Gardens Remembrance of Things Past
Back in 1926, noted landscape architect Florence Yoch created a multilayered garden on a third of an acre for Mrs. Irving Sturgis of Pasadena. Famous for her deft handling of space, Yoch oriented her design toward a mountain view and gave it formal lines, in keeping with Sturgis’ Normandy-style house, designed by the architecture firm Marston and Maybury. The result, which would be frequently featured in magazines, included a central lawn that drew the eye toward the rugged vista, a pair of English-style flower borders, a parterre with a fountain and enclosing orange trees, and a cutting garden, all framed within a whitewashed brick wall.
Seventy years later, in 1996, architect Chris Johnson and his wife Mary, a public relations executive, bought the house for its historic charm and leafy setting. Until then, they had never heard of Yoch, and their garden expertise was limited to potting impatiens.
They weren’t alone. Owners since Sturgis had let ivy smother the wall and invade one flower bed. The other flower bed had been replaced by lawn, and the orange trees were gone, along with the main path, which had led from the house to the parterre. Yoch’s low, clipped hedges had grown huge and out of scale, distorting her carefully drawn perspective.
Nevertheless, at first, the Johnsons were more concerned with the house, which immediately needed new wall and floor finishes, lighting, windows and other cosmetic fixes. Only after these were completed did Chris turn his attention outdoors. Conscious of his ignorance, he started small, reviving the cutting plot for Mary with the help of Sarah Raven’s book “Cutting Garden,” which became his season-by-season planting guide. He began with seeds--foxgloves, hollyhocks, larkspur and columbine--and was surprised to find he was quickly hooked.
Always interested in history, Chris searched for information on Yoch, her gardens and the plants she had used during her half-century career. He studied the original Sturgis garden plan in “Landscaping the American Dream,” the 1989 book on Yoch by her cousin, James Yoch, and developed a plant list based on her favorites. Gradually, Johnson set about restoring the garden’s character--replanting orange trees and flower borders, shearing hedges, redrawing paths and peeling away the smothering vines.
As he worked, he created his own plan, sketching changes and ideas over computer-generated images. But though he was careful to renew many of Yoch’s original details, he hasn’t slavishly copied her landscape. “The records,” he says, “are too incomplete. And there are different plants available now.” And of course, part of his newfound joy in gardening lies in the element of surprise. “Compared to buildings, gardens are wonderfully unpredictable,” reflects Johnson, whose Pasadena firm, Architectural Alliance, specializes in institutional projects such as libraries and gyms.
From Yoch, Johnson picked up some crucial pointers on evoking a false perspective by placing tall plants in the foreground and short ones in back. He also learned to create drama by arranging colorful annuals such as zinnias and Mexican sunflowers against an established border of green.
Such willing, yet ephemeral, blooms have been a godsend in helping Johnson learn to garden. “Like slow-motion fireworks, they come, they explode, they die,” he says, “leaving me to try other things. What’s constant here are Yoch’s good bones, and the way she thought about space.”
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Gardening’s Golden Age
One of California’s legendary landscape architects from the first half of the 20th century, Florence Yoch crafted gardens great and small. For Hollywood moguls such as Jack Warner and George Cukor, she designed costly Italianate estates that reflected her reverence for classical style. For less-flashy clients in Pasadena, Hancock Park and Orange County, she made the most of more modest lots, endowing them with layered views and seductive features--courtyards, fountains, places to lounge in the shade of trees. She also designed movie sets, most notably for “Gone With the Wind” in 1939.
Born in 1890, Yoch grew up in Santa Ana and Laguna Beach, where her father owned a hotel. She studied at UC Berkeley and Cornell, and in 1925, opened a design office with Lucile Council, her lifelong partner and companion. Together, the two frequently toured Spanish, French and Italian gardens. These inspired Yoch with their timeworn character and architectural grace, which she recast and adapted for California settings.
Famous for her emphasis on comfort, intimate scale and inspired detail, Yoch completed some 250 gardens between 1915 and her death in 1972. Though she lived much of her life around Pasadena, she spent her last years working and living in Carmel, amid the drama of native oaks and a view of the Pacific.
