Garden Inspiration: Hamptons Garden of Peter Marino

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Garden Inspiration: Hamptons Garden of Peter Marino

April 19, 2017

Gorgeous lush garden with lavender in Hamptons garden of Peter Marino

Peter Marino's inspiring Hamptons garden

Inernationally acclaimed architect Peter Marino's

description of his mature garden just may woo you

even before glimpsing beautiful images of it:

"...the culmination of 21 years of my Saturdays...

a private passion, a healing."

21 years of Saturdays is...1,092 days...#devotion

The starchitect's enchanting Hamptons Garden

is alive with lush plantings and 42 sculptures

by Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne,

and when asked by Architectural Digest

about the collection, he replied:

"The Lalannes's surreal qualities and sense of humor are the two qualities that I wanted my gardens to share. In every sense, the blooming gardens are totally surreal, and I purposely let them get overgrown so they don’t look too serious."

(You may have been killed softly by some

Lalanne lovely in yesterday's fantasy

tour of a Paris apartment by

Joseph Dirand.)

Designer: Peter Marino

Source: Architectural Digest and Vogue

Photography: Jason Schmidt

image above:

The purple garden at the front of the house is divided into beds edged with miniature rhododendrons and filled with nepeta, heliotrope, and verbena; the fountain was found in Bordeaux,

and is surrounded by ‘Anah Kruschke’ rhododendrons.

Gorgeous lush garden and house in Hamptons, Peter Marino

Peter Marino's inspiring Hamptons garden

Peter Marino's inspiring Hamptons garden

"The French use gardens to show grandeur and the English to show how things have endured for hundreds of years, but for me they’re all about fantasy.” (Peter Marino to Vogue)

Hamptons garden of Peter Marino with Lalanne duck sculpture

A Lalanne duck beneath a silver maple

Do you like hydrangea? The fantasy gardener does too.

More than a thousand plants form a border

around his home.

Peter Marino's inspiring Hamptons garden

A bronze gingko-leaf bench by Claude Lalanne is flanked by ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangeas.

Peter Marino's inspiring Hamptons garden

Photo by Matthew Millman/Architectural Digest

Above is an incredible 1929 Dallas home
Peter Marino revamped, and you may be familiar
with his renovation work on the famous
Crespi-Hicks Estate (below) in Dallas by architect
Maurice Fatio.

Crespi-Hicks Estate in Dallas

Wrought iron staircase and sculpture in Crispi Hicks Dallas estate

Crespi-Hicks Estate in Dallas

Find more of Peter Marino's lovely garden

in a beautiful new book from Rizzoli

I can't wait to get my hands on.

Maybe you'll want to add it

to your cart, yes?

The Garden of Peter Marino

Care to see more Marino magic?

Stay tuned, greenthumbs.

Have you been busy in your own garden?

I have! This woodland fairy is

hopelessly garden-impaired (and finds

herself without a single Lalanne sculpture),

but she does enjoy whispering to lavender

and box as she helps her

lil' French courtyard awaken

from its long winter's rest.

Peace to you right where you are.

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garden inspiration

Garden Inspiration: Vanderbilt Mansion & Garden

August 10, 2016

When I was in Hyde Park with a writer's group

in late May, my beloved tagged along and we

happily toured some local treasures including

the Vanderbilt Mansion and its Italian garden.

The Vanderbilt is a masterpiece of American Beaux-Arts design

constructed between 1896 and 1898 by McKim, Mead & White.

We were unable to tour the mansion's interior,

and outdoor restoration was underway as seen above.

But I loved capturing delicious architectural details
of this historic gilded-age country estate.

All photos are my own.

We were so lucky to essentially have the Italian garden
to ourselves, and I was surprised to learn that
the story here is a resurrection story.

Frederick Vanderbilt established an Italian-style,
terrace garden with roses, annuals and perennials.

When he died in 1938, thanks to FDR,
the estate was sold to the federal government.

While the grounds, landscaping and buildings were preserved,
sadly, there were no funds to maintain the gardens.
Weather, time and neglect meant that by the 1980's,
the gardens were a faint memory.

Thankfully, the F.W. Vanderbilt Garden Association stepped in.
Known for their green t-shirts and tireless devotion,
the FWVGA continues to resurrect a garden once
believed to be beyond repair.

Brick walls were painstakingly restored to match the originals
yet the distinctive pink mortar proved impossible to match
despite extensive chemical analysis,

The solution actually was not chemical.
Someone discovered crushing a few bricks
into the mortar yielded the just right pink!.

Restoration of the walls, drainage system,and main arbors
of the Reflecting Pool and Loggia was complete in the early 1980's.

Workers rebuilt the walls with cypress wood
from the original, historic plans.

If you visit the Vanderbilt,
YOU MUST MEET BAREFOOT KATE.
Helllllloooooooo, Lovely.
She is the statue dipping her toe in the pool,
and is also known affectionately as KATIE.

Placed in the garden in the early 1920's, Kate and her reflection in the pool are one of the most photographed scenes in the garden.

The black color of the water in the pool is achieved
through a chemical, non-toxic dye
which makes the pool reflective
and keeps down algae.

The formal gardens consist of multiple tiers defined over a hillside and surrounded by a graceful landscape created by

Andre Parmentier.

Gravel pathways guide you past thousands of annuals,

graceful perennial gardens, and two levels of roses.

The fragrance here (even at the end of May)
was unforgettable, and I collected some
fallen rose petals to add to my bounty
at home to be made into clay.