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Houston-area chapter of AISD offer home building and remodeling tips at annual show

Jay Iarussi stood on scaffolding as he painted lengthy strokes of greens and golds, flowing across the ceiling as if they have been a relocating present. 

The palette for this artistic ceiling therapy was influenced by the exclusive Bocci chandelier already hanging in the place, the upstairs game space in a house just finishing design in West College Put. This house, which started building by Sugar Creek Properties as a spec house, was procured by a relatives with younger children and almost simultaneously became this year’s clearly show home for the American Modern society of Inside Designers Texas Gulf Coast chapter.

The show house will be open to the public for the up coming two weekends, Dec. 8-11 and 15-18. Typical admission tickets are $35 for older people and $15 for children. Interior designer Victoria Sheffield is the demonstrate home’s chair — coincidentally, the builder experienced presently hired her to assistance finish out the residence — and her co-chairs are ASID’s new president, designer Candice Rogers, and Cambria product sales director Jason Grigar. A dozen other community inside designers and a handful of design college students participated in the project.

Exhibit residences and residence tours are entertaining to go to, if for no other motive than to peek within the properties of individuals with significant budgets for building products and furnishings. There is, however, a substantial just take-absent for any person who’s wondering about constructing, remodeling or even tackling more simple decorating initiatives: loads of concepts.

It can be an possibility to see how interior designers do their magic, combining colors, elements and textures and applying issues that are usually difficult to obtain or only offered through designers. You can also get a chance to see the get the job done of area workrooms and artisans given that lots of designers shopped and sourced locally to stay clear of provide chain troubles that avoid home products from becoming sent on time.

This is a sample of what you may see: 

Mixing furnishings

Home furnishings, art and extras are the past factors introduced into a display home — or any home, for that subject. You are going to see terrific examples of substantial and very low, mixing antiques, midcentury fashionable and more present-day items that are classic and transitional in model.

This household is 5,890 square ft, so you’ll see bedroom therapies that address a nursery, younger boy, a major suite and two guest suites. There is a engage in room, expansive kitchen area with two oversized islands and two pantries, just one a butler’s pantry and the other a wander-in food pantry. There is also a review and a video game space with a damp bar, providing inspiration for just about any undertaking you might be thinking of. 

Lights

When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Dec. 8-11 and 15-18 (final entry at 4:30 p.m.)
Where: 3807 Westerman
Tickets: common admission $35 for older people and $15 for young children $75 for VIP 1st glimpse (11 a.m.-2 p.m. Dec. 6) eventbrite.com
Facts: txgc.asid.org


One particular of the best developments in inside design and style of the very last handful of decades is the monumental influence of great-on the lookout lighting. Not only has engineering improved, but companies have employed major designers who have taken the completed product or service to one more stage. You can expect to see some of the greatest lighting on the industry in this property, from that Bocci chandelier in the activity home to sconces and other lights in the home’s 7 — 5 total baths and 2 powder bogs — bathrooms. There are lovely chandeliers in major open areas, far too, and owners need to pay out interest to the bigger dimensions.

Lighting is — fairly basically — even larger than at any time. Just one typical error home owners make is picking lighting that is much too compact mainly because it seriously is tricky to visualize what a little something will look like in a area. Chandeliers are huge, and so are pendants. Sconces are imaginative and occasionally close up getting the jewelry in the place. Two standouts are the cactus-like chandelier in the primary lavatory, part of a suite by inside designer Christine Ho, and the sequence of paper lanterns that deal with the ceiling in a flex room at the back of the home, a place designed by designer Imelda Escatell.

Finishes

Cambria and Silestone, two corporations that make manufactured slabs for counters, are sponsors of the function, and Cambria presented up its newest selection of quartz to use. Slabs made use of on the kitchen area islands are its new Beckington quartz, a creamy base with great grey and gentle tan veining, and this is the initial change anyone has to see this structure put in in a property. You will find also an Ann Sacks black-and-white Terrazzo counter and inexperienced glazed lava rock tiles on the upstairs wet bar, a spot exactly where you can use much more remarkable products. 

