Huntington Highlight: Gardening With Flair

On Thursday, hosted Succulent Gardening with a Personal Touch with speaker Alice Stiles, a gardener who's known for the interesting and somewhat whimsical personal touches she has added to her home landscape. 

Although she landscapes mainly with succulents, Stiles' yard art features dozen of native plants and several varieties of flowers as well as demonstrates a variety of landscaping and gardening styles. 

Thinking outside the flower pot, gardener-in-chief Alice Stiles has devoted a lot of time to her garden and has incorporated objects found around her community to add a distinctive flair to her house. Without spending even a cent on gas, the Pasadena resident remembers asking her "poor husband who had nothing to do with the yard" to help her carry a giant boulder she found six blocks away to their home. 

"I told my poor husband, 'I found this big rock about six blocks away and I really want it. I think I can paint our house number on it,'" Stiles said in laughter.

Throughout the yard, laid bricks and other rocks act as pavers and parade visitors up to the front door. However, it was later when Stiles decided to repaint her house that she saw the opportunity to design the home of her dreams; a house that changes color with the conditions of sunlight. 

"I decided that I wanted to paint my house to match the cover of an Arizona magazine which showed an adobe house that changed colors as the sun rose and set," Stiles said. 

Week after week, Stiles tried different colors of paint and tones until her whimsical and dreamy house was activated by the reflection of natural light. Stiles home' continued to change beautifully through various spectrums of color and her creativity set the tone for the rest of her front yard. 

The retired Pasadena resident welcomes visitors of her community with an impressive warmth, spirit, and elegance. 

"People screech to a halt to see it. I love taking people through my garden. Any time any day, I'm retired I see people on the lawn in the front yard and I run out," Stiles said. "They get startled and I tell them, 'Stop, I'll take you through. I love visitors. You're all invited. Day or night.'"

Stiles is understandably proud of her house and the work she has done to it. To this day, Stiles remembers her favorite house visitor, a two and a half year old little girl. 

"She had black hair below the hem of her little skirt. I was in the window. She didn't know I was in the window," Stiles said. "I had a full view of her. She pulled up both her arms and looked around and around and around until her mom said, 'You like that house?' and she replied, 'Oh yes mommy I love this house. It's beautiful.' To this day its the nicest most heartfelt and unpretentious compliment I've ever gotten on my garden," Stiles said close to tears.  

After attending the Garden Talk, I was convinced that Stiles' garden full of whimsy was a landscape I had to see for myself. I wasn't disappointed. The riot of color was even more beautiful in person. 

If you'd like to visit Alicia Stiles' whimsical garden for yourself, it is located at 320 S. Craig St., Pasadena.