Sex on the Roof at Gramercy Park Hotel

From the moment you turn the corner and experience the undulating boxwood garden border fronting the entire block of the Gramercy Park Hotel (www.gramercyhotel.com) you are transported.

I was reminded of the opening scenes of “The English Patient” where the screen is filled with sensuous, undulating, curving landscapes.  Never mind that the movie focus was of sand dunes. 

To my mind’s eye, the elegant spare landscape of that cinemascope was the artistic twin to this Gramercy Park Hotel urban landscape.  (Planted in just 12 inches of soil I learned later.)

And this was just foreplay! The real piece de resistance is the roof top landscaped garden.

With heightened anticipation, I entered the lobby of the hotel not for the first time.

But with a different purpose. 

I was meeting Lynn Torgerson (www.lynntorgersongardens.com), the garden designer for the hotel’s front border garden and its roof top terrace garden. 

At a recent MetroHort event, Lynn invited me to visit the garden.  I love this hotel and had wanted to see the celebrated roof top garden for some time but the stars were never aligned. 

Gramercy Park is Ian Schrager’s luxury Hotel in New York City’s Union Square area. The art collection that adorns the colossal walls is sensuous and commanding. The room lobby and bar look like a castle, albeit a glamorous sexy one – with sparkling chandeliers, bold red carpets, sumptuous velvet furniture and heavy drapes, cavernous fireplaces and sweet, sultry scented candles seemingly everywhere.

I had graciously accepted Lynn’s kind offer, saying spring wasn’t toooo far away.

Not pausing, Lynn said, “Come anytime.”  Sensing a slight faux pas or egads, a missed trick on my part, I squinted a follow up.  “What do you mean, anytime?” 

She reiterated. “Anytime.”

Hmmm. Now I’ve got to ask.  “I thought it was a rooftop garden?”   With great patience she nods. “It is.”  Pause.  “But it’s all enclosed in the winter – so anytime you want to come, it’s good.” 

Winning the lottery can’t feel as good. J

I think seeing a garden like this in winter makes it even more special than if I experience it when everything around is green too. 

So now this all gets even better than I had hoped. 

Come on – when all is cold and grey to others (I like the city in winter, thank you very much) but I am privy to a warm garden with iconic views of Gotham—be still my beating heart!

We agree to a scheduled date. Follow up will happen. But we have a plan.

Carpe diem!

The day of the planned tour, I am inspired to email Roberta, the unparalleled floral designer for Danny Meyers’s restaurant empire.  Danny’s latest restaurant is the Tuscan inspired Maialino

which is seemingly part of the Gramercy Hotel and in fact, occupies the space next door and yet is still attached. (Don’t ask – just go!)

More serendipity as Roberta has agreed that -- with relatively no notice – she can do it!

I met Roberta when we were photographing Chef Michael Anthony at Gramercy Tavern restaurant – another shining star in Danny Meyers’ restaurant portfolio. 

I was there because of a photo shoot for my book about master chefs and their gardens.

My photographer, Jennifer Calais Smith (www.jennifercalais.com) and food stylist, Patty White (www.pattywhitefoodstylist.com) were working with me to photograph Chef Michael’s amazing culinary art. 

At the same time, I couldn’t help be drawn to the floral design compositions that Roberta was divining and arranging. 

I had to include her in the book!  Chef Michael agreed as did my editor, Kari. 

When you visit any of Danny Meyers’s restaurants, please let me know how much you love Roberta’s amazing interior garden designs.

She is an artist.

So the evening of the first rooftop garden tour, I was looking forward to great interior garden design AND great exterior garden design.

And to seeing and having networked two amazing plant women.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I was meeting a former colleague and friend, Joanne Trout, who was treating me to a birthday dinner at Maialino restaurant.  Maialino is Myers’ latest culinary tour de force. Maria, my garden design client and Italian language linguist told me maialino means “little pig.”  How cute!

It just doesn’t get any better  :) 

Maialino is located just to the downtown side of the hotel. As a guest, you’d think they are part of the same establishment. 

Roberta took us on a quick tour of the restaurant. We could better appreciate its simple, elegant yet casual environment – punctuated by Roberta’s floral designs.

Private dining room and Roberta's floral creations

Cuccina:

Well, we were drinking our Prosecco and Roberta and Lynn were having such a good time getting to know one another  --- and I was enjoying it all. 

Yet, as a garden sprite, I knew we had to get to that roof.  There wasn’t much winter daylight left…

A tad late, we hop in the special elevator transporting us up 16 floors to the Hotel Rooftop Bar – a Private Club and Garden.  Only members are admitted to this level so I’m feeling very VIP.

Like a Broadway stage whose curtains rise to reveal a carefully crafted other world of make-believe, the elevator doors opened to reveal a magical garden in the sky.

The anticipation matches the reality. 

This garden is a fantasy. A dream. 

It was dusk.  The sky was pink. The nearby skyscrapers loomed as architectural sentinels.  All this drama was mere backdrop for the garden at Gramercy Park Hotel. 

