"This lavishly illustrated volume takes the reader on a private tour of the gardens of nearly twenty of the most renowned movers and shakers of the fashion world."--Book jacket flap

The inspiring private gardens of celebrated fashion and design tastemakers, and how these beautiful sanctuaries have influenced their creative work. Mother Nature has always been a grand muse, particularly in the world of fashion and design. Many fashion designers, from Christian Dior to Carolyne Roehm, have drawn on gardens and their beguiling botanicals to inspire and inform their collections. These designers and their interior design counterparts, such as Celerie Kemble, Bunny Williams, and Jeffrey Bilhuber, also like to retreat to their own elegant salon verts to restore their creativity. This beautifully photographed book shows where these tastemakers find much of their inspiration—within the serene horticultural havens of their homes. From the lush foliage of the Dominican Republic to the graceful flowerbeds of America’s East Coast, the charming roses and clipped boxwood of England’s country manors, and the patterned parterres of France’s enchanting Provence region—Gardens of Style illustrates the symbiotic relationship between horticulture and haute couture and between nature’s beautiful forms and those found in interior design. For instance, the garden of former Hermès designer Nicole de Vésian is a sublime weave of patterns and textures, while the garden of Christian Dior features many of the roses that inspired his glamorous gowns. The result is an alluring compendium of designers’ gardens to delight and inspire readers in turn.

* Nearly forty phenomenal gardens and outdoor living spaces from around the world are profiled in detail, each beautifully photographed replete with stunning diagrams, sketches, and plans to showcase the optimal design strategies and concepts* Readers are guided by advice from well-established designers, who share tips on how they've constructed hardscapes that work with the surrounding architecture and outdoor living spaces with smart design features, such as audio-visual integration, LED lighting design techniques, innovative decking and pergola ideas, plus firepits, water features, pools and ponds, and so much moreThis beautifully illustrated volume takes a wander through nearly forty private gardens from around the world, each as diverse and varied as is the natural environment. Ranging across traditional to contemporary gardens styles from Europe, America and Southeast Asia, among many others, in these pages the homeowners and many professional landscape designers with years of experience in horticultural design explain how they've employed the optimal landscape proportions and design for the site, how they've dealt with the practicalities as well as challenges and difficult site characteristics, used the best planting schemes, used harmony with the right trees and plants, and overall built an environment that suits the architecture of the home and the needs of its inhabitants, which together encourage the homeowners to be able to relax and enjoy their space. Replete with luscious photography, landscaping plans, sketches, and plant details, this is essential reading for anyone who loves and admires gardens and is looking for inspiration to create a gorgeous private garden landscape around their home.

The Private Gardens of Georgia is a tour of thirty of the most beautiful gardens across Georgia, and shows how each has evolved into a place of charm and tranquility. These private oases illustrate unique plant and terrain differences at all seasons of the year and reveal the unique diversity found from the mountains to the piedmont and south Georgia, to the coast and the Golden Isles. Along with a brief history of each garden is fascinating information on the extensive diversity of plant materials that are suitable not only to these regions of Georgia, but to other areas in the southeastern United States.

Private Gardens of the Hudson Valley surveys the majestic landscape that borders the Hudson River, an area rich in history and unique garden designs. The scenery, which encompasses riverfront meadows, craggy hills, and long open valleys, is inherently dramatic. Twenty-six private gardens are presented here, chosen to establish a sense of place and to convey the romance of the landscape. John Hall’s photographs give a privileged view of the life within, while Jane Garmey’s warm and engaging narrative traces the development of the gardens and the great pleasure their owners take in nurturing them. As Garmey notes in her introduction, each of these gardens has been made by the owner, and special attention given to the transition between the cultivated garden and the grandeur of the larger landscape beyond. The splendid setting of the Hudson Valley encompasses an almost infinite variety of design approaches from formal and traditional to naturalistic and an equal range of scale from multiple gardens within a vast estate to charmingly diminutive spaces between historic village houses. All have much to tell us about the complexity, challenges, and finally the unforgettable pleasure of making a garden.

Photos of more than 90 exquisite gardens from around the United States are organized according to parts of the garden--entryways, herbaceous borders, water features, hedges, etc.--and are accompanied by insightful commentaries and extended captions. Quotations from the owners offer an additional source of inspiration to any garden lover.Abrams

An “eccentric and charming” love letter to Versailles Palace and its storied grounds, by the man who knows them best—for gardening lovers and Francophiles (New York Times) Tour Versailles’ 2,100 acres as its gardener-in-chief describes its fascinating history and his 40 years of living and working in the gardens. In Alain Baraton’s Versailles, every grove tells a story. As the gardener-in-chief, Baraton lives on its grounds, and since 1982 he has devoted his life to the gardens, orchards, and fields that were loved by France’s kings and queens as much as the palace itself. His memoir captures the essence of the connection between gardeners and the earth they tend, no matter how humble or grand. With the charm of a natural storyteller, Baraton weaves his own path as a gardener with the life of the Versailles grounds, and his role overseeing its team of 80 gardeners tending to 350,000 trees and 30 miles of walkways across 2,100 acres. He richly evokes this legendary place and the history it has witnessed but also its quieter side that he feels privileged to know: The same gardens that hosted the lavish lawn parties of Louis XIV and the momentous meeting between Marie Antoinette and the Cardinal de Rohan remain enchanted—private places where visitors try to get themselves locked in at night, lovers go looking for secluded hideaways, and elegant grandmothers secretly make cuttings to take back to their own gardens. A tremendous bestseller in France, The Gardener of Versailles gives an unprecedentedly intimate view of one of the grandest places on earth.