Designers went bold with wallpaper and colour, so you can see how a house can have deep eco-friendly, blue and terracotta shades and not look frustrating. 

You can also get a look at some terrific plumbing fixtures and hardware, as designers chose a selection of finishes through the house. There’s pewter, nickel and brass, and you will see people finishes in lights as perfectly.

Wallpaper 

Wallpaper has produced a comeback in latest yrs and this household puts the ideal of what’s out there on display. In a house this measurement, the wallpaper funds — components and set up — could effortlessly get to $100,000 if you happen to be applying major-tier makes and styles in many rooms. Don’t forget, however, every thing gets reinterpreted, so you can locate about any model or pattern in a variety of price tag factors. Enable this house’s a lot of wallpaper utilizes inspire you to attempt a thing new.

Excellent apps are a very pink floral on the ceiling of the nursery (by Laura Manchee Layouts), hand-painted wallpaper that exhibits a tree frog peeking all-around shiny stripes in the boy’s bedroom (by Cassandra Brand name Interiors) and Arte International’s lovely tropical sample, Flor Imaginaria, on the lobby wall (by Candice Rogers Interior Style.)

Taking into consideration artwork

Artwork is an critical part of residence style and design, bringing coloration, form and visible interest to just about every space. This showhome showcases area artists, and you may see paintings throughout the dwelling. If you see a person you like, ask who the artist is, considering that there will be lists of components throughout. Considerably of the art is on mortgage for the party, and the homeowners are obtaining some of the home furnishings. That means, just about all the things is for sale, so if you like the extravagant sofa in the sport space or the classic rug in the foyer, talk to if it truly is for sale.

When touring this house, feel of artwork as much more than paintings on the walls. The recreation place ceiling treatment method marries a hand-painted mural with a gorgeous chandelier, and I would dare anyone who sees it to explain to me it can be not artwork. In the course of the property you’ll see things that are so stunning and have a significant level of craftsmanship that they qualify as works of artwork.

Details

The get the job done of inside designers is really thorough, and that is what can make a space glance so polished. Minimal items to appear for — and potentially duplicate in your personal household — are bathroom stone/slab backsplash slash into appealing styles (downstairs powder rest room by Cassandra Brand Interiors), a reeded wood complete on kitchen area island doors and conclude items (by Victoria Sheffield Design and style) and a complete wall of fretwork by Fuller Architectural Panels in the nursery (by Laura Manchee Models.)

The play room at the back again of the dwelling elements in the household cat, too. The room’s designer, Imelda Escatell constructed in a sequence of techniques and hammocks that run up the wall so the cat can climb, engage in and cover up large. The feline also has a created-in cat doorway so it can arrive and go from this space to the backyard as it pleases. The homeowner’s younger son will get a wonderful place, as well, with bunkbeds designed to glance like a treehouse fort.

The house is significant and the large amount is just not, so outdoor space has to be applied sensibly. The tiny-ish yard will be coated in artificial turf, a great preference for yards that usually are not huge and have a large amount of shade. In the front of the dwelling, the builder and designers had been challenged with discovering a way to have an added auto parked out front. The ton is just not deep, so the driveway prolonged sideways towards the doorway in a pattern that’s all concrete but will have indentations for synthetic turf. It will have the overall look of a porous driveway without any of the maintenance.

Neighborhood artisans

The present residences that have revived in the previous calendar year or so have found issues with receiving materials designers want on a brief switch-all over, forcing them to convert to the artisans and work rooms in each individual community. That is true for this ASID project, so you can expect to see issues manufactured suitable in this article in Houston, from the wall of preserved vegetation in the master bedroom by Priscilla Saynay’s  Ms. Moss Potter to customized-built metal shelving in the residing room by James Dawson Structure.

Integrating plants into dwelling and functioning spaces has turn out to be well-liked in modern many years, and the preserved plants that Saynay works by using array from mosses to mushrooms, even ferns and amaranthus, that glance as inexperienced and contemporary as are living kinds. In excess of some 20 hours or so, she painstakingly additional every single piece of preserved plant to a wall aspect powering the mattress in the key bedroom. It truly is so unusual and refreshing that it is really possible to make you end and assume about where you could set a little something like this in your very own home.

