Garden Design

A steamy bit of South America is flourishing in southeastern Pennsylvania with the opening of a new Cascade Garden by the Brazilian landscape designer Roberto Burle Marx at Longwood Gardens. The garden, which opened last week, features tropical plants, especially bromeliads, set amid cascading streams in a greenhouse roughly 40 by 50 feet at the western end of the 3.5-acre conservatory complex. The project was a collaboration between Mr. Burle Marx and Conrad Hamerman, a landscape architect in Philadelphia.

Ornamental grasses are like universal guests. They enhance any gathering because they can be stars on their own, yet make everything else around them more vividly interesting. "Ornamental grasses are beautiful mixed in a perennial border, are good in pots, and some make great specimen plants," says Monika Burwell, owner of Earthly Pursuits, a perennial and garden design company in Windsor Mill. Tall and graceful, or squat and spreading, they also whisper romantically, in even the gentlest breeze.

It's been snowing all day, falling hard out of the sky in huge, wet flakes, and now every twig and branch, every blade of glass is coated in white, turning Towson however temporarily into a landscape of magic.But Wolfgang Oehme, wander- ing around the edges of his garden, has his mind on spring."Do you know witch hazel?" he says, as if he's talking about a person he's about to introduce you to.He continues, without waiting for an answer, "Hamamelis . . . 'Arnold Promise.' Look at these buds.

Butterflies are welcome visitors to most gardeners. Choose the right plants, add some amenities and you can encourage them to stay awhile.For best results, select a place in your yard that receives full sun for at least six hours a day and has adequate drainage. If you don't have a yard, you still can have a butterfly garden -- just think smaller and plant your garden in a window box or container.For ease of maintenance, plan a garden that is no larger than 10 by 12 feet. Butterflies may be wild, but the plants aren't: They'll need watering and weeding.

To give a traditional dining room a new twist, interior designer Rhea Arnot looked down -- down to the cream-colored needlepoint rug under the double pedestal table. Her client had hired her to design a one-of-a-kind rug to replace it."My client is an artist and her home is traditional, but with a lot of contemporary touches," says Ms. Arnot, a partner in Arnot & McComas. "The dining room is really the most traditional room in the house. I wanted my design to look like it belonged in the house, but I wanted to add a real kick to the room."

Mission: To preserve, display and interpret the history of the Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis. A National Historic Landmark, the house was built in 1774 by architect William Buckland for patriot Mathias Hammond. With its ornately carved front door, formal rooms and gardens, the house is considered one of the finest examples of five-part Georgian architecture. The building and grounds -- a museum since 1926 -- are maintained by the Hammond-Harwood House Association. The collection of late 18th- and early 19th-century decorative arts displayed in the house features Maryland furniture and paintings, including portraits by the Peale family.

Outside, accessories can add structure, texture, drama and wit. Think of a bench beckoning at the end of a path, a statue semi-shrouded in foliage, a fountain bubbling on a patio, a gate that suggests more green delights beyond. "Ornaments are something that can really reflect your personality in a garden," says Inta Krombolz, who has spent nearly 30 years turning her 3-acre West Chester, Pa., property into an award winner. Ancient Egyptians accented their green spaces with pools, pergolas and trees in earthenware pots.

People love their dogs, but they also love their gardens, and sometimes it can be hard to reconcile the two. With some thought and work, gardeners and their dogs can both enjoy beautiful gardens. For the past nine years, Fran Kiesling, owner of Dirty Dog Landscape Consulting & Design Services in Minneapolis, has specialized in dog landscaping, or "dogscaping," to help dog owners and their pets have fun in the garden together. A good design solves the natural conflicts. "Figure out how people are using the space, then figure out how dogs are using it -- sometimes they overlap, and sometimes they are divergent," Kiesling says.

There's something strange that happens when you become a homeowner; a madness overtakes you. You could be a perfectly happy apartment dweller, carefree, unconcerned about the roof shingles over your head or the siding surrounding you. Sure, you notice some bushes and flowers outside your building, but you have no inclination to know what kind, no concern about how they are arranged.Buy a house and your mind is taken over by thoughts of entryways and how to improve them, yards and how to landscape them, walls and how to paint them.

What are the latest trends in home decor and design? Head to the Maryland Home and Furnishings Show in Germantown this weekend to find out. Hundreds of exhibitors will crowd the Discovery Sports Center at the Maryland Soccerplex to show and sell new flooring, lighting, window treatments, painting, roofing, siding, gutter systems, plumbing, kitchen and bath products and designs. There will also be home furnishings, fine art and accessories for sale. And on Saturday, Home and Garden Television's design expert, Libby Langdon, pictured, (host of Small Space, Big Style)