Text by Vicki Ingham / Photography by Mac Jamieson and Sarah Arrington
The Cornay’s Country-French garden blooms with legacy plants from two families in a fragrant and colorful celebration of heritage.
It takes a special kind of person to appreciate inheriting a 100-year-old peony bush, but Dr. Cornay comes from a long line of plant enthusiasts. His maternal great-grandmother was so fond of a particular Old-English-style rose that she packed a few cuttings in her bags when she emigrated from France. His father’s aunt was a founder of the Louisiana Iris Society and creator of the Katherine L. Cornay iris. So when Cornay and his wife, Elizabeth, inherited her grandmother’s house and garden, he was more prepared than most to appreciate the property’s wealth: a collection of perennials and native Alabama plants that Elizabeth’s grandparents had lovingly developed for some 50 years. Today, confederate jasmine and climbing roses frame the doors to the house and fill the air with a heavenly scent in spring and summer.
Korean boxwoods define a knot garden, accented by a 200-year-old French garden sculpture and roses from the Cornay family home. In addition to building a new house on the site, the Cornays embarked on creating a larger garden that would integrate the old plants with new ones. It would also feature flowers and shrubs from his family home in Lafayette, Louisiana. With the help of landscape architect Jane Reed Ross, they created an informal Country-French-style garden designed for strolling.
These roses are the descendants of cuttings that Dr. Cornay’s great-grandmother brought from France in the late 1800s, and they are now ancient themselves: the base of one trunk is 12 inches in diameter. Following in his great aunt’s footsteps, Cornay has hybridized a Louisiana iris of his own. He also propagates the now hard-to-find Katherine L. Cornay iris, as well as his great-grandmother’s rose and the century-old peony, which his wife’s ancestors brought from Missouri.
Old-English-style roses that have grown for generations at the Cornay family home in Lousiana now bloom in Cornay’s Alabama garden.
The garden is also designed to be appreciated in all seasons—and at all hours. As a physician, Cornay often doesn’t get home until after dark. “I wanted things that would show up at night,” he says. Abundant plantings of white and pale pink flowers and flowering shrubs ensure that even when the moon is just a sliver, the garden has an ethereal glow.
The rootstock of this peony is probably 100 years old, says Cornay. His wife’s great-great aunt brought it with her when she moved from Missouri to Alabama. He views these flowers as his inheritance, and to keep them from being lost, he roots cuttings and divides rootstocks and gives them to friends, family, and a nearby convent for their gardens. He says these family treasures are best preserved when they’re shared.