We had to end the month of May with beautiful pictures from our friend Sally’s garden. Not only is she a gifted gardener, her photography is as luminous as a Monet painting. We may also be a bit bias given that Sally is one of the loveliest people we know!
Thank you, Sally, for such beauty – you are a true inspiration!
All photos taken by Sally
Known for designing silk floral bouquets that are so close to nature, one has to touch the flowers to make sure they’re not real, Diane James brings “faux fleurs” to life for the likes of Michael Smith, Mario Buatta and Barbara Barry.
Since childhood, Diane has had a passion for flowers – from playing in the gardens her mother tended and taking classes with Kenneth Turner at Pulbrook & Gould in London, to creating the first high-end collection of silk floral designs to be sold at Bergdorf Goodman in New York. It’s no wonder that given their natural beauty and elegance, Diane’s designs have quite a following and have caught the eye of editors at House Beautiful, Town & Country, Harper’s Bazaar and the New York Times.
Harper's Bazaar - February 2008
Having celebrated Mother’s Day this month , we thought it only fitting that we celebrate our mother in May!
1. What did you want to be when you were a child?
An opera singer
2. What is your necessary luxury?
Flowers
3. What is your favorite decorating accessory?
Flowers
4. Where do you window shop?
Madison Avenue
5. What makes a house a home?
Love
6. What is the most enjoyable part of your day?
Being with my daughters at the office and my husband at home
7. What is your favorite flower?
There are so many that I can’t choose just one
8. If you were a cocktail, what would you be?
Champagne
9. If your life were made into a movie, what would be the title and who would play your part?
“Transformation” and Angelina Jolie (in my younger years!)
10. Name one thing from you “Bucket List”
A Mercedes 300S
While many compare Diane James to mother nature, we’re lucky enough to call her Mom!
One of the big trends to come out of Maison & Objet in Paris this winter was the extension of living space to include the outdoors. Based on a recent study, “the garden is now the second most important room in the house, after the living room and before the kitchen.”
House Beautiful
We have to agree given that we spend most of our weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day (and most often into the fall) tending to our flower beds and entertaining on our terrace. And after a day’s work planting, pruning and weeding, there is nothing so relaxing as a glass of chilled white wine sitting under the old linden tree on our garden bench. May you enjoy the fruits of your labor sitting pretty on one of these!
Smith & Hawken - Arabella Garden Bench
Barbara Israel - French Cast-iron Bench
Janus et Cie. - Tree Seat
Peacock and Beale - Leagrave Bench
Currey & Co. - Beaujon Loveseat
Photos from House Beautiful, Smith & Hawken, Barbara Isreal Garden Antiques, Janus & Cie., Currey & Co.
With many of the big gardening names absent this year and budgets for gardens being cut, new and unusual plants were the highlight of the 2009 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Here are some show-stoppers, hand-picked by Jane Perrone, blogger and gardening editor at The Guardian.
Hardy's - Scabiosa Africanus 'Jocelyn'
This new scabiosa africana ‘Jocelyn’ adds beautiful color to a flower bed and makes a great cut flower, too.
Astrantia Major
Typically considered an old cottage plant, astrantia (commonly known as masterwort) is coming back into favor since it is a perfect ground cover and subtly partner to more dramatic blooms.
Tony Smith for Quilted Velvet - Busy Lizzies
Quilted Velvet tapped Tony Smith to design an avant garde garden where he planted over 12,000 pink “with a touch of purple” busy lizzies (or impatiens), surprising the event’s horticultural elite.
David Austin Roses - Rosa 'Kew Gardens'
Marking the 250th anniversary of the famous London gardens, David Austin Roses introduced this new long flowering rose which has no thorns.
Cayeux - Iris 'Coeur D'Or'
Cayeux, the French nursery specializing in the magnificent bearded iris, brought nine new varieties to the Chelsea show, one of which is this beautiful flower with an orange blossom fragrance.
Photos from Hardy’s, Greggys Stuff/Flikr, David Austin and Cayeux
Last week, we had the pleasure of touring Winterthur, Henry F. du Pont’s great museum of American decorative arts, on a beautiful spring day. World renowned for its 60 acres of woodland gardens, its 175-room house and its unrivaled collection of over 85,000 antiques, Winterthur has inspired generations of designers and craftsmen for more than 30 years. We were captivated by the eight-acre Azalea Woods, where 1,000 kurume azalea plants in white, pink, lavender, salmon and red hues create a masterpiece of color, harmony and naturalistic design.
