“So many of my family members have a rosebush that grew from a cutting from my grandmother’s roses,” Cathy Taylor muses between sips of coffee in her backyard greenhouse. It’s the height of spring in small-town Farmersville, Texas, located an hour northeast of Dallas. Sunlight filters through antique glass panes, lavender and rosemary topiaries emit transportive tendrils of scent, and chickadees busily chirp in the background. “It’s one of those old-fashioned garden cluster roses—you never forget it when you see it.”
Like the thorny stems that have blossomed into thriving plants, Taylor and her daughter, Natalie Cross, have inherited and nurtured a wide array of homemaking talents from generations past—they are gardeners, designers, cooks, hosts, collectors, and antiques arbiters. “We have always had this great environment of do-it-yourself women,” Cross says. “I didn’t realize how special it was at the time, but they taught us everything.”
Collect Calling
Don’t let acquiring antiques intimidate you. Natalie Cross and Cathy Taylor teach you how to get started.
1. Read the Fine Print
Taylor and Cross are avid readers of all hobbyist books, including antiques guidebooks. “They are excellent resources for verifying the authenticity of pieces,” Taylor says.
2. Talk to The Experts
Vendors and store owners have done the research and “are passionate about what they do,” says Taylor, who notes that they can point out signs of a true antique, like numbers or markings.
3. Acquire Progressively
“The great thing about antiques is that you don’t have to go into debt for them,” Cross says. “Get them as you go along.”
4. Shop Smart
The duo’s top shops include Antique Company Mall in McKinney; Lots of Furniture Antiques Warehouse, Benny Jack Antiques, and Country Garden Antiques in Dallas; Main Street Antiques in Farmersville; and Round Top.
The two women’s interests merge to create paradisial escapes reminiscent of places they’ve visited on their frequent travels together. At the 1928 Kessler Park Tudor Cross shares with her husband, Scott, Queen Anne’s lace and bluebonnets frame a flagstone walkway, and newly blossomed jasmine climbs a fence. Her interiors are equally tranquil, with a gentle breeze and the pitter-patter of a water feature filtering through an open window. Cross and Taylor know how to set a scene—they are a rare mother-daughter combination, sharing both an aesthetic and the wisdom of the women before them. “We have a very special bond,” Taylor says.
“I drive a vintage truck—everything I love is old. These things give satisfaction and character.”
— Cathy Taylor
Taylor’s own mother cultivated the women’s deep love of organic gardening, teaching them everything from composting to growing heirloom roses. Cross’ late paternal grandmother, an antiques dealer, instilled an appreciation for age-old favorites and taught Cross and Taylor the foundations of design. “She had such a good mix of things in her house,” Cross says. “She didn’t fall into trends; she just liked what she liked. She would say, ‘Stick with what you love; then you aren’t constantly redoing things—you add layers to your aesthetic.’ ”
Today, Taylor’s and Cross’ bungalows both brim with antiques and vintage finds sourced over decades, beckoning guests to browse extensive collections of table linens, antique cabinetry, stoneware, baskets, and cheerfully reupholstered furnishings. The pair also share an affinity for cookbooks, gardening tomes, design books, oil paintings (including those painted by Cross’ late father, Mike), and vases teeming with fresh-cut bouquets.
“All of our collections have stories attached to them of a place or a person or a trip, which makes it fun and interesting,” Cross says.
The women tend to collect hobbies as effortlessly as bottles and bud vases. Cross enrolled in pottery classes in 2016, and at the nudging of a classmate, began selling her small-batch, hand-built spoons, platters, bowls, lamps, and vases at local pop-up shops and boutiques through her company, Your House Or Mine.
Taylor—a 40-year hairdresser who operated a salon in her home for more than two decades—is a seamstress who is always on the hunt for vintage quilting pieces. She is also revered for her cooking, making from-scratch recipes she draws from once-famed Farmersville restaurant The Red Chimney, which she owned with her mother and sister. (She is known to distribute her coveted homemade chocolate-chip cookies while shopping in Round Top.)
“So many in our family have a love of working with our hands, and I think we can credit that to the long history of artisans we have had,” she says.
The duo’s knack for making everything special is a gift that extends to gatherings. Taylor remembers an especially poignant lunch Cross served for her father just before he passed last August.
“We had a blue-and-white table theme. His favorite flowers were marigolds, so we put those on the table. The pottery, the colors of the flowers, and the linens—you remember those things. They impact us,” Taylor says. “We enjoy making things beautiful. We have had a fun life.”
Turn Over a New Leaf
Sage gardening advice from mother-daughter gardeners Cathy Taylor and Natalie Cross.
Start Small and with Good Soil
“Our clay soil in North Texas has to be amended,” Cross says. “Mix it with green sand and compost.”
Set the Framework
Incorporate evergreens for yearlong interest, and add iris at the back of your border. “They will multiply and fill in quickly,” Cross says.
Plant Wisely
“Buy seedlings for your first season; then try seeds,” advises Cross, who says zinnias and cosmos grow well from seed and thrive in our climate, as do roses. Adds Taylor: “Native purple coneflower, Shasta daisies, and native coreopsis return no matter the weather we’ve had.”
Go Native
“Redenta’s is a favorite of mine for seeds, seedlings, herbs, and native plants—they are the OGs for selling natives in Dallas,” Cross says.
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