Initial Thoughts

Inspiring Garden Design: Green Animals Topiary Garden

Thirty minutes “up island” from Newport, but another world apart, the Green Animals Topiary Garden is the oldest garden of its kind (and one of only two) in the United…

Inspiring Garden Design: An Exquisite English-style Creation

“The owner’s first mixed border was developed in the pergola garden with the ornamental Bradford pear hedge as a backdrop. Her favorite colors–pink, fuchsia, lavender, and blue–can be seen in…

Inspiring Garden Design: A New Orleans Courtyard Garden

Traveling (and gathering with friends) are the two pleasures that I miss the most in these challenging times. No wonder I find myself reminiscing daily about “this garden” or “that…

Inspiring Garden Design: Chic-ing Up Parterre’s Solarium

Each winter plays out a bit differently at Parterre…some years I may be traveling, or immersed in a “master class,” or working diligently on a new project. For winter 2021,…

Travels with the Parterre Bench

Since travel plans have been so curtailed this past year, I’m now going to treat us to some mini “armchair trips,” with the focus on my favorite topic — gardens…

A Writer’s Lair: Honoring a Literary Heritage

Welcome to 2021! Perhaps for you, as it is for me, reminiscing is part of a new year ritual and I now find myself remembering back with great sentiment to…

Happy New Year!

As this old year ends (and not too soon) this post gives me the chance to once again marvel at what pictures can mean to us…2020 definitely assured those of…

A Parterre Christmas

Every Christmas has its signature. This year, not knowing what draconian measure or which “pause” we were honoring, I hadn’t done much planning for decorations. But one thing I knew…

Bedecked and Bedazzled: Christmas at The Breakers

What is more joy-filled than a fifteen foot Christmas tree of live, brilliant red poinsettias?! Newport’s own legendary creation takes pride-of-place in the Great Hall of The Breaker’s, obviously deserving…

Past Christmases at Parterre

In spite of 2020 being an “annus horribilis” (to quote Queen Elizabeth) we’ve made it to the merry month of December. So I say, with a nod to rhythm and…