Designer Cheryl Baker utilized Dawson’s metalwork bookshelves on each aspect of the fire in the most important residing location, a single component in a great blend of products: limestone flooring, a solid stone mantel and wood panels that operate up the part of the wall exactly where the fire is. Each individual materials plays a role in the visual and bodily tale of this room.  

diane.cowen@chron.com

 

 

 

 

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Tips for combining antiques with modern pieces in your home

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Classic furnishings and extras can add character, authenticity and a contact of sentimentality to any house. Reusing outdated pieces is also much more eco-helpful than getting new. It is no speculate secondhand pieces are getting a second.

“There’s often a way to tell a story in your residence, and which is what classic items deliver,” states Heather Disabella, an interior designer in the District. “That’s exactly where you can be special and different and established your self apart from your neighbor’s residence.”

Lorna Gross, an inside designer in North Bethesda, Md., agrees. “Some people today say they really don’t like antiques. I believe there is an antique period for everyone,” she suggests. “Everyone thinks of antiques as tremendous ornate baroque and Renaissance, gold and heavily carved. All those in proportion do the job for some, and then for other individuals, they like the cleanse lines of mid-century or art deco.”

But how can you include more mature pieces in your property with out creating it experience like a fussy and dusty antique keep or a disjointed mishmash of kinds? We spoke with structure specialists from the D.C. area about how to blend previous and new to get a glance that is harmonious and displays your unique design.

To make sure you are making extra harmony than discord when mixing intervals and kinds, hold the significant photo in brain. “It’s hard for people today, due to the fact they are approaching it 1 product at a time and not how all the goods play collectively,” says Lisa Shaffer, owner of the D.C. style business Lisa & Leroy.

A eyesight board can aid you see how present-day parts seem when paired with something older. Disabella recommends making use of Google Slides to compile own snapshots and images pulled from internet websites.

Antique and classic income have soared, thanks to offer chain concerns

It is also critical that the antiques communicate to the vernacular of the dwelling. “The architecture of the house need to be influencing the inside design and style,” Shaffer states. If it’s a change-of-the-century construction, consist of furnishings and decor from that period, but never go overboard produce a combine. For instance, Shaffer enjoys pairing classic eating chairs with a new table, or vice versa. “The rigidity concerning the two can make this sort of desire,” she suggests.

To get started, Shaffer suggests, decide on two eras that you really like, then mix in pieces from people intervals with your current furnishings. She likes combining items with modern postmodern strains and people with intricate elements to create contrast.

You really do not want to lay it on far too thick, although, and make your dwelling experience disjointed and chaotic. Your eye will not know in which to go if you have as well quite a few assertion pieces competing for your consideration. Disabella says there should be at least a person ingredient of classic in just about every place, producing a focal stage. “If there is far too a lot of of those people matters, it’s not particular any more, and then it is just a home filled with junk,” she claims.

Gross usually takes a mathematical approach when blending designs, so she strikes the right equilibrium. To begin, she endorses making use of a 90/10 or 80/20 ratio of new to previous. “I never exceed a 70/30 mix if I want that space to surface contemporary and current,” she suggests.

Sticking to a cohesive shade palette also will help marry the previous and new, Gross states. For circumstance products, these kinds of as dressers, bookcases and buffets, that indicates creating sure the wooden tone and stain are in the identical spouse and children. For upholstery, go over sofas and chairs in a cloth that relates to the area. “That’s the way to pull it in and give it a sense of belonging,” she suggests.

And even though loved ones heirlooms have sentimental benefit, they might be challenging to include if they really don’t healthy your type. In that circumstance, Gross suggests reimagining the piece. If it is a buffet, she suggests, best it with modern objets d’art, candlesticks or ginger jars, or update the components with a little something a lot more fashionable. “Put [something new] on a piece that is 150 many years old, and then it’s introduced up to latest periods,” she claims.

