"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.

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