Wally Marx's massive garden is divided into outdoor rooms. There's a black and white garden, a knot garden, a Roman statuary garden, a temple walk and a garden designed after Monet's garden at Giverny. "There are between 12 and 20 garden rooms, depending on how you count," he said.
But his favorite is the Victorian rose garden, which is planted almost exclusively with roses -- hybrid teas, floribundas, grandifloras and Canadian climbers. In spring, his early-blooming roses are framed by trellises dripping with Blue Moon wisteria.
"The rose garden is my favorite, because it's the garden I sit in the most," he said. "That's empirical evidence."
Though he works in his garden every day, he claims that he's "not a slave to the garden. I try not to work more than an hour a day," he said "I want this to be a joy."
CONNIE NELSON
