Pittsburgh Magazine's 2006 Spring Home & Garden Magazine Featured Longue Vue On The Cover And A Photo Essay Inside:

Story by Jonathan Wander
Photography by Richard Kelly

We're crazy. When these are among the first words from a man giving a tour of his beloved country club, you know he's passionate about what he's going to show you. Mark Vernallis is a member and dedicated volunteer at the Longue Vue Club in Penn Hills, and the particular subject of his passion is not the play on the venerable club's golf course or even its historic stone clubhouse. The subject is roses . . and magnolias and azaleas . .

Why does Vernallis say he and his committed colleagues are crazy? Because they devote hundreds of hours throughout the year planning, planting and caring for gardens that, frankly, some of the club's golf-focused members barely notice.

Many from around the nation notice, however, because Longue Vue has a reputation for being one of?if not THE?only club in the nation with such an outstanding horticultural display. Each year, in fact, the club receives calls from gardening mavens around the world who ask to stop by for a tour.

Vernallis and his team strive not only for beauty, but also push the envelope for rarity. "We want our gardens to be beautiful, but we also want them to be unique, truly special," Vernallis says. For that reason, Longue Vue features many plants not found at the typical local garden center. "We want people to see things they won't see in their yards, to see configurations of plants they wouldn't normally see," Vernallis explains. "Many landscape architects choose plants that they know will work and are hardy. But we don't want to be conservative; we want to push things to the edge."

Clearly, Vernallis' pride matches his passion, and his pride extends to those he works with. Lisa Wood is the club's head gardener and her husband, Mike, is the course superintendent, who, along with assistant Steve Poprocky, keeps the course and its environs in shape for perfect play and stunning display.

The fact that Longue Vue has a master gardener on staff is a rarity at golf courses. "We have five professional disciplines: turf-grass management, golf-course architecture, landscape architecture, arborist and master gardener," Vernallis says. "At a lot of golf courses, these disciplines would be in conflict with each other. We look at those five areas and make them work together."

An example of this is how the planning of each garden area is considered from several vantage points, not just from a frontal view typical of most gardens. Staff ask questions such as, "How does it look from a few yards away at the nearby tee? What about from a few hundred yards when standing on the green?" As a result, the club's colorful gardens look great from any angle and nearly any distance, with some beds 80 to 100 feet long.

"Lisa is a genius with color," Vernallis says. "Each year she develops new beds of annuals and brings new life to the perennials." Wood says the annual beds are changed every year. "The whole color scheme, the design, the look, the feel is dramatically different," Wood says. "We love the perennial beds, and we try to keep them and balance them. People have their favorites that they like to go see every year like they would old friends - it's a calming, welcoming thing."

Many Longue Vue members express their favorites to Lisa, but she has trouble choosing her own. "Every day is a treasure here. Seeing plants that are 12 inches one day and 18 inches the next. Plants that are supposed to bloom one color but bloom another, even better one. The scents from different plants at different times of day. And we all love working with Mr. Vernallis."

For Vernallis, his favorite times are spring and fall. Each month, however, the gardens offer a treat because they are designed to have something in bloom for the full stretch of the golfing season.

They're also designed with the future in mind. Longue Vue, which was given National Historic District designation by the Department of the Interior last May, is more than 80 years old and going strong, so Vernallis and his team aren't restricted by the need for instant garden gratification. "I love our English weeping yews, which stand out because of their dark- green, muscular look. People don't tend to plant these trees, though, because they take 10 years to mature. But slow growing is OK with us."

Years aren't always kind, though, and there is the occasional reminder that plants are living things that eventually die. At the front of the clubhouse stands a rare American elm, which is 130 years old. Its partner died just last year. American elms are rare because Dutch elm disease has destroyed most American elms in the northern part of the United States, and the club hires a local firm to do everything it can to protect the precious remaining tree.

"An expert in American elms from Boston was here and said this was one of the most extraordinary pairings of an American elm and architecture he'd ever seen," Vernallis says. The lost elm is being replaced by a Lacebark elm, which, according to Vernallis, "doesn't get quite as large and doesn't have the same dignity as the American, but it doesn't get the disease."

