DENVER, Colo. $709,000

A 2,900-square-foot house with four bedrooms, two full baths and two partial baths on 0.1 acre in the Washington Park neighborhood

DETAILS: This Tudor home has a second story addition with two master suites and a laundry room. The private patio has a built-in gas grill.

SCHOOL: Steele Elementary School, which received a rating of eight out of 10 on GreatSchools.org, is the closest public school in this district.

FOR THE KIDS: There’s a tree house in an apple tree in the backyard, with a sandbox below. Washington Park is less than a mile away

FRIDAY’S FORECAST: Partly cloudy, high of 59 degrees.

SOURCE: Ronald Buss, Coldwell Banker Previews International, (303) 808-5390, ron@b2brokers.com

NEWCASTLE, Calif. $715,000

A 3,100-square-foot house with five bedrooms and four baths on 4.6 acres 30 miles northeast of Sacramento

DETAILS: This Tuscan-style home has a gourmet kitchen with custom cabinetry, granite counters, Travertine tiles, and two dishwashers.

SCHOOL: The closest public elementary school is Placer Elementary, which received a rating of nine out of 10 on Greatschools.org.

FOR THE KIDS: The tree house is nestled in an oak tree and has a window and a hammock inside. The property also includes a play structure, a pond, and a bonus room, and there’s a lake two miles away.

FRIDAY’S FORECAST: Chance of rain, high 60 degrees.

SOURCE: Leslie Griffith, Connect Realty, 916-899-0422, leslie_griffith@msn.com

PENNINGTON, N.J. $715,000

A 3400-square-foot home with five bedrooms and 2½ baths on about 0.4 acre.

DETAILS: This 1929 colonial has a 30-foot kitchen/family room, as well as a sunny music room and perennial gardens.

SCHOOL: The closest public elementary school is Toll Gate Grammar, which received a rating of seven out of 10 on GeatSchools.org and is accessible from a gate on the property.

FOR THE KIDS: A tree house was built by the homeowner, an architect. It has two levels and a canvas roof.

FRIDAY’S FORECAST: Sunny, high 52 degrees.

SOURCE: Catherine Nemeth with Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty, 609-462-1237, rine43@aol.com

—Marie C. Baca

HENDERSON, Nev.

$1.99 million

A roughly 6,200-square-foot home with five bedrooms and five baths, on 0.37 acre, about 15 miles southeast of Las Vegas

DETAILS: This two-story Mediterranean-style home, built in 2003, has a screening room and wine cellar in the basement and several fireplaces. There’s an inner courtyard, a pool and one-bedroom guest house.

RACK ‘EM: A game room on the second story opens onto a terrace and has a bar.

PUB FOOD: At Kennedy Tavern, three miles away, appetizers include calamari and ahi tuna chips.

FRIDAY’S FORECAST: Mostly sunny, high 81 degrees

SOURCE:
Florence Shapiro and Ivan Sher, Prudential Americana Group Realtors, 702-315-0223, Florence@lasvegasfinehomes.com; Realtor.com

SANTA FE, N.M.

$2 million

A 9,100-square-foot home with four bedrooms and four baths, on 1.1 acres near downtown

DETAILS: This two-story 1970s home, expanded and renovated in 2007, has mountain views and beamed ceilings. There’s a gym, wine cellar with tasting room and an attached one-bedroom, one-bath guest house. There’s also an inner courtyard.

RACK ‘EM: The game room sits between the main house and the guest house. It opens onto a patio and has several skylights.

PUB FOOD: Catamount Bar & Grille, about three miles away, offers nachos, wings and sliders, along with live music on some weekends.

FRIDAY’S FORECAST: Chance of rain, high 76 degrees

SOURCE:
Neil Lyon, Sotheby’s International Realty, 505-954-5505, neil@neillyon.com

ORLANDO, Fla.

$2 million

An almost 6,000-square-foot home, with five bedrooms and six baths, on more than a half-acre

DETAILS: This contemporary house, built in 1999 in a gated community, has golf-course views, 24-foot ceilings and a home theater. It comes with a pool and a dock on a canal leading to a lake. A 21-foot Tigé ski boat is included.

RACK ‘EM: The first-floor game room is currently set up with a pool table and a ping-pong table. There are canal views.

PUB FOOD: Vines Grille & Wine Bar, about three miles away, has live jazz every night and serves fries with truffle aioli and spicy lamb meatballs at the bar.

