Loving Frank

This is the name of a book about Frank Lloyd Wright a famous worldwide architect who was never trained as an architect but had two years of engineering school in Wisconsin.  I should have done this years ago, but a few friends and I took a trip to Oak Park, Illinois to view the first home he built and lived in with his family.  It was also his studio where he and his underling architects worked for twenty years.  Louis Sullivan, another famous Chicago architect lent Frank the money to build this home and would be an influence in his life forever.

These are the pillars at the entrance made out of plaster which require a lot of maintenance.

This is his business card that is embedded in each home he built.

We were not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the house because of the flash affecting the artwork and the wood.  However, I did buy a book and hopefully you will get an idea of the groundbreaking design, Prairie Style, this was in 1889. 

Sculptures on each side of the doorway

This is a huge Ginkgo Tree that was here before the house was built.  It has outlived its projected lifetime.  Frank was a great lover of nature and even built the house around the limbs of a tree that projected through the side of the wall and up through the ceiling.  The tree had to be cut down so now it is faux limbs that project through the wall just to give visitors and idea of what it looked like.  It looked a little ridiculous to me just like the grand piano that he projected through the wall of the children's playroom coming out over a hallway staircase.  This idea required reworking the whole staircase and one still has to duck so as not to bump your head.

Sorry about the snow but it would not allow me to download the picture in the summer - kept flipping it.

My old house was a Prairie Style house built after the turn of the century with 4" oak trim that dropped from the ceiling and trimmed out the room, 6" oak moldings around the floor, canvas lined plaster walls, push button electrical wall plates, large wrought iron gravity air grates in the floor, leaded glass windows and doors with prisms.  It had a large ironstone fireplace in the living room with cabinets on each side missing the leaded glass doors.  The root cellar and the coal room in the basement were a fascination both for adults and the children. 

This is the children's playroom in Frank Lloyd Wrights house, beautiful mural depicting his favorite story as a child, built in storage all around the room for toys and an ironstone fireplace just like I had in my old home.  The lighting is original and designed by Wright.

This is magnificent stained glass that was boarded up for sixty years in his meeting room for prospective clients where he showed them his drawings.  It is believed that his sister many have done the stained glass designed throughout the home.

That is why I wish I had gone on this trip many years ago so I could have appreciated  more fully the design of the home I had and where this influence came from.  This is where my woodland garden was, huge trees, raccoons in our overhangs, a garage that had bifold doors that you closed manually and digging grounds in the back where the kids found artifacts from decades past.

This is an octagonal room and supposedly Frank's favorite.  The furniture in the home is all original being given back by all of the family members after the renovation in 1972.

This was his wife Catherine's day room with the baby crib that held forty Wright descendants.  Anne Baxter (the movie star, All About Eve, was Wright's granddaughter) returned the crib and several other pieces to the home after the renovation in 1972.

My husband had stripped off ten layers of paint from the beautiful moldings (it took seven years) and we peeled off the crumpled canvas in a few rooms to reveal perfect plaster walls.  We put on an addition to add

a master bedroom, family room, a bathroom and a screened in porch.  It was a money pit but it had an atmosphere and a history that can never be replaced in a newer home.  Some children long ago had carved their graduation date from the local high school in the huge beams in the basement, my children also carved theirs.

This is the master bedroom with commissioned artwork on each wall.  The light is original to the home.  The lights were designed by Wright and are original to the home.

This is the small dining room which they soon grew out of with six children in eleven years.  It then became a study area for the children.  The hanging green glass lights are original to the house.

Living Room with Inglenook (notice the curved fireplace, which there are many throughout the home, in the  style of Louis Sullivan.)

This is the larger dining room with all original furniture designed by Wright.  Take note of the overhead lighting, first ever indirect lighting.  He had the house wired when built knowing that a year and a half later electricity would come to Oak Park.

They say you can never go back, but my husband did when they were doing a complete renovation.  He walked in on them painting his beautiful oak moldings.  My daughter and I also went back two years ago when it was up for sale, liking what they had done with the layout, but not liking the white moldings in a Prairie Style home.  They are so many knockdowns in our area, but just last year our old house was granted historic status so it will be around for many lifetimes.