Shaffer likes to use classic buffets, dressers and nightstands when furnishing clients’ residences. She significantly gravitates towards pieces marked by notable designers and suppliers — such as Henredon, Hickory Chair, or Milo Baughman for Thayer Coggin — due to the fact that shows high-quality design. “I want it to past a different 50, 60, 100 yrs,” she suggests.

If you are not ready to commit in more substantial products, begin small and layer in items as your funds lets and as you get a feeling of what you like. Rugs, artwork, ornamental objects and accent household furniture (imagine side tables) are excellent beginning points.

For extras, Shaffer favors little assertion items, these types of as Stiffel lamps and brass candlesticks. Gross enjoys accent tables, particularly a excellent martini table. And Disabella likes chairs. “One of the least complicated issues is a awesome chair, irrespective of whether it be some old eating chair or one thing straightforward with a good, weathered glimpse to it, due to the fact a chair can be utilised in just about any room as an accent or a plant stand, or in a visitor space as a spot for baggage to be set on,” she states.

Some furnishings are very best bought new rather than classic, although. Antique upholstery, for instance, can be difficult to get the job done with. A new sofa with company cushions and pristine fabric outshines an old, dusty, worn-in couch that smells like mothballs. “A great deal of men and women struggle with upholstery,” Shaffer says. “You have to do a little something with it. They’ll choose a classic sofa and set a really historical pattern on it, and then they get caught.”

Antique lighting, while gorgeous, also can be complicated to do the job with, for the reason that it may well need some elbow grease and rewiring to get it working again. But when you uncover a good piece, it can be value the work. Gross fell in love with the bronze and frosted glass on an octagonal artwork deco fixture created in the 1930s in France. She had it replicated, so she could use it in a space in which she needed a lot more than one particular fixture. “The layout was so fantastic, and I couldn’t obtain nearly anything out there like it,” she states.

In the finish, it’s all about locating all those types of parts: the types that you link with on a deeper stage. “Have enjoyment and delight in the hunt, and there is no completely wrong choice,” Disabella says. “If some thing speaks to you, that is all you need to have, and you work all-around that and determine out how to make it sing.”

Marissa Hermanson is a writer in Richmond.

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Tips for designing your home slowly, over time

If television reveals have you convinced that a journal-ready household can be reached in a snap, professional designers will quickly rid you of that notion. “There is this fantasy of an HGTV-model expose, walking into a house which is 100 per cent carried out — possibly by you or a decorator — but in fact, that occurs for quite several,” states Colleen Simonds, a designer based in Pittsburgh.

And, genuinely, who desires a place that seems as if it was assembled all at after, giving furniture showroom vibes? Simonds and other designers concur that thoughtfully curating a place around time yields more enjoyable outcomes. So never treat the approach like an item you need to have to cross off your checklist. Resist the urge to have your residence — or even a home — accomplished. As an alternative, embrace the idea of letting the house evolve slowly, which may perhaps maintain you from getting regrets afterwards.

Will need assistance acquiring begun? We spoke with many design pros about how to just take your time when decorating, which include crucial pitfalls to steer clear of. The experts also weighed in on no matter if impulse purchases at any time do make sense — and what to take into consideration in advance of having that 1-of-a-variety classic locate home.

Make a program. Building a style system is an crucial portion of planning your place for purchases you may make later on, says Karen Rohr, an interior designer with Mackenzie Collier Interiors, which operates in both of those Phoenix and Portland, Ore. “Planning and not speeding your selections is vital to a successful aesthetic in your interiors,” Rohr says. “If you’re accomplishing things on your own, you need to treat the undertaking little by little and feel about all the small matters right before starting off to order, as you’re your possess designer.”

This signifies holding format, colour palettes and spending plan major of mind, she suggests. “As your space arrives jointly piece by piece, it will start out to truly feel like a reflection of who you are, which can make for the finest intentionally developed home.” Battling to define your design and style? Reflecting on your passions and passions may well supply worthwhile perception. Rohr asks consumers about their most loved pastimes, journey activities, musical artists and much more to assemble inspiration.