Some of the most beautiful gardens are not on the golf course but by the pool, the tennis courts and, especially, at the majestic clubhouse. Constructed from a design by Benno Janssen and Albert Taylor in 1925, the clubhouse features an English and french Norman style with touches of Georgian and rural French, and is constructed of foot-and-a-half-thick sandstone quarried just 1 1/2 miles away.

Longue Vue Highlights
At the rear of the clubhouse is the Pink Terrace, which is the stage for the most spectacular feature of Longue Vue - the long view across the Allegheny River and valley several hundred feet below. The Pink Terrace features Japanese snowbell trees, a sourwood tree, a large pink crabapple tree and longstalk hollies - a difficult-to-find variety planted at the club in 1920, not long after it was introduced to the United States.

Depending on the time of year, the terrace will be covered with white blooms or glow with leaves that are a shiny fire-engine red.

The Evening Garden, near the front of the clubhouse, is filled with yellow and cream-colored flowers that look luminesent under the golden light of dusk. The garden includes Buddleia White Profusion, honeycomb, dahlias, Casablanca lilies and White Nancy.

Not far away are Bracken's Brown Beauties - Southern magnolia trees that bloom with 6-inch cream flowers. "The trees were hybridized at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard in Boston, and the fragrance is breathtaking," Vernallis says.

On the first tee of the 18-hole, par-70 golf course, designed in 1924 by the legendary Scottish golf course architect Robert White, stands a perennial garden designed by Lindsay Bond Totten, president of the Botanic Garden of Western Pennsylvania. It includes Bear's Breeches, Powis Castle, Visions, Blue Indigo Baptista, Bath's Pinks, Ingwerson's Variety geraniums, Falso Sunflower and black-eyed Susan.

At the 13th tee, the White Garden includes oakleaf hydrangeas, Blue River II hibiscus, Snowbank Boltonia, White Profusion, Alpine Speedwell, Morning Light, ornamental grass and Gooseneck Loosestrife.

Longue Vue's large pond is highlighted by water irises and lily pads (with bullfrogs, of course), and resident bass, blue gill perch and visiting ducks. Nearby are white crabapple trees. "These are different from the standard white crabs you'll find at local garden centers," Vernallis points out. "Not only is the cut of the leaf different, but they bloom two weeks later in the spring, meaning the weather will be warmer and more golfers will be on the course to enjoy them."

And what about those golfers who may seem not to notice? Vernallis says the beauty reaches everyone at Longue Vue, even if it's not at a conscious level. "I was on the board of the Pittsburgh Zoo for a number of years, and one of the important lessons I learned there is if you have wonderful landscaping, people have a terrific experience."

Visitors to Longue Vue also get an educational experience, with Vernallis spending hours to write markers for each plant with its genus name, species name, common name and history.

"See what I mean about being crazy?" asks Vernallis, who, in his more sane moments, is co-founder and CFO of Logic Library Inc., a local technology firm, in Station Square. He is passionate about Longue Vue and the plans for the future. Vernallis and his team have a five-year plan for enhancing the club's horticultural beauty, and they hope the first step will be the addition at the 18th tee of an "architecturally interesting and unique" arbor-climbing garden with wisteria, roses and ornamental grapes, although this is not set in stone.

"The truth is that Longue Vue has been a part of me for 40 years," says Vernallis. "I grew up in the neighborhood; I caddied here; I shined shoes and cleaned clubs. I was one of the urchins in the community. So I have this wonderful connection and evolution here. I feel fortunate that now I'm a member and get to contribute to this truly beautiful place."

For more information about Longue Vue Club, call 412/793-2232 or visit them on the web.

Jonathan Wander is a regular contributor to Pittsburgh magazine's Home & Garden. His gardening and golf experience includes growing less-than-bountiful harvest tomatoes in a plastic pot and managing to hit the ball past the windmill on the third try (when lucky).