Home & Garden: Serene Sanctuary

Since 2004, Jim and Joy Rogers have enjoyed the quiet and artistic community of Indian Beach. The Rogerses had friends in Sarasota and liked what the area had to offer and wanted to be somewhere with a less chaotic feeling than Miami, where they had lived previously.

They bought a 1920s house and worked on refurbishing the home, but are still making additions and changes. When designing her dream landscape, Joy Rogers took into account not only what kinds of plants and trees she wanted to have installed, but also how the area would be configured.

“It reveals itself as you walk through,” says Joy Rogers, as she walks along a pathway from the front yard to the backyard. “There are surprises.”

When the Rogerses moved into their home, the landscaping only included grass and a picket fence. Now the vibe is more tropical with a sense of serenity.

There are 13 species of palm trees, 11 species of bromeliads, a wide variety of arid plants, orchids and ferns as well as a handful of staghorn ferns perched in the nooks and crannies of trees. Joy Rogers also has “vignettes” placed throughout, many of them featuring Buddha statues for spiritual and symbolic observation.

Additional unique features at the Rogerses’ home are visible at the front of the home. The small wall that forms a front porch is made out of coral rock quarried from the Florida Keys. It is decorated with creeping myrtle vine. Also, during Thanksgiving, Joy Rogers put mirrored mobiles and lamps in the branches of the two frangipani trees in the front yard. After the holidays, she left the decorations to add some extra charm and whimsy to her home.