The perfection of New Orleans springtime is our reward for scorching summers, the hurricanes we must dodge and sometimes frigid winters. It is at this time each year that our Southern Indica and Tradition Azaleas, both hardy Kurume hybrids that originated in Japan, burst into riotous bloom in shades of red, coral, pink, lavender, magenta and white, some as single blooms, others as semi-doubles.
The annual springtime display of azaleas fills the garden in March.
When celebrated landscape architect Rene Fransen, of Fransen Mills, designed a sprawling garden across two Uptown lots for David and Barbara Waller in 1997, six years after they bought the home, he conceptualized the space as a series of outdoor “rooms” with a central lawn and an adjacent swimming pool, rimmed in lush white azaleas to welcome the season.
Fransen has enhanced and modified the design over the years, redesigning the swimming pool with sultry dark blue tiles and addressing damage to some trees and the brick wall that encloses the property after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
David Waller, a retired sales executive with IBM, said the azaleas bloom reliably each spring between March 10-13. “We anticipate it every year,” he said.
Waller shares the home with his wife, Barbara Waller, a recently retired Laitram executive. They raised their two children in the home and now devote themselves to travel, golf and volunteer work.
David Waller serves on the board of directors of the City Park Improvement Association. Barbara Waller is a volunteer with Trinity Episcopal Church.
A storied history
The garden the Wallers established 31 years ago came to be on what was once a northwestern parcel of the Livaudais Plantation, which was subdivided in 1832.
In 1883, under the administration of Mayor Joseph Shakspeare, the city built the second incarnation of the Touro Almshouse for the elderly poor on the site, with a Danneel Street address, in what was then “the country” Uptown. In 1927, the almshouse was relocated to Algiers, as the Touro-Shakspeare home, and after 10 years, the Danneel Street property was declared an eyesore and demolished.
The land its campus once occupied — bordered by Joseph Street, Nashville Avenue, Danneel Street and Loyola Avenue — was subdivided into parcels, two of which became the Wallers’ stately, modified Georgian Colonial-style brick home and adjacent garden, built in 1947.
A wall of old hard-tan brick surrounds the 11,000-square-foot property in New Orleans.
The entirety of the Wallers’ nearly 11,000 square-foot property in the Audubon neighborhood is enclosed by a wall of old hard-tan brick covered in creeping fig. The iron gate that admits entry is bracketed by ligustrum bushes pruned into pyramid shapes and trimmed with low boxwoods interspersed by masses of Japanese holly ferns. Inside the gate, which opens onto a small brick courtyard, are plantings of japonica. The front of the house is punctuated by a row of sweet olive trees.
A brick path on one side of the courtyard leads through another low gate to reveal the expansive lawn, rimmed in Mrs. G.G. Gerbing azaleas underplanted with masses of agapanthus lilies that will bloom in the coming weeks.
At one end of the swimming pool, which spans half the lawn’s depth, is a pool house.
At the rear of the azaleas, Eagleston holly trees are planted along the interior of the brick wall. At one end of the swimming pool, which spans half the lawn’s depth, is a Japanese magnolia tree; at the other is a pool house.
Outdoor rooms, connected by pathways
The home’s living room opens onto the garden via two sets of French doors. The outdoor “rooms” are accessed via paths of both brick and stone pavers, many trimmed in masses of liriope spicata.
The rooms include a patio dining room furnished with an Asian flair, punctuated by a fountain of old brick designed by Fransen that abuts the rear of the brick wall enclosing the property.
Rene Fransen designe the garden at the Wallers’ home, creating outdoor rooms connected by pathways.
The dining area segues into the oldest of the garden rooms that Fransen designed for the couple.
This one has mature camellia sasanquas, some trimmed into tree forms; both boxwood bushes pruned into spherical shapes as well as low hedges; ligularia dentata; monstera deliciosa; a very mature Japanese maple tree; masses of Japanese holly ferns; agapanthus lilies; and an underplanting of bromeliads with spear-like, red new growth that contrasts pleasantly among the many shades and textures of green.
The garden is a peaceful, enchanting place, the old brick wall that surrounds it ensuring a sense of removal from the outside world.
“Four different couples, including two of our children, chose to be married here,” Barbara Waller said. “It really is a perfect place for so many things. And nothing at all.”
Jyl Benson writes about homes and gardens. Email her at [email protected].
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nola.com ’
