Back in April, work took me to Houston. While there, I stepped back in time with a visit to Bayou Bend, the formal estate garden of Houston socialite, art collector, and philanthropist Ima Hogg. The daughter of a Texas governor with terrible baby-naming skills, Ima shouldered the burden of her unfortunate moniker while fending off rumors of a sister named Ura.

Ima and her brothers built a blush-pink, classical home in the 1920s on a 14-acre, thickety parcel in the new neighborhood of River Oaks. Ima began work on the gardens immediately, planting Southern stalwarts like magnolias, crape myrtles, camellias, and azaleas and choosing Greek muses as themes for three of the gardens.

Ima eventually became sole owner of the house, and she never married. In 1957 she donated Bayou Bend and her collections to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The River Oaks Garden Club has kept the gardens going since the 1960s. In 2001 they instituted all-organic garden care.

Clio Garden

You enter the garden by crossing Buffalo Bayou, a broad, muddy creek, on a bouncy suspension bridge — a concession to Ima’s neighbors, who didn’t want visitor traffic on their quiet streets. The bridge transports you into another world, far from the busy city all around you. You step into the serene, green Clio Garden.

A white statue of Clio, muse of history, holds your gaze amid dozens of boxwood globes. Azaleas in parterre beds must be colorful in March, but by mid-April the garden was simply emerald green.

Terraced lawn

A graciously terraced lawn steps down from the colonnaded back of the house to a reflecting pool and statue of Diana below.

Diana Garden

Diana the Huntress and stag stand out against a staggered yew hedge, the large reflecting pool in front.

Diana reaches for an arrow in her quiver, while behind her, a modern tower looms over the frozen scene.

Heading around the house, I admired an enormous Southern magnolia in bloom.

Fuzzy-capped buds and glossy leaves

And then, ka-pow! A fragrant, waxy white blossom.

A lime-green anole rested nearby.

Euterpe Garden

Euterpe, one of the nine muses, glows against a curved yew hedge.

The goddess of music, she holds a small horn.

A scaly pine soars skyward.

Brick-and-gravel steps fringed with monkey grass lead to…

…a small terrace, where an iron birdbath and perching frog greet you.

East Garden

An octagonal fountain sprays a mist of water in the East Garden, which reaches out from the side of the house.

Curlicued wrought iron frames a view of lawn, topiary, and fountain.

An iron wall planter clasps pots of trailing ivy.

Woodland

Not all of the garden is formal. Naturalistic woodland occupies a good portion of the grounds, with walking paths and juniper-railed bridges arching over ravines and streams.

Another pretty anole

Ferns and monkey grass clothe a slope.

Butterfly Garden

One of the newer gardens is the formal Butterfly Garden, where a brick butterfly flexes topiary wings of boxwood and azaleas, which must offer a colorful view in early spring.

Iron benches are marked as being forged in New Orleans.

Wrought-iron shadows

And here’s Cupid, jubilant over his prize — a captured heart.

Cast-iron plant presses against a juniper stair rail…

…and adds broad-leaf contrast to a bank of lacy ferns.

Delicate white blossoms of mock orange brighten a shady path.

View through a gate

When Ima lived here, Bayou Bend was accessed via Lazy Lane, now one of the wealthiest streets in the River Oaks neighborhood. As I explored the estate’s driveway garden, I spotted a distinctive shape through an open-slatted gate of a neighboring private home. A spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, I was sure of it. Wow! I did a little investigating online and think this is the same Bourgeois spider displayed in Hermann Park in 2014. The headless, armless bodies standing in formation are the work of Magdalena Abakanowicz.

The other Bourgeois spider I’ve seen — and it’s a monumental one — is at Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. Once you’ve seen one, you sure notice when you spot another.

Bayou Bend house

But let’s turn our attention back to Bayou Bend. This is the Lazy Lane side of the house. Does the pink-and-green color scheme remind you of Monet’s garden home in Giverny, at least a muted version?

You can take a house tour, but I stuck to the gardens this time.

Bayou Bend may be an old-fashioned style of garden for our current era, but it’s a pleasant place to while away a couple of hours. Ima would no doubt be pleased to know her garden oasis lives on.

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Digging Deeper

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All material © 2024 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.