FRIDAY’S FORECAST: Chance of rain, high 90 degrees

SOURCE:
Ann Varkey, Re/Max Properties SW, 407-352-5800, annvarkey@earthlink.net; Realtor.com

—Juliet ChungPrinted in The Wall Street Journal, page W11A

“Task” lights have narrow job descriptions. They point, like pointers: goose-necked, spring-loaded, metal-headed. Wouldn’t you rather have a desk lamp? Hooped in a ring of warm light, shaded and soft, yet bright enough to read by, it can be a light fixture that’s part of the life of the room, and not just the desk.

Desk lamps don’t have much of a résumé: They were candles and then they became electrical lights. The downward shade was the big innovation at the turn of the 19th century, and Tiffany took full, beautiful advantage of that. But since the 1920s, and the modern movement, desk lamps have been largely judged by their agility: the ability to pivot, swivel and bend over backward.

True desk lamps have a greater sense of purpose. They can work effectively in a home office but also migrate freely. Try one on a narrow console table in an entry hallway, with a chair next to it: a place to read the mail in the morning, or, if left on, a beacon that welcomes you home to harbor when you return in the evening.

—William L. Hamilton

Grotto

Decoupage

John Derian’s Grotto, with its 19th-century black-and-white shell pattern, has the feel of a flea-market find. The shade is black silk string; height is 22 inches. $1,265 ($975 without shade), johnderian.com

Reneé desk lamp

Austrian Influence

Michael Graves’s silver-plated Reneé desk lamp was inspired by a 1907 Josef Hoffmann design. The lamp has a silk shade with piping, and measures 16 inches high. $1,200, neuegalerie.org

Bouilotte lamp

Empire-Style

Play the Bouillotte’s ornate gold-plated brass candlesticks against type, on a modern desk. The lamp is 29 inches high; the tole-steel shade is 15¼ inches in diameter. $5,450, peguerin.com

Sempé lamp

Modern

Taking its “task” with a slight tilt of the hat, the Swedish Sempé lamp, designed by Inga Sempé for Wästberg, clamps to the desk. A version with a weighted base is also available. wastberg.com

By JUNE FLETCHER

Q: In 2007, I inherited a four-bedroom home in Great Neck, N.Y., valued at $550,000. My only expenses are taxes and utilities, which total $10,000. I live out of state, but visit the home twice a year for a total of two weeks. Should I sell the home or rent it out?

—Location withheld

A: To answer this, you need to analyze both the functional and financial aspects of why you continue to own this home nearly three years after you inherited it.

Let’s look at the functional aspect first. Does this home have any future use for you, beyond its current function as a two-week annual getaway—perhaps as your retirement home, or family homestead that you might want to bequeath to your children?

If the answer is no, then make any needed repairs and put your home on the market as soon as possible to catch the spring selling season. Don’t delay, since low mortgage interest rates won’t last much longer, and tax credits for buyers will expire on April 30. You don’t say why you come to Great Neck for two weeks every year. But if it’s for any reason other than to maintain the home, it’s a false economy to pay $10,000 annually for taxes and utilities (as well as other incidentals you don’t mention, like insurance, lawn care, and repairs), when a two-week stay at a boutique hotel in Great Neck costs about $3,500—and you don’t have to clean the bathroom.

However, if the answer is yes, then renting out the home makes a great deal of sense and could provide you with a nice income. On Oodle.com, I found rents for four-bedroom Great Neck homes that ranged upwards of $2,750 a month. And though renters will subject the home to more wear and tear, having the home occupied and warm will help keep pipes from freezing in the winter, and the seals and gaskets on appliances and fixtures from drying out. It also will discourage intruders and animal and insect pests from moving in.

But before deciding to become a landlord, ask yourself whether you have the time, temperament and skills to manage from a distance. You’ll be dealing with clogged toilets, jammed garbage disposals, spills on carpets, cleaners and handymen. (A good rule of thumb: Budget between 1% and 2% of your home’s value to maintenance, depending on its age and condition.) You’ll also have extra costs for utilities, marketing, screening tenants and perhaps a local property manager.

As a landlord, you will have to keep excellent financial records to satisfy the Internal Revenue Service and take advantage of deductions. (See Topics 414 and 415 on www.irs.gov.) It can get complicated, so set up a financial spreadsheet or invest in some packaged software for landlords like Quicken Rental Property Manager to help you keep track of income and expenses.

Send questions and comments to June Fletcher at fletcher.june@gmail.com.

By BART ZIEGLER

Bart Ziegler

The ancestors of my blue bearded irises (Iris germanica) came from the Mediterranean region over 100 years ago. Are these plants dangerous?