*I apologize for the flashes in the photos.  They were all taken from a booklet and could not be obtained online.  Frank was a minimalist and did not care for flowers in the house or on tables.  He commented on some of his furniture that he designed that if you sat in it long enough you would have black and blue marks.  He experienced a severe mid-life crisis, leaving his family, chopping up the above house to rent out and accommodate his family, eventually becoming an apartment rental for sixty years until it was restored beginning in 1972 taking fourteen years to complete, 

Yanking

We all know what yanking means, it is ruthless, not kind and definitely is the end of something.  Believe me, yanking is not easy to do, it somehow means we were not successful.  Oh, I know, the weather is to blame, not enough water, etc., but the end result is yanking!

I have been trying to rejuvenate these two hanging baskets by placing them on the ground and watering constantly.  I think they are going in the yard waste bag today, too much labor this late in the season.

I have yanked my hayracks on the north side of the house, my hanging basket by the back fence, my concrete pots in front of the garage and my hanging basket by the back fence.  I have salvaged some other hanging containers by bringing them down to the ground and keeping them there for watering.

Here's another one I was trying to save.  I have been tripping over all of these containers on my patio.

This is not something I like doing as many years I have enjoyed my annuals well into the fall season.  Not this year, I already have pansies hiding in the garage from the intense sun and heat, a few cabbages too.  It is supposed to cool off next week, can we believe this? 

Lemon Twist got so big it lost a large stem.

I will slowly be going around the garden taking plants out that are no longer viable, like my coleus that has grown beyond bounds, my impatiens around the front tree that look trampled and water starved, some of my tomato plants that look brown and savaged by the weather.  Oh well, I had better look at my alley garden as I have certainly neglected this one!

This is a basket that still looks good hanging on the fence in a protected spot from the sun.

I think I am ready for this!

These are faux pumpkins (you know I have that squirrel problem) from the craft store.  They are getting better and better looking each year.  Do you think the squirrels are going to try and bite them?  I'll keep them in the garage for a while because the real ones are not around here yet.

Around The Garden

Usually I do Around the Garden at the end of the week, but this week I am doing it at the beginning.  I am starting in the back garden, where things look pretty good.  There is more moisture in the back and except for the earwigs and japanese beetles the foliage looks great.

Blue Paradise Phlox keeps going as long as I keep deadheading.

Heliopsis Lemon Queen

Hibiscus Mango on the patio

Clematis Fireworks back but smaller than in the spring (see header)

Rainbow Knockout is beginning to recover from the earwigs and japanese beetles.

The impatiens are almost too big (looks like a smudge on my lens)

The Pineapple Coleus love this weather!

Gaura requires deadheading every so often to keep peeking out.

Plumbago blooming where I cut down the Becky Shastas

As I move towards the front on the south side of the house where it is a xeric environment, things do not look quite as fresh.  The tropical containers with crotons and sedums look great, gaillardia needs a haircut and dianthus firewitch does not look happy.

In the front Limelight Hydrangea is beginning to turn color and will soon be ready for cutting off those gorgeous blooms for drying. 

Limelight Hydrangeas is beginning to turn color, many different shades of white, green, pink and rose.  Cut them at different stages for drying if you want a variety of colors.

Unique Hydrangea

P. Allen Smith was on the Today show the other day and said to just chop those Knockout Roses for their last wonderful bloom, feed them, water and wait.  I did it and we shall see!  I have a yellowed yew which I think has been affected by the watering system.  I have shut off the particular sprinkler but don't know if it can be saved.  Sedum Autumn Joy has already flopped from all of the rain and I am going to have to support it.  Autumn Fire is a better selection if you don't want it to flop. 

Sedum Autumn Joy is beginning to change color but I am going to have to prop it up.

My Endless Summer Hydrangeas have not been great this year, a first flush of flowers and then nothing.  Euyonmous Wintercreeper has been growing like crazy many clippings, scale is back.  The hostas are pretty spent at this point, holes, brownish, not lush, but Solomon's Seal still looks pretty good.

