See if you can get your hands on a book entitled "For Every House A Garden - A Guide For Preparing Period Gardens" by Rudy & Joy Favretti. It is an easy read and only about 100 pages of text. It has enough in it to give you a good understanding without killing yourself. There are many plans of various periods in it as well. There are historical lists of plants used in various periods as well. Itis all American.

California poppies have been blooming here for five weeks and continue. Shirley poppies first noticed April 11; they last just a tad longer than the peony poppies, spread over about 3 weeks. California poppies finally go to seed and give up, but young plants last on and on to bloom the second year. They won't bloom when the nights get hot. The pale pink flowers are Bath's Pinks. The orange flowers are roses, Charisma on the left and Livin' Easy on the right.

Cameron- It's a really nice and so far, very well behaved, climbing rose. Your garden is so pretty! Mytime- I love that little rose, too. When the truck hit our house last fall, it moved the porch over to within a few inches of the rose. My contractor and his guys lived in fear of bumping into, or otherwise damaging it, while they rebuilt our front porch. I was determined that my rose would still be there this spring! I'll post a picture, when it blooms :)

I don't know about the value, as its a regional thing, but here in the Northeast you wouldnt see it for less than $100 anywhere, unless there were something structurally wrong with it. I think we're talking more around 1910-15. By the Sesquicentennial even Stickley had shifted to grafting Colonial Revival details onto their pieces. American Arts and Crafts of this sort was dying out by the twenties. The through tenon with the pyramidal top disappeared in the teens as far as I know, and it would have been flush with the arm if the piece were later.