How to locate tender, absorbent towels that will final for several years

Designers concur that massive parts these kinds of as sofas, beds, chairs and rugs need to choose precedence. “These are generally the assertion pieces that carry a place, since they’re big and focal,” Simonds states, so let their materials and textures to establish the course for the remainder of the room.

Buying swatches is valuable for assessing textiles and may even inspire the creation of a temper board, claims Ashley Ross of Muse Noire in Charlotte. Making a spreadsheet with sought after things and their price ranges — a thing you can reference while shopping — can also aid you hold monitor of what you have and what you want.

Investigate distributors. When it comes to picking home furnishings, designers say to fill your home with items from a number of stores, relatively than from a person or two locations. “Matching sets are not attractive,” Simonds says. “Rooms need to have mixed-up aspects to really feel alive.”

For instance, acquire nightstands from a various retailer than in which you purchased your headboard, she states, and get aspect chairs from a organization other than the a person that bought you your sofa. Also consider introducing a storied piece to every single place. “Every home really should have at the very least just one classic piece, reworked or not,” Simonds states.

Moreover, exploring several suppliers — fairly than filling up an on line buying cart and contacting it a day — can be a monetarily sound strategy. “Taking the time to help you save up for quality purchases operates when you have a program and eyesight for your dwelling,” claims Maggie Stephens, a designer on Bainbridge Island, Clean. “Better to spend in perfectly-built parts that you’ll have for decades than particleboard that breaks subsequent time you move.”

Thoughtfully acquire components. Designers are also deliberate about attaining add-ons and other compact products. New York designer Isabella Patrick picks up quite a few of her scaled-down items although traveling. “Pillows, frames, trays, candles and scaled-down sculptures are so functional, and the proper assortment have to be carefully curated in excess of time,” she states. “I would say that 90 p.c of our artwork and add-ons have a tale powering them.”

Simonds agrees that accumulating distinctive objects is an ongoing course of action. “Most people aren’t born with instant collections,” she claims. And it doesn’t have to be a highly-priced process. Attempt displaying framed children’s artwork, publications and publications, she states. “Instead of dashing out to obtain all new items, imagine about what you previously have that can deliver persona to a area.”

Verify your impulses. As considerably as designers believe that in decorating a dwelling more than time, they understand that it can be tempting to make an impulse obtain, irrespective of whether you’re searching an estate sale or traveling to a beloved secondhand shop. But limit by yourself to items that are “somewhat useful,” Patrick claims. A set of chairs could be fantastic for a living area or office room. Artwork, on the other hand, is trickier, primarily if it is vibrant or large.

Ahead of you acquire household products on a whim, Patrick states to visualize where by the piece will in shape in your house — the more alternatives, the superior — and to figure out why it appeals to you. “If it’s unconventional and that drew you to it, is it as well odd? Or is it special, a conversation starter and a little something that will deliver you joy?”

Sarah Lyon is a freelance writer and stylist in New York. Uncover her on Instagram: @sarahlyon9.

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Interior design tips to add vibrant touch of elegance to your current home decor

Decorating your private room is 1 of the greatest methods to are living your passion for house decor and accents and we all make attempts to produce a living house that delivers calmness, peace and appears inviting for guests. Rejuvenating your property decor from time to time is a excellent notion to preserve energetic and pleased surroundings and interior designers believe that each individual time it does not have to be some fashionable glittery touch!

In an interview with HT Life style, Mohit Bansal, architect and inside designer from Chandigarh, encouraged, “You can usually go for the vintage classic ideas that are standard but offer a chic aesthetic search to your interiors. Your individual place genuinely defines you but there is this continual urge to incorporate some thing stylish into property decor that blends in with your concept and seems to be advanced. Bling is in fact trendy but it doesn’t get the job done each individual time although! Just one need to put sizeable believed into what their own place really should glance like. A vivid contact of elegance actually uplifts the total ambiance and will make a stylish design statement among the people.”

He outlined some of the finest thoughts to elevate your present home decor state of affairs:

1. Fill empty corners: Start out with corners! If focus to detail is your mantra, then you ought to not skip vacant spaces and corners whilst decorating your house. It is an great way to incorporate vibrant colors and make your put search joyful. Fill in the vacant boring corners with decorative accents, paintings, art, or other goods. This exercise will provide a satisfying look to your household and vanish absent all the boredom.