While Ruth du Pont Lord describes her father as an “extraordinary creator of landscapes”, according to Henry, he was trying to “chic it up”! We think his vision is not only chic, it’s magical!
With all the azaleas and peonies blooming in our gardens this week, we can’t help but feeling “in the pink”. From raspberry to fuchsia, cerise to salmon, pink can be whimsical and charming or vivacious and vibrant. While we think of pink as the color of spring, these pretty accents are our favorites year-around.
Southern Accents - Kim Zimmerman Interiors
Marye-Kelley Decoupage - Peony Wastepaper Basket
New York Botanical Gardens - Floral Stopper
Manuel Canovas - Pergola Bedding
Baccarat - Poetic Garden Tumbler
Photos from Southern Accents, Marye-Kelley Decoupage, The New York Botanical Gardens, Manuel Canovas and Baccarat
We love living vicariously through our friends when they lead such interesting lives and Frances Palmer is no exception. She recently returned from a fabulous trip to Japan where she met with master craftsmen and wandered through enchanting temple gardens. Among her favorite visits were the Katsura Imperial Villa built in 1645 in western Kyoto, Honen-in where famous scholars are buried and Tofuku-ji, a Buddhist temple with the oldest Zen gate in Japan.
Katsura - Azaleas
Katsura - Stone Lantern
Katsura - Tea House
Honen-In - Stone Basin
Tofuku-ji - Stone and Moss Checkerboard
Frances was also inspired by the many artists she visited including glassblower Naoya Arakawa at the Seikosha Glass Studio, the potter Naoto Ishi and textile designer and collector Kawasaki Kei-san of Gallery Kei who just had an exhibit of antique patchwork cloth bags used to bring rice or beans to temple ceremonies.
Seikosha Glass Studio
Gallery Kei - Patchwork Rice Bags
We hope you enjoys Frances’ travels as much as we do!
Photos by France Palmer and from Seikosha Glass Studio and Gallery Kei
We love a holiday where the exchange of flowers is part of the celebration and May 1st is one of our favorites. When living in France, we looked forward to giving and receiving bouquets of muguet (a.k.a. lily of the valley) on this festive day. Meaning “you will find happiness”, this delicate spring flower blooms in early May and its well-loved fragrance is unforgettable – so much so that since 2006, Guerlain sells a limited, numbered edition of it’s 1906 perfume, Muguet, for one day in May. We hope you find happiness with these lovely lilies.
Guerlain - Muguet
Martha Stewart for Wedgwood
Woods of Windsor - Lily of the Valley Soap
Faberge - Lily of the Valley Egg
Embroidered Lily of the Valley Pillow
Who knew that Alison and Bo Jia, whose Middle Kingdom vases and bowls grace Ralph Lauren stores in Paris and Dubai as well as the sets of “The Apprentice”, are as talented in interior design as they are in creating the most elegant Chinese porcelains around. We were thrilled to see their Georgetown row house recently featured on the cover and in the pages of Washington Spaces with a wonderful article by Jennifer Sergent and photos by Morgan Howarth.
The home’s decidedly Western architecture is softened by Bo’ s masterful color scheme (“I’m very good with color, so I wanted to use all the colors together… I can’t do all white.”) and by Eastern accents like the Chinese birdcages turned into chandeliers and a series of 19th-century portraits of Japanese kabuki actors.
We have always been fans of Middle Kingdom porcelains and now we’re even bigger fans of the Jia school of interior design.
No design style represents spring blossoms like cherry and quince more than chinoiserie. Embraced by top designers like Charlotte Moss and Michael Smith, chinoiserie (a French term meaning “Chinese-esque” or “that which reflects Chinese artistic influence”) has that special star quality that captures the imagination and transforms any style of room – much like our flowers!
Cherry Blossoms
One of our favorite accents is the hand-painted wallpaper and silks from the British firm de Gournay, known for their chinoiserie designs as well their hand-painted fabrics for Balmain.
de Gournay - Chelsea Wallpaper
De Gournay - Handpainted Wallpaper
De Gournay - Handpainted Silk Panel
Maria Christofilis, founder and creative director of the Anthousa collection, loved her custom-made peony and cherry blossom silk panels by de Gournay that they inspired her new home fragrance, De Gournay Jardinieres and Citrus Trees, and the beautiful fabric swatch became the packaging.
Anthousa - De Gournay Jardinieres & Citrus Trees
Photos from de Gournay and Anthousa
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