5244 E Coralite Street
Long Beach, CA 90808Access: 70%
The first garden of this 1950 house was planted after a visit to Mary Lou Heard’s own country/cottage nursery in Westminster. Cut to 23 years later, and the gardens are a bit wild and wonderful. Wander through a romantic tangle of poppies, foxgloves, blue bachelor buttons, Queen Anne’s lace, larkspur, scented geraniums, delphiniums, clarkia, corn cockle and other old-fashioned cottage favorites. Mounds of sweet peas mix with fragrant wisteria to climb the front yard picket fence each May. Step through an English Eden Climber Rose entrance to a grapevine tunnel that leads to the backyard where Blushing Susan and Raspberry Smoothie vines drape wooden fences. Sawed-off tree stumps serve as tables for coffee cups, and swings are covered in quilts. A dozen David Austin Roses (Heritage, Lark Ascending, Royal Jubilee, & Bathsheba) along with the old Comte de Chambord Portland Rose perfume the air. Tucked here, there are drought-tolerant natives: purple sage, bright yellow milkweed, lacy white oak leaf hydrangea, fragrant incense bush, and a giant orange bell tree, all of which provide food for butterflies and birds. If you’re lucky you might even see the resident bunny hopping through the backyard.