2. Aesthetic lights: Sure, lights plays the most critical position in your dwelling decor. You can’t even think about dim and dark lighting, specifically for a area where you spend most of your tranquil time. Wonderful lighting accents like lamps, lanterns, candle holders, etc will have to be displayed to manage correct mild that not only can make your house decor appear wealthy and elegant but also adds to the peace quotient of the surroundings.

3. Seating preparations: The residing room and other seating arrangements of your dwelling need to give an aesthetic appeal. The sofas, chairs, & dining desk must be organized in a stunning way such that it elevates the entire ambiance of your interiors and glance promising primarily when you entertain your friends or any people. The use of colors, textures, materials and other dwelling decor accents in these spaces will enable you generate an elegant appear.

4. Balconies: Adorn the balconies at your dwelling even if you have a compact 1! Make investments time in planting some botanicals, introducing colourful vases, grasses, and pampas to develop a lively botanical backyard garden and take pleasure in the sunny afternoon in winter. Shell out some ‘me-time’ although sipping your favored beverage and love peaceful vibes in your balcony region.

5. Partitions: Do not fail to remember about the partitions! Decorating walls of your property decor is the finest way to mirror your persona and showcase your interests as very well as likes in a innovative way. Adorn your favourite wall arts, photographs, and accent pieces, and splash a wonderful pop of color into your interior palette.

If you are looking for decorative accent concepts to include into your latest house decor, here are 5 ideas:

1. Vases: Vases made of supreme high quality product and embellished with special designs are perfect to fill in the empty spaces or even display screen as centerpieces in distinct spaces of your home decor. Different measurements and themes of ceramic vases are excellent to increase elegance to the ambiance. Tall ground vases also look gorgeous when displayed in close proximity to entrances, in balcony locations, or on staircases.

2. Lamps: Designer lamps are perfect to liven up different corners in your property decor. With aesthetic light-weight slipping out of quality lampshade cloth and quirky silhouettes, these function beautifully as purposeful accents. Easy to manage and set up, these are just the appropriate accents for your bedroom, residing space, or hallways.

3. Wall art: Special wall artwork items like paintings, vector art illustrations, ornamental plates, items, canvas artwork, and so forth are ideal to include an additional dash of coloration to your home decor. Vivid hues when combine-matched appear spectacular on partitions and give a spectacular grandeur.

4. Crockery: Upgrade your kitchenware and dinnerware collection by incorporating attractive crockery pieces like brass plates, bowls, trays, etc. that establish to be highly practical, medically accredited metallic, and search luxurious as well. Soon after all, your kitchen area warrants to have an update!

5. Bouquets and botanicals: When in doubt, in which to begin from? Usually go for dried flowers and botanicals. These are very long-lasting products that increase a aptitude of vibrancy and uplift the elegance quotient of any space. Attractive dried flowers, grasses, and large pampas adorned in ornamental vases search gorgeous and elevate the entire vibe of your living area.

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Tips for landscaping in the shade in West Texas

Finding tough plants that don’t need a lot of water can be especially hard for shady yards in West Texas.

The summertime warmth is scorching, and those with big shade trees in the landscape are undoubtedly enjoying the address that the canopies deliver, lowering electricity expenses and assisting to hold the residence and garden cooler. But landscaping in the shade can be tough – turfgrass does not expand effectively in shade, and there are many common landscape plants that will need full solar to thrive and bloom.

Some of the significantly hard spots involve the north facet of the residence, the heart of big are living oak trees, or slender sides of the property among a tall fence and the home. In these scenarios, it’s greatest to pick plants that are significantly properly-tailored to shady ailments and steer clear of turfgrass. Are living oaks have thick canopies, and usually the garden thins out or goes bare around the trunk of huge are living oaks – even shade tolerant St. Augustine grass. Take into account no matter if it could be possible to create a mattress all around the trunk with a groundcover like Asian jasmine or mondo grass.

