Louis Frederick House Japanese Landscaping

6009kitty · Post by **6009kitty** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 2:36 pm

I just moved into a mid-century modern home and would like to incorporate some of the Wright architectural and landscape design elements into my own home and landscape. One of those elements is featured in the Japanese landscape at the Louis Frederick House. For instance, one of the pictures of the landscape features a lush, green ground cover around the stone steps leading upwards to a terrace.

Does anyone know what the ground cover might be or know who I would contact to find out? Thanks!

Mod mom · Post by **Mod mom** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 2:51 pm

It's hard to tell from this photo:

http://www.savewright.org/index.php?page=33&id=155

but might it be pachysandra? (also known as Japanese spurge). We had found it in gardens around our apprentice house. It's a bright chartreuse in spring but deepens in color for summer. It's shade loving which the stone steps in the photo appear to be.

jmcnally · Post by **jmcnally** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 4:49 pm

Of course, foliage depends on climate. If you can't nail down exactly what was used, you can also approximate it for your zone. My recommendation is to go to a good garden center, ask in a tactful manner to talk to the smartest person there about plant choices, and see what they recommend that will reproduce the color, height, and crawling characteristics you seek. I spend a lot of time at Epcot (Disney World) and they sometimes have to use local plants to simulate the foliage of Japan, Norway, Germany, etc. Other times they are able to use plants from the native country.

If you tell us your region, it may help the more savvy contributors to offer suitable suggestions.

This also raises an interesting question. I have been seeing that Lloyd Wright did a lot of the landscaping for his father's projects in California. It's something I hadn't thought about before, but I wonder if there are any books that give details about landscaping choices at the various Wright properties.

Duncan · Post by **Duncan** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 5:58 pm

The best existing book on FLlW and landscapes that I am aware of is "Wrightscapes" by Charles E. and Berdeana Aguar (mcGraw Hill, 2002). It deals mostly with siting and relationships to topo and sun, looking at many case studies. I have found it one of the best analytic books on Mr. Wright's designs, developed by studying both the original plans and the properties. It also has plant lists for Willits (WB Griffin), Little I (Griffin), Booth (Jens Jensen), Taliesin East, Hunt II (Lloyd Wright), and Hollyhock (Lloyd Wright). It includes Walter Burley Griffin's planting plan (too small to read plant names) for DD Martin and refers to "plans of record" at the University of Buffalo.

"The Pope Leighey House" (Preservation Press, 1969, 1983) has a chapter on siting and landscaping and includes FLlW's "concept sketch" for the landscaping and a landscape plan prepared by a Washington Landscape Architect for the Leigheys.

Regarding Hollyhock, there is the Spacemaker Press book "Barnsdall Park" (1997) that is a fairly complete landscape history, including maps of trees over time, and a 1995 landscape master plan. It does not have complete plant lists, however.

For plant materials at Taliesin East, there is a book called something like "The Gardens of Taliesin" by Fellow Frances Nemkin, who tended the gardens until her death a few yeas ago. It also has the nurseryman's invoice for plant materials for Taliesin from Ellwanger and Barry's Mt. Hope Nursery in Rochester, NY, annotated by Wright. She wrote several books and I am not sure of the precise title since I passed this book on to the Landmark Society of Western NY which owns the Mt. Hope Nursery property (as well as the E. E. Boynton furniture).

This indeed is a subject that begs for further investigations.

jmcnally · Post by **jmcnally** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 8:26 pm

Excellent, Duncan - great information!

Rood · Post by **Rood** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 10:15 pm

Duncan wrote:
For plant materials at Taliesin East, there is a book called something like "The Gardens of Taliesin" by Fellow Frances Nemkin, who tended the gardens until her death a few yeas ago. It also has the nurseryman's invoice for plant materials for Taliesin from Ellwanger and Barry's Mt. Hope Nursery in Rochester, NY, annotated by Wright. She wrote several books and I am not sure of the precise title since I passed this book on to the Landmark Society of Western NY which owns the Mt. Hope Nursery property (as well as the E. E. Boynton furniture).

Duncan ... Unless something has happened, recently, of which I'm totally unaware, you might want to retract your statement about Frances Nemtin.
Her husband, Stephen, passed away about a year and a half ago, but the last time I visited Taliesin West, I stayed in a room adjacent to the Nemtin quarters, as a guest of Frances. Though she suffered a debilitating stroke some years ago, Frances was, and I trust remains, otherwise hale and hearty.

Duncan · Post by **Duncan** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 8:57 am

Apologies to Mrs. Nemtin. In my dotage, I seem to have imagined something that isn't. BTW, her book I was referring to is "Frank Lloyd and Taliesin."

DavidC · Post by **DavidC** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 9:00 am

Though I don't own the book and cannot speak to it's contents, another landscape-related FLW book is: Gardens of Frank Lloyd Wright

David

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 1:51 pm

"The Gardens of Frank Lloyd Wright" by Derek Fell, Frances Lincoln Ltd., 160 pp, 2009. Mostly about landscaping with native plants, especially wildflowers.

6009kitty · Post by **6009kitty** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 4:12 pm

Thank you all so much for your interesting, well though out and informative replies! It is an interesting subject for sure. I will check with my local library for these titles and see what I can find...thanks again so much!

jmcnally · Post by **jmcnally** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 8:13 pm

If you can't find them at a public library, consider local university libraries, especially if they have a good architecture or landscape architecture program.

pharding · Post by **pharding** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 5:54 am

Rather that going the self help route which typically results in a muddle on a wonderful architectural work, I suggest contacting a high quality landscape architect. One that comes to mind is Carol Yetken at CYLA Design in Oak Park, Illinois. Carol has an undergraduate degree in architecture and a Master of landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia. She has done most of the landscape architecture on our projects and has been invaluable on the Davenport House grounds. She is very much like a surgeon and is not one to overcook design work.

egads · Post by **egads** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 9:58 pm

I would also urge you to post at least the region your house is located. As has been said here already, climate is everything with respect to landscape. For a MCM house, Sunset magazine covered landscaping, including with a Japanese influence in old issues and books that are available used. Sunset was focused on the west, so plant materials would need to be adjusted for other areas.

Unbrook · Post by **Unbrook** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 9:24 am

I would also suggest not making the gardens too "Japanese". Wright's architecture succeeds best when the landscaping seems to be a continuation of the building. Pradnya Martz's talk last year on the intended landscape at the Weltzheimer house was a revelation. The extant landscape has evolved into something not originally designed. Wright didn't set the house on the land, but rather made it a part of the land.

I will suggest referencing the Ennis house in LA as an example of an interesting use of a "Japanese" garden. As you walk the hallway to the bedrooms, you can glimpse the Japanese-ish garden through the windows.

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Louis Frederick House Japanese Landscaping

Louis Frederick House Japanese Landscaping

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