Julie Newmar’s garden

Julie Newmar stands beside the rose named for her. “It’s like pale gold dipped in rubies,” she says, “and the scent of it is an 11 out of 10.”   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

A double-width chaise sits under a semi-fruitless olive tree. To the left, topiary boxwood and azaleas. At right, early summer blooming Peruvian daffodil and later summer blooming pink tropical Crinodonna lily.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Outside the bay window of her living room, a seating area underneath a vine-covered pergola is surrounded by roses, pansies and a potted Eureka lemon tree.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

“This is the plant hospital where begonias, herbal geraniums and orchids are recuperating,” says landscape designer Bradley James Bontems. The sign is a gift from Newmar’s mother-in-law.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

As seen from her front doorway, Newmar’s porch and front garden are elevated above her driveway, providing a perch to look at her grounds.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

In her west-facing frontyard, Newmar placed a sculptural metal chair amid a bed of one of the oldest varieties of Peruvian lilies and a volunteer clump of angelica (wild parsnip) with chartreuse flowers.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

This water feature, made from 17 types of stone and inspired by a visit to Bali, was created to “obliterate sounds I didn’t like from neighbors’ pool motors,” says Newmar, who designed it and surrounded it with euphorbia, dwarf pampas grass and a pencil tree.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

On the southern side of the house, Newmar installed an ornate iron gate that was once in her Manhattan penthouse and now is covered with a vigorous sky vine (thunbergia).   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

“Seated Woman,” a sculpture with long legs like Newmar’s (which were once insured for $10 million) sits among bluish green sheepdog euphorbia and fortnight lilies. To the right, a potted blueberry bush.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

“My wonderful son and I sit in front of the windows just before the crepuscule and watch what the birds and butterflies are doing,” Newmar says of this view from her kitchen.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Flanking an iron bench on Newmar’s brick-lined patio is a cluster of large-leafed Paul Hernandez begonias and potted red begonias and a ribbed pot filled with donkey tail succulents.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

A cozy window seat in her living room provides a composed view of ‘Camelliard’ delphiniums and climbing roses.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

A Pacific Giant hybrid ‘Camelliard’ delphinium.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

The rosa floribunda ‘Light My Fire.’ “The rose is the queen of all flowers,” Newmar says, “a woman of great sophistication who is drop dead gorgeous.”   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Among the playful elements in Newmar’s garden, a sculptural gecko that she says is “sipping water from a stone container that the neighbor cat also likes to visit.”

The bird of paradise Strelitzia juncea has leaves that are more reed-like than the commonly seen varieties.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

The viola called ‘Mulberry Shades.’   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Hybrid alstroemeria, commonly known as a Peruvian lily.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

In a shaded grotto outside her home office, Newmar grows orchids, including this white cymbidium.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

In pots on her front porch, Newmar mixes hybrid blue pansies with small sprigs of forget-me-not(myosotis).   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

The creamy hybrid tea rose ‘Marilyn Monroe’ has “the color of an angel’s thighs,” says Newmar.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

The stalks and flowers of heuchera ‘Silver Scrolls’   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Among her 90-plus rose bushes is the vibrantly colored rosa floribunda ‘Disneyland.’ “Whenever I get a roses catalog,” Newmar admits, “I’ve got to look at every page.”   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Ageratum houstonianum, an annual, sits at the base of a bearded iris plant.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

The David Austin English rose, Ambridge, is one of dozens of varieties in Newmar’s garden.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

A blue columbine hybrid.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

A bearded iris variety called ‘Lady Friend.’ “Did you know that the perfume extracted from the iris is the most expensive in the world?” Newmar notes.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

In recent years, Newmar has become enchanted with irises, like this variety called Mary Frances.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Julie Newmar cradles one of her favorite blooms, the hybrid tea rose ‘Yves Piaget,’ sometimes called rosa romantica. “It must have 150 petals,” she says with wonder.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)