Hydrangeas in the Historic Garden
[caption id="attachment_26471" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="What better to welcome guests than H. macrophylla ‘Glory Blue’."][/caption] Let me introduce you to my colorful friend LEONA . . . the acronym for five types of hydrangeas that will give you blooms for half the year or more: Limelight, Endless Summer, Oak Leaf, Nikko Blue, and Annabelle. Hydrangeas are native to the Appalachian region of the U.S. and to the islands of Japan. H. quercifolia (Oak Leaf) and H. arborescens (Annabelle) are the only two North American natives; these species have made the Southeastern U.S. and Appalachia their natural habitat, growing from Florida to Pennsylvania ...
Saving a Dallas Foursquare
[caption id="attachment_26947" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Clark Mitchell and J.W. Brasher were guided in their restoration by a 1909 photo of the home—a gift from a descendant of the house’s original owner—which clued them in on the home’s original cladding and what sort of railing to wrap around the porch."][/caption] Whether you call it “electric blue” or “painter’s-tape blue,” the startling hue that coated the front-parlor woodwork in Clark Mitchell and J.W. Brasher’s turn-of-the-century Foursquare most definitely could not be called “period.” The house had been built circa 1905 by renowned Dallas architect Otto Lang for himself and his family. But as the years ...
Arts & Crafts Architecture in California
Pasadena [caption id="attachment_26266" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Among the Greene & Greene houses in Pasadena is Charles Greene's modest 1902 home and studio."][/caption] When a city has a neighborhood named “Bungalow Heaven,” you know it’s bound to be a mecca for lovers of Arts & Crafts architecture—and Pasadena doesn’t disappoint. The town’s A&C legacy is due in large part to brothers Charles and Henry Greene, who set up their eponymous architecture firm here and designed several houses for Pasadena’s well-to-do residents, many of which have been lovingly preserved by a new generation. Local Greene & Greene standouts include the Gamble House, the Blacker House, ...
Ideas for 20th-Century Baths
Arts & Crafts [caption id="attachment_26144" align="alignright" width="214" caption="The new vanity features an integrated laundry chute. (Photo: Howard Miller)"][/caption] The problem with Catherine and Paul Wagner’s bathroom was obvious: They never used it. “It was this huge bathroom we just went into to brush our teeth,” Catherine says. Because the room’s only bathing apparatus was a hulking cast-iron clawfoot tub original to the house, the family had gotten into the habit of trekking down to the first-floor bath (installed in what was once the butler’s pantry) most of the time. It was an inconvenience that hardly fazed Catherine, who grew up in the house, ...
