Drew Nancy - Bunny Williams On Garden Style

Published in 2015 by Abrams, an imprint of ABRAMS.

Text copyright 2015 Bunny Williams

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014942889

ISBN: 978-1-61769-153-9
eISBN: 978-1-68335-029-3

Editor: Andrea Danese
Designer: Doug Turshen with David Huang
Production Manager: Anet Sirna-Bruder

Abrams books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact specialsales@abramsbooks.com or the address below.

ABRAMS The Art of Books
115 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011
abramsbooks.com

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

When, over eighteen years ago, Seth Godin approached me about writing a garden book, panic set in. Though I love to talk on a favorite subject, the idea of writing about it was way beyond my comfort zone. He introduced me to Nancy Drew (aka Nancy Horan), and we bonded talking about gardens over many long weekends. Nancy put my ideas into words; not only did she produce the original text for this book, but she also gave me the tools and confidence I needed to become a writer. Since then I have completed three more booksAn Affair with a House, Point of View, and Scrapbook for Livingand I have another one planned. Nancy went on to write the bestselling book Loving Frank, which chronicles Frank Lloyd Wrights tumultuous love affair. I can never thank her enough for her friendship and for her gift of writing.

DEDICATION

Throughout my garden journey, I have enjoyed the most wonderful partnerships with people who have helped me realize my vision. Debbie Munson, Naomi Blumenthal, and Eric Ruquist have all worked with me over the years, and without them the garden would not be what it is today. I especially want to dedicate this book to John Rosselli, whose support, encouragement, and hard work have been indispensible to the development of our gardens.

A metal arbor, covered in Clematis paniculata, creates a hallway in my garden in Falls Village leading one from one garden to another.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A large cast-stone urn creates a focal point in the green shrub borders.

ONE GARDENERS JOURNEY

A s far back as my memory takes me, I have been smitten by gardens. I grew up in the rolling countryside of Virginia, where I spent my summers tagging after my mother through beds of flowers and endless rows of tomatoes and cabbages. Often it was my job to pick whatever was ripe, and that is the memory that stays with me now. Its a warm summer afternoon, the light is golden, the birds are chirping, and Im out there happily picking peas for dinner.

For some people the scent of a rose or a lilac jogs fond memories of childhood moments in a garden. For me, it is the crunch of a raw pea, fresh from its pod.

The career I chose as a young woman placed me firmly indoors, far afield from that country garden. I landed my dream job as an apprentice with the New York interior design firm of Parish-Hadley. I loved the easy, comfortable, but stylish interiors that defined the Parish-Hadley look. One spring in those early years at the firm, the memory of my parents garden took up residence in my mind and wouldnt go away. I was a newlywed then, living in a cramped apartment. As I looked out at a landscape of rooftops and trees caged in wrought iron, I desperately longed for a green space of my own.

When I was growing up in Virginia, my love of gardens was first sparked by my mother, who took me at an early age on tours of gardens during Garden Week. The colors, the scents, and the intimate garden rooms were enchanting to me.

MY FIRST GARDEN

On a visit to see friends in Connecticuts northwest corner, my husband and I found a tiny weekend cottage out in the middle of a vast green field. As soon as we rented the place from the charming English couple who owned it, we mowed a lawn and set about making a garden.

I knew almost nothing about gardens. I could identify a lily and a petunia, but that was about it. I studied a Wayside Gardens catalog, which offered three flower bed diagramsA, B, or Cand decided that was for me. Hurriedly, I ordered up A and B, while my poor husband double-dug a space out in the middle of the yard. When the cardboard boxes arrived, we opened them like Christmas presents. We put in the little plants, sat back, and waited.

The flowers sprang up as if in a cartoonI swear, the lilies were ten feet tall. The elderly English couple, who knew gardening, were astonished, and word spread rapidly among neighbors, who came over to gape at the flowers and congratulate us. Only later did we learn our garden was positioned on a former cow pasture.

That first garden had little to do with the color of our thumbs, but it was great fun, and to this day I have never grown such luxuriant flowers. Nevertheless, by the end of August, I knew something was missing.

IN SEARCH OF ATMOSPHERE

What the garden lacked, of course, was structure. These were plants plunked down in the middle of the lawn without any rhyme or reason. Our little plot did qualify as a gardenthe foxgloves grew, and I had wonderful bouquets each weekend for the housebut it was not beautiful. The plot had no relation to the house, no shape, no backdrop. And clearly no style.

By the following summer, I was humbled but a bit wiser. I made a vegetable garden, this time with a path and an inexpensive but serviceable wood fence enclosing it. That path and collection of boards were all it took to get the message across to me: Structure counts. Structure not only enhances a garden, it is a garden as much as anything you plant within it.

After a trip to the Chelsea Flower Show in London, John Rosselli and I came up with the idea to start a garden shop in New York. We opened Treillage in 1991 and began our never-ending search all over the world for fabulous garden ornaments.