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Learn some landscape design tips from our Pearl River County roadsides – Picayune Item

By Patricia Drakett

Director of the Crosby Arboretum and

assistant extension professor of landscape architecture with the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

On my journeys throughout Pearl River County in recent weeks, it’s been a delight to observe the developing perennials and grasses. Although I enjoy the emerging spring wildflowers, these more delicate blooms can “melt” with warmer weather, so I admit I sometimes look forward to hot summer days and the correspondingly more robust roadside displays that show up later in the growing season.

Don’t get me wrong, those delicate spring flowers will bring an awesome sparkle of color to your landscape, make an attractive if short-lived bouquet on your bedside table, and their fragile nature makes them especially nice for pressed flower projects. But as I write this, I’m looking up from my laptop at an arrangement of swamp sunflowers, sugarcane plume grass, panic grass, and ladies’ hatpins from the south pitcher plant bog that have been sitting in a vase on my kitchen table for several years.

When I say “robust”, I mean “durable” – summer blooms tend to have larger and thicker petals, and I suppose they need to be since they have the hot, blazing sun to contend with.  They will still dry nicely in pressed flower arrangements, even though they are a wee bit lumpier.  But even after a few years in a vase, the yellow petals on my dried swamp sunflowers still qualify as gorgeous.  Their low-care nature certainly fits my lifestyle, and it’s hard to improve on imperfection, as they say.

Drinking in a crazy quilt of color and texture so expertly woven together by Mother Nature on my drives is an enchanting experience, and it inevitably reminds me of my earlier years spent in college studying landscape architecture. During the intensive classes where we learned to produce aesthetically pleasing planting designs, we’d be sequestered at our studio drawing tables for weeks on end.

Eventually, we’d feel the need to emerge for some fresh air and decide to take a drive down the nearby country roads. Through eyes and minds that had only recently been constructing designs according to established design principles and rhythms, we would always be dumbstruck by the perfection we saw unfolding along the roadsides. How could our own attempts possibly improve on the beauty of these glorious natural patterns? The plants we observed were occurring in specific locations based on their habitat preferences, and the patterns resulted from such environmental factors as soil moisture or type, available sunlight, or the slope of the land.

Surely at some point in your own travels, you’ve remarked, “Oh, isn’t that pretty,” in response to certain roadside sights, blooms or landscape patterns. By learning to identify the plants you consistently see, you can learn about the habitats they prefer, and maybe even discover a few low-maintenance additions to consider for your home landscape!

If you’ve never visited the Crosby Arboretum, we urge you to make plans to come explore a marvelous place that is revered and respected throughout the country by the public gardening world. It has the potential to enrich your life – and your gardening methods – in so many ways!

Join us for “Designing a Pollinator Garden” program on Saturday, July 9 from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. to learn how to create gardens that attract and sustain pollinators. These low-care landscapes can come alive with movement, save you time and money, work with ecological processes, and contribute to local biodiversity. Spend more time appreciating your garden, and not laboring in it with Arboretum Director Pat Drackett. Members free, and $5 for non-members.

Sign up for the “Introduction to Birding” walk with birding enthusiast Jessica Martin on Saturday, July 16 from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.  Learn tips and resources and equipment available for beginners and others, in addition to common species of birds found in the area. Cost is $2 for Arboretum members and $7 for non-members.

Attend the Wire-Wrapped Jewelry Workshop on Making a Pendant with jewelry maker Connie Boyd of Unique Stones on Saturday, July 16, from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.  Learn how to make a beautiful handmade pendant wrapped in Sterling Silver. The program cost of $70 and includes a chain, tools for use, silver wire, and your choice of a semi-precious stone paid directly to the instructor on the day of the workshop by cash or check. More precious stones such as turquoise will be available for a little more if desired.

Please call 601-799-2311 to sign up for programs and reserve your spot (pay upon arrival). Form more information see our website calendar at http://crosbyarboretum.msstate.edu/ or visit our Facebook page. The Arboretum is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday and is located at 370 Ridge Road in Picayune, at I-59 Exit 4. Leashed pets are always welcome.