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Relax, and get away - at home

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published March 31, 2006

OLD SEMINOLE HEIGHTS - If someone were going to make a movie about a botanist, Kathy Kuhlman's house would offer the perfect setting.

Kuhlman, who is in fact a world-traveling botanist based in Tampa, owns a jewel of a 1920s Mediterranean home high atop a hill overlooking the Hillsborough River.

Kuhlman's house is small and pretty in a nonshowy way, with a mosaic front porch, a barrel-tiled roof and plenty of room for her small, richly colorful gardens that feel like outdoor rooms.

The first time she laid eyes on it in 1990, it reminded her of the Spanish houses she had seen in Miami's Coral Gables, her favorite Florida suburb. Even better was the setting, a hilltop along a sleepy bend in the road with a leafy framed view of the river.

Inside, the house is decorated with the artistic eye of a true gardener and serious traveler. Deep blue tile kitchen floors, blue walls, and painted clouds floating over the ceiling in the loft bedroom/study create a sense of place far from Tampa Bay. Shelves of botany books, mounted butterfly collections, framed molas from Panama and photographs of her journeys through Costa Rica lure visitors to linger.

Kuhlman's two-bedroom, 1,150-square-foot house will be featured Sunday during the Eighth Annual Old Seminole Heights House Tour. The tour of this largely historic area showcases a variety of homes built from the 1920s through 1970s, including one built in 1942 by Melvin Jones, a blind man, whose masterpiece was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not.

The joy of such a tour isn't just the interior of a cared-for historic home. In some cases, it's the chance to peek into an urban garden, such as Kuhlman's, where she painted the wooden gates and arbors an intense bright blue - the color of the Aegean Sea. A neighbor's fat cat sleeps on the Mexican tiled porch, where blue wicker chairs offer a cool place to sit and read. Petunias, pansies and geraniums in big clay pots add to the fusion of color. Kuhlman also grows orchids and maintains the instincts of an alchemist when it comes to mingling her plants.

In fact, her garden feels a lot like a dinner party simmering with interesting guests: Angel trumpets, white birds of paradise and pink bougainvillea all hang out blissfully with hummingbirds, mocking birds and an eclectic assortment of garden ornaments. Outdoor dining areas and cafe lights provide a languorous setting for real dinner parties hosted by Kuhlman, a serious cook (right now she's experimenting with Moroccan recipes).

Like any house built in 1926, though, this one has had its share of challenges, Kuhlman says, including a sinkhole.

"As you can see, another roof leak,'' she explains, pointing to the ceiling. "And yes it's true, what can go wrong, will go wrong. But I really do love this house. It has soul.''

Through the oaks and hickories that mingle in Epps Park across the street, she can sometimes see bald eagles swooping down for a catch.

"The first time I set foot in the front yard, I looked across at the river and saw a manatee,'' she recalls. "And that was it.''

[Last modified March 30, 2006, 14:24:02]