Photography by R. Todd Davis
How do you leave behind your dream house and garden?
With great reluctance, say Patty Warwick and Steve Williams. Four years ago, they moved with their two teenage sons from Portland, Ore., to suburban St. Louis because of Warwick’s job with May Department Stores Co. (Williams runs a home furnishings import business.)
First they had to get over their house in Portland—a colonial built in 1948 for the Cary Grant/Myrna Loy classic, Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House. Constructed on two acres, the house sits on the road leading to the Nike campus.
“Everyone knew our house,” Warwick says.
So they decided they would look for a St. Louis home dramatically different from the one they left behind. After extensive searching through a multitude of traditional homes with little natural light, the couple found a different-style house—an adaptation of a Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie-style home situated at the bottom of a cul-de-sac.
When it came time to recreate their garden, the couple had no desire to depart from the casual, natural garden they had lovingly planted and nurtured together. “I just loved coming in from the garden with armfuls of calla lilies,” says Warwick. Because the three-quarter–acre yard was still bare, Warwick and Williams thought they’d be able to recreate their Oregon garden from scratch, but on a smaller scale. They quickly learned otherwise.
“I came here thinking the planting zones were identical, but after my first visits, I realized that Oregon is milder and doesn’t have the same heat and humidity as St. Louis in summer or the same cold in winter,” Warwick says. “I also realized St. Louis is grayer in winter, so we wanted more color.”
For landscape designers Kim Kelce and Nancy Pedley of Kelce & Pedley Designs, the challenge was to fashion the Warwick/Williams garden with plants that could survive the Midwest’s harsher climate. “We can grow many of the same things, but we can’t duplicate all,” says Kelce.
After going back and forth to find plants that would both thrive and appeal to the family, the “landscape ladies,” as the family called Kelce and Pedley, developed a master plan. They tinkered with choices when they went to area nurseries, an approach similar to how serious cooks alter their menus once they shop at markets.
The front garden constitutes the biggest lawn area. A backbone of boxwoods, spruce trees and hollies make the garden green and attractive to birds all year long. A diverse mix of Horsford dwarf pines, dwarf Hinoki cypress, Nandina and Itea virginica (“Henry’s Garnet”) shrubs, paired with Miscanthus (“Little Zebra”) and Pennisetum hameln grasses add seasonal color, as well as different heights, textures and leaf shapes. A calla lily plant was Warwick and Williams’ sentimental choice.
Within the mix, some plantings are repeated to allow the eye to skip along, says Pedley. A perpendicular row of low-maintenance Liriope Royal Purple groundcover adds a frilly look—like a thick shag carpet. A large urn planted with more seasonal color acts as a punctuation mark when placed near the main entrance; it now holds bird of paradise, wave petunias and lantana. Behind the garage, another diverse group of plantings has a natural, dense look with purple-blue hydrangeas, coneflowers, a paper bark maple, a variety of hostas and ferns. The plantings camouflage stepping stones that lead down to a swimming pool and deck, decorated with flower- and plant-filled pots, planters and moss-lined hanging baskets. Because the property extends beyond the creek, Kelce and Pedley built another stone path leading to bird feeders nestled amid vibernum and bamboo where cardinals, mourning doves, finches, blue jays, woodpeckers and hummingbirds come to eat, rest and hide.
Although the couple originally focused on trying to incorporate plants they had before, they learned, with prodding from their designers, that some of the best additions are new, rather than repeats. Come warm weather, big pots will be filled with tropical ferns, bird of paradise, elephant ears, palms and hibiscus—all poignant reminders that Warwick and Williams are definitely not in Oregon anymore.
Nine tips for nurturing your garden from Kelce, Pedley and Warwick:
- Spend time studying your property before you plant, so you know what’s growing where and what you need to fill in.
- Develop a master plan, but don’t be afraid to alter it depending on what your garden stores stock.
- Plant in clusters for greater effect.
- Understand your planting zone and what works—and what doesn’t.
- Take time for soil preparation, since it’s important as a foundation for plants.
- Plant fewer, rather than more, materials initially since plantings grow and you don’t want to crowd areas.
- Try to include a variety of colors, textures, heights and smells.
- Repeat some plantings for continuity.
- Be realistic about how much maintenance you really want to do and how much money you want to spend.
