A bunch of flowers to cure the beginning-of-winter blues
Realistic flowers made from sugar, gorgeous gardens and greenhouses, and a whole list of rose-inspired items and art
I always feel a bit melancholy about the beginning of winter: I miss the summer and the fresh tomatoes and the blooming flowers and so on. But something I always forget is how the winter light looks in our home. With the trees rid of their leaves, so much more sunlight fills the rooms. In the mornings when I throw open the blackout curtains, the light is overwhelming and, in the afternoons, if you sit in just the right spot on the sofa, you’ll be covered in warm winter afternoon sunbeams.
We haven't yet had our first real freeze here in Texas but I am always, now, on the edge thinking about it because of my plants. In our first year living in this home, I lost some beautiful gardenias to an awful winter freeze. I didn’t know about overwintering: essentially, bringing your plants indoors to protect them in the colder weather.
I never understood this but there is plenty of work required to prepare a garden for winter. Roses need pruning and mulching, plants still need watering, and in the event of a hard freeze, you have to go out and bundle your plants up with blankets.
It’s poetic, though, don’t you think? I, too, feel at this time of year that I ought to take a little more care as I settle in for the winter. Funny how things that thrive, grow, and live unencumbered in one season need a little extra tending to in the next.
Today’s newsletter is about plants, gardens and greenhouses with a little sidebar about roses. It’s an unusual topic to choose for December, but it’s what has inspired me lately. I think it must have something to do with how the preparation that happens in the cold, hunkered-down, short days of winter leads to something beautiful in the spring.
(P.S. If you’re curious about overwintering your plants, here’s a helpful guide from the horticulturalists at Texas A&M.)
GROWING PLACES
Look at these greenhouses, orangeries and conservatories
My number one request in a dream home? Enough space for a conservatory like they have in old, beautiful houses. Perhaps it’s my inclination to live like a Victorian-era débutante — houses full of ornate furniture, lots of dogs, frilly clothing, elegant china for tea, and meals in a glass-enclosed conservatory — but it seems like the perfect indoor-outdoor space for a decidedly not-outdoorsy person who likes to be around plants and greenery (that was my self-assessment).
Grand houses, castles, and palaces of old had incredible spaces for overwintering their collections of plants. Trees from the garden of Versailles — orange, lemon, pomegranate and others, all sourced from various European countries — are stored in the property’s orangery throughout the winter. The walls are something like 14-16 feet thick (tap the link for more photos) and the windows and south-facing position make it possible to maintain a temperature all winter that is above freezing.
More incredible conservatories:
This conservatory on a property in Tennessee came from an unfinished project in France (Garden & Gun).
The glass house built within the Castello di Reschio in Italy is used as a seating area (photo 9 in House & Garden).
Cordelia de Castellane, creative director of Dior Maison and Baby Dior, has a gorgeous weekend house in northern France — and an incredible greenhouse on the property (photos 1-4 in House & Garden). Watch a video tour here.
A HOME OVER TIME
Bunny Williams’ Connecticut Gardens
I recently acquired a coveted copy of Bunny Williams’ “An Affair With a House” which is one part home decor book and one part memoir. It’s the sort of storybook that reminds you of how important places can be and how those places can shape us. If you consider yourself a homebody and like puttering about your space making it more comfortable little by little, this is the book for you.
Williams, a celebrated interior designer who is married to a celebrated antiques dealer, John Rosselli, lives on a 12-acre property in Connecticut. In addition to the 18th-century main house where she lives, there’s a guest barn, numerous gardens, a pool house (made to look like a Greek temple), and a conservatory.
The book is almost 20 years old but the design of the home and the property — and the way she speaks about how her home has been cultivated — is enduring. What I find most interesting (though perhaps least surprising when I really think on it) is how long she has worked to make the home what it is. Specifically the gardens which, she writes, took trial and error and adjustment.
Often in design magazines, you read about newly decorated homes that were begun from scratch—the designer came in and redid virtually everything, with perhaps only a few holdovers from the owner’s previous house. And then the house is complete, done, finished! That’s fine and good for those that grace the covers of Architectural Digest and other publications, but for the rest of us, we will probably slowly and gradually iterate on our homes to make them take shape — and change our minds plenty of times in the process.
(Photos in “An Affair With a House” by Bunny Williams were taken by Fritz von der Schulenburg, Richard Felber, Eric Striffler, Joe Standart and Jennifer Greenberg.)
A ROSE IS A ROSE
Roses as inspiration for fashion, film and fabric
Audrey Hepburn in “Sabrina” (1954).
“Roses and Pansies” pattern by Colefax and Fowler from “Chintz 101: A Primer for the Print That’s Back in a Big Way” in Vogue, 2018.
Hermès “Farandole” scarf by Caty Latham, 1985 (info via Hermes Scarf Catalog).
Photo of man in white coat watering flowers, source unknown, possibly from National Geographic circa 1970.
Ernst Friedrich Carl Lang (1788), “An early Rosa Centrifolia with bumble bee and butterfly,” gouache, via The Fitzwilliam Museum.
The cutest cake by Cynthia Guerra.
An acquaintance card, “When are you going to pay the old lady for your last weeks washing?” via Alan Mays’ collection.
Roses from journalist Jo Rodgers’ garden.
Jan Brueghel (1568-1625, “Vase of Flowers,” oil on panel, via Museo del Prado.
Antique French fabric, floral stripe from The Textile Trunk via Etsy.
Sandy Liang Spring 2024 Ready-to-Wear, Look 12, via Vogue (photo by Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com).
VISIONS OF SUGAR PLUMS
You won’t believe these flowers are made of sugar
On the cover of the January issue of The World of Interiors is a cluster of striking flowers … made of sugar. Can you believe it?
The artist, Natasja Sadi, who once worked in bridal couture and now works in flower photography and sugar art, is based in Amsterdam. (Tap the image below to watch a video of Natasja making lilac flowers out of sugar paste.)
A MATERIAL THING
Flowers of all kinds: porcelain, paper and tole
For the not-so-green thumbs, how about flowers made of porcelain, paper or tole? From left to right: a porcelain hydrangea by artist Vladimir Kanevsky, a paper fritilaria by The Green Vase and a tole potted rose by Casa Gusto.
GOOD CHOICE: “A SENSE OF PLACE”
Watch Gil Schafer’s 30-minute documentary on YouTube
Architect Gil Schafer, known for his commitment to classical architecture, was recentlly featured in a brief documentary — “Unlocking the Mysteries of Place with Gil Schafer” — that is all the stuff of home lovers’ dreams. I loved listening to how he collaborated with a landscape architect Deborah Nevins to determine the perfect placement of a home on a beautiful rolling hillside in the Hudson River Valley.
The short film available on YouTube and it’s a great way to spend an evening.
All the best,
Mary Grace