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As one woman passed by their house she exclaimed, “Did you know that all of your flowers match your house perfectly?” The homeowners, Robert Wilson and Susanne Richert, couldn’t hold back a grin, as their choices of flower colors are completely deliberate. Only shades of pink, purple, lavender, maroon and cream are included in their garden. Orange, yellow, blue and red need not apply for inclusion here. “If this were my house, I would grow my hair long and become a princess,” was one little girl’s comment as she was passing by. A little boy echoed her sentiment by referring to the house and its gardens as a “fairy tale house.”
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Nestled in the Victorian Jersey Shore community of Ocean Grove, the house definitely looks like it could be included in a fairy tale story. The pink turret with lace curtains covering the windows topped with fringes of pink wisteria contributes to this vision. The three tiers of porches with window boxes of petunias and geraniums cascading over the side look like layers on an elaborate wedding cake. Several white wrought iron hanging baskets on the porches contain a profusion of fuchsias. Striped custom-made awnings over the porch, leaded and stained-glass windows, along with decorative details help to complete this princess-perfect home.
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The originally Italianate house was yellow and red when the current owners purchased it in 1998 and with concrete everywhere there was no room for a garden. Robert, an award-winning master gardener from Wilmington Delaware, quickly began to put into action his plan to turn this house into a Victorian home with a beautiful matching garden. He had a cone added to the turret to transform it into the Queen Anne style and painted the house pink, gray, and white with burgundy trim and accents. Caryatids, sculpted female figures used in Greek and Roman architecture, were added to serve as supports for the window overhangs, and decorative Norman stamped metal moldings, trim and ornaments were chosen to adorn the original stained glass windows and exterior walls.
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He removed the concrete around the house and added several loads of topsoil to begin the garden. Their goal was to have continuous bloom from spring through fall with colors in the garden complimentary to the colors of the home. They trained pink and lavender Japanese wisteria around metal supports above the porches and windows. It was a 7-year wait for the first wisteria blooms but the effect is spectacular. The racemes can eventually reach 24 inches in length. Several perennials provide the foundation plantings with staggered bloom times beginning in early spring including pink and white bleeding heart, bearded iris, astilbe, lavender, phlox, foxglove, delphinium, stock, butterfly bush, vibernum, and several varieties of clematis.
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Delightful fragrance was also a consideration in their flower choices, especially around the doors and windows. They chose a thorn-less antique climbing rose, Zephirine Drouhin, for its strongly fragrant cerise-pink flowers along with the large-flowered pink Mme. Gregoire Staechelin climbing rose which can grow to 20 feet. Various other tea and Rugosa roses are also included. Miss Kim lilacs provide a wonderful spring scent giving way to Clematis Montana in the early summer which provides a faint vanilla note. Fragrant large white Casablanca lilies bloom in late summer alongside the lavender. Pink, lavender and cream double tulips, which they plant annually, are replaced after blooming with summer annuals including geraniums, impatiens, and cascades of wave petunias which provide continuous color through until frost. A drip irrigation system is installed throughout the garden to provide consistent moisture and lessen the maintenance time as well as conserving water. Careful planning informed by years of gardening experience has resulted in a home truly fit for a princess with gardens that cause people to stop frequently to comment on their beauty.
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