This time of year my plants are in overdrive. The dark-leafed weigela bushes are coated with mauve flowers, the peonies are spewing their amazing perfume, pink petals weigh down the 10-foot-tall beauty bush by the fence and the bearded irises with their unreal purple and blue blooms seem like visitors from another world.

In fact, they are. Not a single one of these plants is native to upstate New York, where I garden, or even to this hemisphere.

Call me politically incorrect but I haven’t jumped on the non-imported plant trend that has swept parts of the garden world, resulting in catalogs, websites and nurseries dedicated to native trees, shrubs and flowers. In some quarters that makes me a bad person, an unreconstructed Old Order gardener.

Native-plant purists insist that the best way to take care of the Earth is to grow only those things that nature has provided in your region. They say introduced plants—those transported from abroad by early settlers or through the plant industry’s ever-eager foraging—may pose a hazard to existing flora. Native plants, they contend, have evolved to be in harmony with their surroundings and demand fewer resources such as water and fertilizer.

“Unlike many non-native plants, native plants … are hardy, less susceptible to pests and diseases and unlikely to escape and become invasive,” says the website of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas, one of many native-plant proponents.

Douglas Tallamy, a professor at the University of Delaware, argues that native plants have an important function: They support the insect populations that many birds and other wildlife eat. As development depletes natural habitat, “in too many areas of our country there is no place left for the wiildlife but in the landscapes and gardens we ourselves create,” he writes in his book “Bringing Nature Home.”

True, some introduced plants have been disasters. Kudzu vines, originally from Japan and China, have taken over parts of the South through their rampant growth, pushing out native plants in the way. Multiflora roses, a bush from eastern Asia initially promoted by the U.S. government as a “living fence” for farmers’ fields, have seeded themselves so widely they clog up roadsides and the edges of woods in some areas to the point that other plants can’t grow.

I’m not about to grow a non-native plant that’s been identified as being that invasive. Years ago I ripped out a perfectly nice burning bush (Euonymus alata) after learning that the Asian species, famed for its flaming fall foliage, has been blamed for spreading wantonly through its seeds. I also recently dug up a bunch of other potentially invasive plants.

No plant should be introduced to the lawn-and-garden world until its backers are certain it won’t become a noxious pest. Plant companies didn’t always do that in the past.

But the vast majority of imported plants are well-behaved. They have been enjoyed by homeowners and landscapers for decades, if not hundreds of years, without causing problems.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with gardeners who want to restrict their palette to native plants. In fact, there are scores of beautiful choices in my part of the country, many of which I grow: native viburnums, redbuds and dogwoods with their spring blooms; Annabelle hydrangeas with their white puff-ball flowers; winterberries, which produce bright red or orange berries in the fall; tall garden phlox; beebalm and echinacea, to name just a few.

But eliminating imported plants from your yard seems akin to other forms of extreme behavior, such as cutting out all the fat in your diet and eating nothing but steamed vegetables. It may be admirable in an idealized sort of way, but to me it seems austere and bleak, a form of garden penance. And also, I have to say, a bit snobbish.

A few years ago, a friend of a friend who was described as an avid gardener came to visit my yard. After looking around for a few minutes he clearly had zero interest. “I grow only native plants,” he sniffed.

Yet some of these native-plant Nazis will go on about the heirloom tomatoes and rare purple-skinned potatoes they coddle in their vegetable gardens. But if you start applying the no-imports restriction to edible plants most of the kitchen garden would disappear.

No more tomatoes or potatoes—they came from South America. Rip out the broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage—all European imports. Forget about watermelon—its ancestors came from Africa. And nix the peppers—they hail from Central and South America.

Proven Winners

Invincibelle: Native plant? You decide.

Now imagine a yard or flower bed with no imports. You can’t grow tulips, daffodils or dianthus. Plow under your daylilies and dahlias and hostas. Chop down the lilacs, the willows, the peach and pear trees and the flowering cherries. All of them and scores more garden favorites came from other parts of the world, though many date as far back as colonial homesteaders.

And once you go down this path, how far should you travel? Recently, plant experts at North Carolina State University created an Annabelle hydrangea with pink blooms by cross-breeding a regular native Annabelle with a pink wild hydrangea found in the mountains. It is the first time this extremely popular plant has flowers other than white, and the garden industry is heavily promoting it this year under the brand name Invincibelle Spirit.

But is it a native plant? The purists will have to decide.

For hundreds of years plant explorers have traveled the globe to bring back unusual things you can grow in your yard. And gardeners and the plant industry have a long, storied history of crossbreeding to create new plants. Shunning everything but native plants cuts a gardener off from so much of the fascinating variety in nature—and getting closer to nature seems to be one of the main points of the hobby.

