mid-century halloween at roger's gardens

Roger's Gardens in Corona del Mar, California has been selling their ridiculously over-priced gardening and home decorating goods to the citizens of Newport Beach for over 35 years. With their approximate location being less than five minutes from my home, I have been known to drop in. Especially around the holidays.

Intrigued?

Roger's is a true specialty garden center. On their website:

Roger’s Gardens is a destination home and garden store for those seeking creative ideas and unique products for outdoor and indoor living. The grounds at Roger’s Gardens are filled with beautiful foliage and flowering plants, fountains and designer pottery.

Now speaking of designer pottery ... (were we?) ... I have it on good authority that our GIANT pot that we got through the Landscaper, was from the same company that distributes to Roger's. And, I have to tell you it was a third of the price.

Roger's bread and butter are the holidays. They get a big head start usually. Their Halloween Blackstone Manor display opened late August 2012. And, they have plenty to decorate your mid-century McMansion. Even though the temperatures were in the 80's this weekend (please don't hate us for being warm), visiting Roger's gives us Southern Californians the fake feel of fall.

You may or may not quite realize, in Southern California you get NO FALL LEAVES. So we have to be satisfied with fake fall leaf wreathes. Boo. 

While taking pictures of fall, I was distracted by a bubbling pot. I apologize, I'll get back on topic.

Roger's has a, shall we say, a designer form of pumpkins. Although intriguing, these little sweeties will cost you. The Hollywood Star behind them says "In Loving Memory of Jerry Poster, 1937-1994, Star of Friendship." I'll have to get back to you on just who Jerry Poster is as the internet did not reveal (no disrespect intended).

Gross. Designer white pumpkins. DO. NOT. USE. THESE. Anemic and sick but perfect for a haunted house.

Entrance to Brookstone Manor looks decently spooky. Nice look of creepy succulents and grass that us lazy Southern Californians utilize liberally throughout our landscapes.

Now we get down to it. What can you buy to decorate your house for Halloween? Not very mid-century but sufficiently creepy. And these upscale Halloween decor items will set you back a buck or two. Pottery Barn prices for sure, plus a little. How about about one or two items every year for the next 20 years? Frankly, that was how I amassed Christmas.

The white decorated pumpkin is attractive.

Roger's sets out an AWESOME glass chandelier display for Brookstone manor. Not that I want one anytime soon, but I can certainly can appreciate a glass lighting fixture.

Creepy torsos. I don't totally get it but they are spooky.

Gratuitous skull or two, or three.

Typical party stuff.

Okay two pictures of this because it took some examination to understand. All the feet and hands are the green wicked witch. But too many feet. They are stuffed under a pillow. This display is made up like a bed. And the shadowy objects are bug shadows crawling back and forth which is a decent gross effect. But I think if you have to stop, pause and analyze, the spook factor gets a little lost.

Straight up pumpkin plates and tureens.

Remind you of anything? 100% ripped off from Disney's Haunted Mansion. Not that there is anything wrong with that. There is a candelabra floating back and forth at the end of the hall. Nicely done, actually.

Weird little critters to sit around a Pottery Barn house.

I like this stuff. Super expensive. 3 digits.

Can you see that the furry thing on the left is a screeching black cat? Of course I like it!

More stuff for the table. Look at the skull name card holders to the right. If my mom gave Halloween dinners she would buy these, FOR SURE!

The houses below are not small, both well over two feet high. Would certainly need the right space as they are too big for tiny mid-century moderns.

I kind of want these. Creepy china sets with bugs, snakes and birds. But honestly, we have a set of Christmas china that I never pull out. Lazy. Note to self: pull out Christmas china.

Leaving the house there was a display of creepy garden angels. LOVE.

And we are back. Pumpkins.

I really like this spooky backdrop. They wrapped ropes and some sort of black netting around lattice and sticks. Nice effect. 

This space is where Roger's does classes. They did a pumpkin carving one yesterday and recorded it.

Creepy owl display. Kind of mid-century? Yes?

Fountains! Yay! I like this one a lot. We have yet ANOTHER courtyard that I haven't revealed on the blog which is absolutely an overgrown mess (future project).  Our house, like certain kinds of mid-century homes, is a series of unconnected yard spaces. We don't actually have a back yard for example.

As I was exiting Roger's I wandered into a little workshop. With succulents. Dang, I wish I'd known.

The Roger's seminar attendees were making pumpkins filled with little succulents. It didn't appear that the succulents were planted in the pumpkins. The ladies seemed to be breaking off little parts and gluing the succulents in place over a bed of moss (I tried to spy but the camera gave me away and I had to scuttle along). Succulents will look good without water for weeks so this makes sense. Extremely cool little arrangement and very Southern California. 

A craft project! If I did crafts, I would be ecstatic.

Roger's Gardens is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. The shop is located at 2301 San Joaquin Hills Road.


Related Posts:

• Christmas in October
• The Great Christmas Tree Fake Debate