Stunning gardens delight senses on 11th annual WSHPHS garden tour
The scent of jasmine, lavender, and delicate roses permeated the air as more than 250 eager garden-lovers toured four exceptional home gardens May 2 on the Windsor Square-Hancock Park Historical Society Garden Tour. “Gardens in Bloom: A Floral Legacy” was the 11th annual self-guided tour and, true to the tour’s name, a profusion of colorful blooms awaited at every turn. So, too, many touring the gardens dressed the part, donning flower-print outfits and wide, floppy sun hats.
DOCENTS (from left) Andrea Elliott, Susanna Miller, and Debra Rosenbaum with homeowner Ben Paul.
Gardens were carefully created to complement the homes’ architecture, and liberal use of low-maintenance plants and succulents beautifully addressed our region’s need to consider water conservation. A common design was to divide expansive yards into intimate spaces for dining, lounging, and conversation.
Pink and white Eden roses climb Zoe and John Schaffer’s stately Italianate home on Lorraine Boulevard. The home was designed and built in the 1920s by architect Robert D. Jones and builder Sanson M. Cooper, whose firm S. M. Cooper was responsible for hundreds of homes in our neighborhoods and beyond. Cheryll Kellough, of Sage Garden Design, used native plants and low hedges to accent the home’s more formal front façade, while the backyard’s gracious porch, pool, pergola, and firepit conversation area rim a grassy lawn, an array of shrubs and more Eden roses. “My favorite part of the garden is in May when all the Eden roses are in full bloom,” said owner Zoe Schaffer. “I cut them and keep them all around the house.”
CLIMBING ROSES adorn Laurie Stoneman’s home on June Street.
Designer and gardener Jorge Magallanes worked with homeowners Lindsay Sturman and Ben Paul to create a wild English garden for their Georgian Revival-style home on Plymouth Boulevard. Myriad shades of green leaves with shocks of purple and yellow flowers grace the frontage, and meandering recovered brick paths weave through the sustainable plantings. It’s to honor Sturman’s gardener mother’s volunteer involvement in Wave Hill Gardens in the Bronx, New York. An arch of trees leads to the front door of the brick home designed by architect John Montgomery Cooper, whose other works include the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel and the Roxie Theater on Broadway in downtown L.A.
The backyard’s garden rooms include a covered dining patio, a firepit conversation nook, an edible garden, and a planting of unusual Mexican marigolds, which, to Sturman’s delight, release a mint-like fragrance when their leaves are touched.
Orange and green succulents, lavender, and a shady mature tree enliven the street view of a Tudor Revival-style home on June Street. The more formal front garden was designed by Virgo Design and Landscaping, but much of the golf-course-facing backyard was planted by homeowner Laurie Stoneman, who enjoys experimenting to see what will thrive with minimal fuss. She is especially interested in low maintenance air plants and plants that attract butterflies, birds, and bees.
The home’s architect, Philip Brinckerhoff, of building firm S. M. Cooper, became known for Spanish Revival and Mission-style homes in Hancock Park, Miracle Mile, and Los Feliz.
“I love my garden because it provides a sense of calm and peace in the middle of Los Angeles,” stated Lauren Scher, who, along with her husband, Dr. Kevin Scher, is the homeowner of a modern Mediterranean home on McCadden Place.
WANDERING FLOWER-LINED path leads to a Wilshire Country Club golf course view from June Street home.
Designed by architect Vincent Palmer, a young architect who would later work with Richard Neutra, the home is now painted a warm grey, a hue which complements the silvery olive trees, array of greens from myriad fragrant shrubs, contrasting pops of purple from lavender, and bright white from roses. Landscape and garden designer Cheryll Kellough, of Sage Garden Design, known for sustainable landscapes, divided the backyard into areas for entertaining, swimming, and dining.
Peckish plant-lovers were treated to sandwiches and sparkling wine in June Bilgore’s lovely backyard.
The Garden Tour is one of the Historical Society’s biggest fundraisers of the year and President Richard Battaglia announced they raised roughly $10,000 to support WSHPHS neighborhood improvements.
Past beautification projects included plantings at John Burroughs Middle School; Third Street School; the former Frances Blend School for sight-impaired children; Fire Stations 29, 52, and 61; and the traffic islands at Sixth Street and Norton Avenue and along Wilton Place. A long-term commitment to the Wilshire Police Station’s Fallen Officers Memorial Garden on Venice Boulevard has also been completed.
Category: Real Estate