Write to Bart Ziegler at bart.ziegler@wsj.com

MAGIC CARPETS | Ahmad Sardar-Afkhami customizes rugs in any size or color combo.

WHO: Architect and landscape designer Ahmad Sardar-Afkhami recently expanded his multidisciplinary business by adding couture rug-maker to his bio.

WHAT:His introductory line of hand-embroidered wool rugs, called Micrographia (a reference to Robert Hooke’s 1665 book of engravings of natural phenomena as seen through the new microscope), encapsulates what Mr. Sardar-Afkhami’s clients love most about his work: haute historical references, natural flourishes and impish charms.

WHY: Mr. Sardar-Afkhami, who is based in New York, grew up with magnificent carpets passed down as dowries by his family in Iran, but he was more interested in the tribal felts, kilims, jajims and casual throws he came across in village houses.

HOW: “I drive myself crazy with endless sketches and notes,” Mr. Sardar-Afkhami said, “but I do believe in instantaneous breakthroughs.” Nature, and the way it resolves the spiritual and physical worlds, has always been evident in his work. Mr. Sardar-Afkhami learned about plants and hybridization from his grandmother: “Her greenhouse, where Bach and Schumann—never Schoenberg, which killed plants—was always playing, and her parlor, where princesses would recite poetry in celebration of a new moon, are rich sources,” he said.

WHERE: Sardardesign.com (to look) and odegardinc.com (to buy). Mr. Sardar-Afkhami also sells antique Moroccan rugs through his website.

AND: Whether traveling for kicks or for clients, Mr. Sardar-Afkhami gravitates toward authenticity in hotel design, which usually means private ownership. His favorites: the Hotel Excelsior in Naples, Italy, “but I hope they don’t destroy all the old rooms to provide air conditioning when all you want is to open the windows and look at mount Vesuvius smoking away across the bay”; The Grand Hotel Bolivar in Lima, “just to wander through its abandoned ballrooms”; the Duke of Segorbe’s palace, Moratalla, near Cordoba, Spain; and the legendary Gazelle d’Or in Taroudant, Morocco.

—Sara Ruffin Costello

Photograph by Tara Donne for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Martha Bernabe, Prop Styling by Angharad Bailey

An arrangement of basil, dahlias and grass

Step One

With the leafy greens, create a full, wide shape to complement the squat pitcher. We used flowering black basil.

Step Two

Nestle groupings of the focal flowers at different heights. Don’t be afraid to cut some stems short and tuck them in close to the lip, cradled in the foliage. We used dahlias.

Step Three

As a finishing touch, add some airy wild elements to give the arrangement extra reach and texture. Here we used ammi (a Queen Anne’s Lace look-alike) and explosion grass.

Photograph by Tara Donne for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Martha Bernabe, Prop Styling by Angharad Bailey

Mixing rosemary, dill, mint, white allium and scabiosa

Step One

Using a mix of leggy and dense herbs—rosemary, yellow flowering dill, mountain mint—build a framework of textures and fragrances. You may choose to leave the arrangement just like this!

Step Two

We added a pop of white with allium scattered throughout the greenery at varying heights.

Step Three

Add one last touch of something airy and delicate that rises above the density of the arrangement. Here we used scabiosa.

Photograph by Tara Donne for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Martha Bernabe, Prop Styling by Angharad Bailey

An arrangement of mint, lavender, pom-pom dahlias and grass

Step One

Start with a slightly asymmetrical base of greens. We used flowering mint. Leave some stems nice and tall so the arrangement will be taller than the pitcher.

Step Two

Place your large showy blooms throughout the base of greens. We used pom pom dahlias. Play with the directions of the “face” of the flowers so they are not all looking the same way.

Step Three

Finish the arrangement with a bold gesture of grass to balance the shape of the pitcher. Sprinkle little sprigs of flowering lavender throughout to add some extra fragrance.

By SARA LIN

LANCASTER, Pa.

$3 million

A 9,320-square-foot Romanesque house with eight bedrooms, three baths and two powder rooms on just over two acres

DETAILS: Built in 1896 by P. T. Watt, a founder of one of Lancaster’s first big department stores, the house has had only two owners. The property includes a carriage house with a 2,000-square-foot apartment.

TURRET
TRIVIA: The home has two three-story turrets with custom curved windows. On the first two levels, a music room and a bedroom extend into the turrets. The third floor of one turret was once used as a children’s playroom, complete with ballet bars.

