Nursery tour: The Antique Rose Emporium

Nursery tour: The Antique Rose Emporium

November 13, 2006 My weather wish was granted over the weekend: cool temperatures, blue skies, decidedly fall-ish weather. It was perfect for a Saturday trip to Independence, Texas, and a pilgrimage to the Antique Rose Emporium. Along with Barton Springs Nursery and Natural Gardener, it’s one of my favorite nurseries ...
Nursery tour: Natural Gardener

Nursery tour: Natural Gardener

November 05, 2006 In the spirit of my recent Open Days tour, I took my camera along during an afternoon trip to Natural Gardener nursery for a pot of oxalis. It was a simple enough errand, and the cool, gray skies made a tour of the nursery’s gardens very appealing ...
Tour of Poth-Gill garden

Tour of Poth-Gill garden

October 27, 2006 Low, curving walls set the front garden apart, with a spiraling design that draws you in. Colorful perennials and informal designs had been scarce on the Open Days Austin tour up until this point. Green, formal gardens ruled the day with clipped boxwoods, allees, precise runnels, and ...
Tour of Deborah Hornickel garden

Tour of Deborah Hornickel garden

October 26, 2006 A pear allee is the highlight of Hornickel’s garden Warm, accessible, personal, with striking plant choices and a Gardens-inspired feel, this Bryker Woods garden, located within walking distance of James David and Gary Peese’s famous garden shop, is Gardens on a budget. And I mean that as ...
Tour of Penelope Hobhouse-designed garden on Harris Boulevard

Tour of Penelope Hobhouse-designed garden on Harris Boulevard

October 25, 2006 A belvedere “modeled after the music pavilion at Versailles,” according to the Open Days Directory. We garden tourists knew this would be the most opulent garden on the Open Days Austin tour. A feature in the newspaper that tantalized with lavish photos, and mentioned that the garden ...
Tour of Arth garden

Tour of Arth garden

October 24, 2006 Entering James Arth’s garden from the street, you step onto a small lawn punctuated by a “chess pawn” (similar to one in my own garden’s border). Visiting this central Austin garden right after the David-Peese garden was a big change, but its spare geometry rendered in limestone ...
Tour of David-Peese garden

Tour of David-Peese garden

October 23, 2006 Entry garden. A gravel path flows around this sunny, graveled berm. It literally stopped me in my tracks as I gazed at the intriguing plant combinations. “Does this make me look fat?” I heard Gary Peese ask someone, fussing with his shirt as the Open Days tour ...