Catherine Walther’s love for nature, travel, design and all things French after majoring in the language and living in France and Montreal, led her into gardening. The product of those passions — and 35 years of collecting, refining and tweaking the outdoor space surrounding her Brentwood home — is evident in the resplendent container garden that graces the large deck out back.

In his 70-year career in horticulture, Bob Dingwall hasn’t missed a beat and has always relished a challenge. “I enjoy people telling me I can’t do things,” he says with a bit of a smile. His answer, he relates, always is, “Yes, you can make a plant grow the way you want it to grow.”

Those were exactly the words the homeowner wanted to hear. The homeowner had made contact with Bob through one of Bob’s many happy clients, and he had a precise request for the former chief horticulturist at the Missouri Botanical Garden, who now has his own consulting business.

Rain or shine, head over to the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House to see the natural habitat in which butterflies thrive. The Butterfly House is family friendly and a place for people of all ages to enjoy. The conservatory is lushly planted with nearly 100 species of exotic flowering tropical plants. In the Emerson Theater, people can learn about a butterfly’s life cycle before seeing the butterflies themselves. 

Suzie and Dave Spence knew when they purchased their Ladue home and the nearly 11 acres surrounding it in 2010, they were buying a piece of St. Louis architectural history. They also felt a keen sense of responsibility.

Created by famed St. Louis architects Raymond E. Maritz and W. Ridgley Young for the Bakewell family, the cottage on the estate dated from 1934 and the main house from 1936. They were two of well over 100 Maritz and Young homes built in the most affluent areas of St. Louis during the first half of the last century.