Rosehill Gardens
Landscape Designer
Story by Judy Goppert / Sponsored Content
Rosehill Gardens is known for imaginative, unique landscape design by talented, experienced landscapers. One such landscape artist is Tom Hall, who is a shining star for them. The gardens featured here show of his ingenuity and passion.
A lifetime in the industry gives him a solid foundation.
“I started working at 16 for Earl May Nursery and Gardens Center in St. Joseph, MO. I learned a lot about plants and the art of landscaping from the Assistant Manager,” Hall explained. “Needless to say, I was hooked on this way of life. Being outside, talking about plants, landscaping fronts of houses and many local restaurants.”
At 22 he moved to Boston where he worked for a very large garden center. The owner at the time was host of The Victory Garden show on PBS! He then took the step to go work for a landscape company in the Boston area.
His history includes marriage, and a move to Houston where he continued to work for large landscape companies. In the early 90’s he returned home to work again for Earl May. He tired of retail, and decided to jump back into landscaping.
“I worked for all the big hitters in the KC metro as well as owned my own company, In 2017 I came to Rosehill and never looked back,” he smiled. “This company is owned by a landscape designer, who knows what it takes to do what we do.”
His love of landscaping extends to his vacations, where he walks garden centers to see plants in different regions. This lifelong passion is evident in these homeowners’ gardens.
He explained, “The homeowners were at the point in their home remodeling that she couldn’t stand the landscape anymore. When I met with her, the front of the house had four large blue spruce trees that totally blocked this beautiful home. In the back around the pool, they had very large Green Giant arborvitaes and large trees on the sides, which also blocked the home. We walked the property, and she told me she likes color year-round. A landscape that matches the house but does not block the grandness of it.”
She decided to do the landscape in sections and the Tuscan vibe was his guide. The large circle bed in front of the house was the most difficult part to landscape. With all of the drainage flowing to this island, drainage was placed under a ring of rocks, taking the runoff to the far property line.
“I did a boxwood section design in each section and created a color section in each. Both sides match, the front was annual color, and back was allium mass. The center of the bed is a mass of Sun Hydrangeas to give you full summer color,” he continued. “I wanted nothing to block the view from the house to the street and from the street to the house. The drive is long, and I wanted to focus on the entry. In the beds with the Taylor Junipers I put Dwarf Korean lilacs, this is one of her favorite plants. Great spring color and beautiful spring fragrance.”
The front of the circle bed is an annual color bed flanked on both sides of the circle drive with sunpatiens, summer long color until a heavy frost. This home is all about color.
“I told her when I get finished you will stop traffic!” he smiled. “The backyard pool area was phase three. It was totally overgrown, and I opened the backyard that overlooked the pond and their acreage and placed Evergreen specialty trees that do not get overgrown and will give privacy around the pool. Now the view is overlooking the pond with the fountain that gives you an estate feel. Large sweeping annual color beds are all around the pool.”
“This is one of my favorite jobs I have done, and we will be finishing it this fall. They are doing an addition on the north side and that will be finished by the summer,” he noted.