VIEW FROM THE TOP: The city of Lancaster

FRIDAY’S FORECAST: Cloudy, high 42 degrees

SOURCE:
Anne Pyle, Long and Foster, 717-940-8369, anne.pyle@longandfoster.com

BRONXVILLE, N.Y.

$2.5 million

A 4,557-square-foot Norman Tudor house with six bedrooms and five bathrooms, on 0.77 acre

DETAILS: Built in 1929, the brick and stucco house was recently renovated and includes a chef’s kitchen, two working fireplaces and a pool. The master suite opens to a balcony.

TURRET TRIVIA: The first floor includes the main entry. The top of the three-story turret contains a carpeted children’s play area accessed by a small door.

VIEW FROM THE TOP: The front yard and neighboring houses

FRIDAY’S FORECAST: Rain and snow, high 40 degrees

SOURCE:
Jane Vergari, Houlihan Lawrence, 914-337-5400, jvergari@houlihanlawrence.com

COHASSET, Mass.

$2.69 million

A 5,445-square-foot Victorian house with seven bedrooms, four baths and two powder rooms

DETAILS: The stone-and-shingle house was built in 1880 and expanded and renovated three years ago. Set on about an acre, the home sits on a promontory off a private road. It has an enclosed porch and five fireplaces.

TURRET TRIVIA: Rising above the third floor is the turret, which also dates to 1880 and contains a 144-square-foot room, windowed on all sides and accessed by a spiral staircase.

VIEW FROM THE TOP: Cohasset Harbor, the Atlantic Ocean and the Minot Ledge lighthouse.

FRIDAY’S FORECAST: Morning snow showers, high 40 degrees

SOURCE:
Bill Good, Dean & Hamilton Realtors, 617-921-9619; REALTOR.com

By JULIET CHUNG and CANDACE JACKSON

Paramount Chairman and CEO Brad Grey is asking $23 million for a Los Angeles house he bought last winter for $18.5 million. Juliet Chung has details on The News Hub.

Brad Grey Lists in Los Angeles

Paramount Chairman and Chief Executive Brad Grey is asking $23.5 million for a house he bought last winter for $18.5 million.

Mr. Grey and his wife, Cassandra Huysentruyt, who married at the 2.3-acre Holmby Hills property earlier this year, planned to overhaul the home, says Mr. Grey’s broker, Stephen Shapiro of Westside Estate Agency. But while customizing a home Mr. Grey owns nearby, they “fell in love” with it and decided to stay there, Mr. Shapiro says. The asking price is $1 million more than it was at the time Mr. Grey bought the house; Mr. Shapiro says the value of the land alone warrants the price tag.

The six-bedroom, 8,000-square-foot home for sale was owned by Frank Sinatra in the 1950s.

Halle Berry Puts Vacation Home in Canada on the Market

Actress Halle Berry is asking $1.9 million for her three-bedroom vacation home outside Montreal.

Actress Halle Berry is asking $1.9 million for her three-bedroom vacation home outside Montreal. Juliet Chung has details on The News Hub.

The Academy Award winner bought the gated and forested 63-acre property in Saint-Hippolyte in 2008 for $1.6 million CAD. The exterior is barn-like; the interior is modern and features cathedral ceilings. There’s a screened-in porch off the kitchen.

The privacy of the home appealed to Ms. Berry, says listing agent Liza Kaufman of Sotheby’s International Realty. Ms. Berry is selling because she no longer visits the home, Ms. Kaufman says. The actress was reported to have split from Canadian model Gabriel Aubry in 2010.

Malibu Beachfront Home Goes Up for Auction

A Malibu, Calif., home once listed for $65 million will come up for auction on Sunday. The sale will take place at the home, and has a starting bid of $22 million.

Located on Carbon Beach, the property is owned by Cheryl and William Chadwick, managing director of Chadwick, Saylor & Co., a real-estate investment banking and capital management firm. The home has been on and off the market since 2008.

On about 150 feet of beachfront, the 10,500-square-foot, six-bedroom, 10-bathroom home was completed in 2005. It has a movie theater with stadium seating and a library/study with a large wall-size aquarium. There is also a 75-foot-long pool and spa overlooking the ocean.

Ms. Chadwick says she and her husband, who have three young daughters, spent several years building the home and are now selling because they want to move back to Chicago to be closer to family. “That’s more important to me than living at the beach,” she says. Carol Bird of Westside Estate Agency has the listing. Anthony Fitzgerald of Premiere Estates Auction Co. is handling the auction.

—Email: privateproperties@wsj.com