July is an important month at Parterre, when all the demanding garden work expended from March through June pays off…none more so than in the Green and White Garden. For this garden was the very first item on my long Wish List when we started building the house and designing the grounds in 1997.

Anticipating that we might have a hot spell, we “cooled down” an already refreshing green and white scheme with a silver dichondra border lining the pebble path to the white iron seat…

as well as brightening the shaded paths in this garden.

The Green and White Garden borders the Orangerie, the centerpiece of the three acres (also seen in the Feature image, above).

A long, narrow bed accented with three cement urns on plinths, meets one end of the Green and White Garden while complementing the parterres under the four cherry standards on the right.

Centering the Orangerie parterres is a large container, with blue clematis entwining the metal circles, and the newly “refreshed” pergola as a backdrop.

Roses are having their day, a gift of the deep snows this past winter. From the Cutting Garden

to the scrumptious Eden rose that grows up the back courtyard’s entry arch.

July has brought much pleasure to this gardener, from a cocktail party’s new decor (in the Fountain Garden, a large metal basket of Mandevilla) plays up the detailed back of the Parterre Bench to

a bird’s nest resting on the intersection of rose canes at the Orangerie’s window.

Thank you for joining me in the garden mid-summer. It is such a special time for Parterre, bringing different perspectives, more golden light, new decor choices…and always a perfect bloom, or three (David Austin’s ‘Charles Darwin’).