured at the end of my post). Obviously the whole place is grander now, but I think the owners did a good job of fitting it in with the existing neighborhood. —Pam
Pam, thank you so much for letting us tour these wonderful gardens with you! Your pictures are amazing and the gardens are fascinating as they seem to range from whimsical to elegant. Love seeing them!
I can just imagine a cocktail party in that sunken garden. What fun. So much packed in to this garden. Those dark colored plants are really striking.
Swooning – amazing garden! The hardscape and plantings are stunning – really one of the best I’ve seen in a long long time. Thanks for the wonderful images!
Great plant use, even if not totally my style. Because at least it *has* style, being well-designed & thought-out!
Hi Pam, that is Dianthus under the cactus in the picture close to the top. I love this garden. I wish I had room at my house for all that’s going on in this garden.
Your blog is such an inspiration to me as a new gardener. With your fantastic photographs I feel like you have taken me personally to each garden you visit, especially yours. Thank you!
Thank YOU, Kim. I’m glad you’re enjoying the tour. Isn’t it fun to collect ideas from other gardens? —Pam