Drifts of Color

When you stroll through Ann and Steve Roberts’ Town & Country garden, it’s hard to believe that the tale of the garden’s fortuitous evolution could be more glorious than the landscape itself. 

A rainbow of floral color circles the perimeter of the setting. The kaleidoscope begins with pink and purple blossoms that merge into deep burgundy flowers and foliage and then on to waves of red, orange and gold. Lush greens provide a backdrop for a wooden bench that beckons from a shady part of the landscape. A refreshing combination of blue and white flowers sparkles against the terra cotta tones of the brick home. In the center of the garden, fragrant beds of lavender bloom at the base of a huge black urn spilling over with purple heliotrope, lavender lantana and variegated ivy.  Water splashes from a tiered fountain, surrounded by multi-colored shrub roses.

The story of the garden’s evolution begins four years ago with a somewhat discouraged Ann, who, with two children off in college, had more time to devote to her landscape.

“I wanted constant color in my garden from May through November, and I was tired of messing with annuals,” Ann recalls. “I really wanted to try perennials. I’d buy something because it had a pretty flower and plant it, but it never looked right (in the landscape).”

In her quest to learn more about design, Ann navigated the Internet and found her way to the GardenWeb Forums Web site (www.forums.gardenweb.com/forums/) where gardeners can chat and ask questions. “I looked at all the categories and read what people said,” Ann explains. “I decided what I wanted was an informal, country-style, cottage garden. I wanted to emulate that free look. It took months before I got up the courage to post a picture and ask a question.”

Amazingly, a response to Ann's query came from Joy Brittle, a British flower arranging expert. Joy was tending her own cottage garden, which surrounds a centuries-old home in the British Midlands – a home she had inherited from her mother. Before long, Ann and Joy were e-mailing regularly. “Joy had so much knowledge of flowers and texture,” Ann recalls. “She can pronounce the Latin names of plants with 17 syllables as easily as I can say my name.”

Joy also introduced Ann to the philosophy of celebrated English garden designer Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), famous for her perennial borders and her painterly, impressionistic style of planting, utilizing both color and texture. Her belief in grouping plants of like color together and allowing those blossoms to drift into flowers of similar, harmonious colors immediately appealed to Ann. But selecting the appropriate plants to create a kind of living color wheel in her own backyard was a daunting task. “In January 2005 I asked Joy if she would help me design my garden,” Ann recounts.

Joy agreed. In the midst of winter, Ann began taking pictures of her empty garden beds and sending them to Joy. “I drew the outline of my beds in a computer program called ‘Picture It' and sent the CD of the program to Joy so she could download it on her computer, and we could begin sending images back and forth,” Ann explains. “When we first started looking at the individual beds, we needed a way to identify them. We began calling them names like ‘the birdbath bed' and ‘the spruce bed.' Then, as the garden took shape and we knew the color of the flowers in each area, we began referring to the areas by jewel names, such as sapphire, ruby and topaz. Joy had the eye (for garden design) that I didn't have.”

The learning curve wasn't all one-sided. “Joy had no sense of our winters and our summers,” Ann explains with a laugh. “Generally, any plant in a British nursery can be grown anywhere in England. She would suggest something, and I would have to say, ‘Joy, I can't grow that plant.' England is basically in zone 8.” (St. Louis is between climate zones 5 and 6.)

“I was so amazed at the amount of time she spent with me,” Ann says, looking out over her garden. “Shortly after we began corresponding, Joy's best friend died. I think helping me design my garden filled a void in her life, and with that, Joy named the garden ‘Serendipity.'”

Two years ago, Joy Brittle and her husband Ken, along with two other family members, traveled to the United States and spent five days with the Roberts family. “When we stepped out in the garden, it was surreal,” Ann recalls. “We had worked for two years, and we were both silent. ‘Does it look different to you?' I asked. ‘I know this garden like the back of my hand,' Joy said.”