Nasturtium under the dahlia

Just look at these dahlias that I transplanted to the veggie garden!  They obviously need a deep root system and lots of water.  I am all the way back to my hayracks which will work colorwise into fall, a few gourds thrown in for interest.

The Hunt Is Over!

As I pulled out the plants from my back concrete planters, they came out like a plaster object from a mold.  Dirt and all with fully tangled roots were inseparable so into the yard waste bag they went.  I was determined to find my cabbages today and a few other goodies that would add to the fall effect.

My first stop was Home Depot because I always check them out first just in case a new truckload has arrived.  No cabbages yet - I can't believe it!  But, they had lots of other plants and look at the prices, unbelievable!

Agastache Blue Fortune

5 Gallon Container $12.98

Volcano Phlox

I did not know much about Volcano Phlox, but I am finding out it is a special variety because of its floriforus nature and resistance to mildew.  Here is the link giving the history and attributes of Volcano Phlox. http://www.tesselaar.com/plants/volcanophlox/

Sedum Autumn Fire (does not flop)

Heuchera Southern Comfort (can you believe $4.98)

Mona Lavender

I bought this a few years ago, very lovely, can't see from a few feet away - it's an up close plant!

Asters

Huge pots of Millet for $6.98

Just remember the birds will sit in it until it is all gone!

Knockout Roses

$9.98

A Wall of Caladiums

These will not hold up in cool weather

This looked like a great daylily for $4.98

Diamond Frost Euphorbia

This is an annual but will hold up to the colder weather $2.98, can be brought in the house to pair with pointsettas.

I bought two great looking perennial Rudbeckia Denver and Sedum Vera Jameson which will make great additions to the planters.  I always add some perennials and then in late November winter them over in the veggie garden.  So far, I am been very lucky having them take root this late in the season.  The cabbage is an ornamental annual, but that's okay because they will last until December if you can leave it alone.

Rudbeckia Denver

$4.98

Sedum Vera Jameson

$4.98

My next stop was a small garden center/nursery near my home.  They grow many decorative flowers (pointsettas, lilies, etc) and annuals in their greenhouses, some perennials.  I got talking to one of workers that I have known for years and didn't take any pictures.  But, guess what - I found the cabbages, big ones, little ones, yeah!

Well, I was really in the mood now to complete my design so onward to the next family owned garden center.  This one does not grow any of their plants, but they are knowledgeable and stock high quality materials.  This is the center that has their own garden show each year with reps from all the nurseries who supply their center.

Wow!  Look at the size of these mums!

Swiss Chard

I had to have some of this.

Orange Pansies

I had to have these also.

Bronze Sedge

How spooky - can you see this on top of a pumpkin?

I bought it!

Petunia Black Velvet

Decorative Peppers

They do not hold up to the cool weather.

The pots are still one of the best attractions at this Garden Center.

There are lots more inside.

What I have noticed is that the nurseries and boutique-type garden centers are finally trying to compete with the big box stores.  They all order from the same suppliers at this point, Proven Winners, Hampshire Farms, etc.  These are automated growers with the planting, watering and fertilization being done by computer. 

Home Depot has not bought plants with their own money for the last few years.  All of their plants are on consignment with employees from the growers actually working at Home Depot.  This way they control their losses and the supplier has a stake in keeping everything in good condition.

My conclusion is that I think there is a place for all of these different types of plant destinations.  If you are a seasoned gardener I see no reason why you cannot shop the big garden centers and look for bargains.  If you are somewhat knowledgeable shop your garden center and semi-nursery with knowledgeable staff.  If you are a beginner start out with a growing nursery where they have a knowledgeable staff, and grow most of their own plant material and understand the requirements for each plant.

One factor that I feel is very important is to ask what is your guarantee?  Home Depot offers a 100% guarantee on all of their plants for a year.  There are some nurseries that offer no guarantee, some offer 50% and some offer 100% non-advertised guarantee, only if you ask.