Flexibility has to rank high on the list of designer Paige McClellan’s professional skills, as the story of this spectacular contemporary residence will demonstrate. 

Leigh Walker confesses to being a gambler. She’s been hooked for over 25 years. Her addiction began in 1990, three years after she and her husband built their West County home. It started with just a few free plants provided by neighbors. The odds of those plants surviving were no safe bet. To illustrate the length of the odds, Leigh spins the tale of two broken pick axes, destroyed simply by trying to get a mailbox post planted in the rocky, clay soil. If the obstacles where that forbidding to a tough metal spike with some manpower behind it, what chance did tender plant roots have?

If you lack a green thumb but pine for a lush landscape, try one of these easy-going plants. SLHL asked local landscapers to share plants that are resilient.

Built in 1882, the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Linnean House is the oldest continuously operating public greenhouse west of the Mississippi River and is the only remaining greenhouse at the Garden that was built during Henry Shaw’s time. Designed by noted architect George I. Barnett, the Linnean House is named in honor of Carl Linnaeus, the “father of taxonomy,” a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who laid the foundation for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature.

One could not have a more knowledgeable guide to the Ten Crus, the distinct growing areas of southern Burgundy’s Beaujolais region, than the native son of a farmer and descendant of four centuries of wine producers – Georges Duboeuf.  

Exuding timeless glamour and telling a vibrant, historic tale, traditional rugs are shedding their age-old facade and finding their way into contemporary homes. Old World rugs have proved their versatility and unchanging charm by transforming from a conventional design staple into the perfect backdrop for modern décor. Their intricate patterns and pigmented color combinations, mixed with the simplicity and ease of cutting-edge design, flawlessly blend the elements of old and new style.