There, the entire length of the garden sparkled with tiny white lights on the ceiling, peeking through the green overhead and on the shrubs and trees in containers bordering the garden walls.

As we walked, I was awestruck.  My head was like a scope – turning upwards – left and right – all the while listening to Lynn describe the design work and maintenance that is integral to this unique garden. 

I defy anyone, of any age, to not be rendered speechless by this garden. 

It has the magic of Disney, of countless movies of Manhattan, and is a gardener’s dream world.  We gardeners can appreciate the design and work that goes into a living room such as this.  

For everyone else, the garden embraces you in a very intimate way and stimulates the senses.  This is especially so on a winter day simply because it’s a paradox.  But Lynn has made this impossibility just so natural.

The garden wraps around three sides of the building. In the warmer weather, the hotel has the option to open up part of the glass roof, or all or provide an awning to cover part of the garden in the sky to block the sun with the use of the retractable roof. 

When I was the Director of Communications at a major NYC botanic garden, I had recommended Lynn to New York Magazine as the ideal candidate to redesign NYC’s marriage bureau.  She nailed it: http://tinyurl.com/yjsdh9s

Sexy too, no?

Here at the Gramercy Park Hotel, Lynn’s brilliant work is not only on display in the design, but in the ongoing maintenance.  As you can image, it’s not in the least bit easy to keep up a good garden considering the inhospitable conditions.  There is the weather to consider of course and on a roof top terrace, weather can be extreme.  In addition, because it’s club, guests often “see” the plants as backdrop and don’t always treat them with great care, resulting in glasses in the pots or broken branches…

Her team is there two times a week – at a minimum.

“I want perfection,” Lynn said, not surprisingly.  They over-service their clients here – as elsewhere  -- because they love their work and have a passion for the plants.

The garden was launched in 2006.  Lynn and her team designed the container garden to adhere to owner Ian Schrager’s fondness for Italian gardens. The miracle on the roof is that with a series of containers, fruit trees, fragrant vines, including jasmine, ficus plants, palms, dracenas, ferns of all kinds and overhead silk leaves, Lynn captured the look and feel of the beauty of Rome or Tuscany.  “I wanted a lot of citrus plants to really get the feel of an Italian garden,” Lynn explained.

She was also able to use a lot of red color - prized by owner Schrager – even down to a red furniture composition.

Keen gardeners will want to know how all this green beauty is achieved and maintained – on a budget. 

Lynn chose containers that are lightweight; some of the seemingly hundreds of planters are fiberglass and zinc.  

The quality is terrific – the pots look like terracotta or the real deal, there is no doubt.

Lynn noted she sourced most of the containers from Evan Peters & Co., direct importers of garden pottery and are located in Long Island City http://tinyurl.com/ykym96o

Lynn had to establish a formal watering system and so installed a drip design for the containers.  In addition, the team supplements the irrigation systems and does hand watering too.

In terms of pest control, they employ an integrated pest management (IPM) approach because it’s the smart way to do it and also, this is a dining area.

Even though there can be lots of wind in the summer, Lynn has positioned pots of plants all along the windowsills – in fact, she changes them out with the seasons—usually every six months.  She loves the kalanchoes for their red color (a nod to the client) and for their water-wise needs.

Under extraordinary conditions, Lynn has employed a variety of plants, containers, and elegant garden design to create a sustainable, intoxicating garden. 

This is a seductive, mysterious world that Lynn has created – from traditional ladybugs and green plants, to the urbane, sophisticated “Lady Bugs" ^:^ and their escorts = quintessential New Yorkers and urbane tourists enjoying nature, seen poised throughout the garden terrace’s stylized conversation compositions – or as Schrager describes it, “lobby socializing.”

This chandelier is the size of the room it adorns and is breathtaking. 

                                                  Roberta (left) and I are dazzled by the light!

Because our first garden tour was abbreviated due to diminishing daylight, I asked Lynn if we could come back.  I also wanted to share the garden tour with EunYoung Sebazco, Duchess Designs’ lead horticulturist and extraordinary garden designer and Randall’s Island park manager. Lynn agreed. 

The garden is just as exhilarating in the daylight.  

The perfect finish on the second garden tour a week or so later was to enjoy the glamorous garden – with an herbal cocktail. 

I had the Ginger Fig:  vodka with muddled ginger root, fig jam and fresh orange juice.  Lynn & EunYoung enjoyed the Rose & Lychee Martini: Hendricks gin (which if you don’t know is made with roses – member of the cucumber family), rose syrup, fresh muddles blackberries and a touch of coconut.

Aren’t plants the best?  We can sit among them enjoying their beauty and fragrance and drink a plant-filled ambrosia.

A heavenly experience. Especially being that much closer to the clouds…

Oh, and when I wanted to add Lynn’s web site to this blog post, I Googled her business and guess what? 

The Google pin indicated Lynn Torgerson’s garden design business – and curiously, made it appear for the entire world like it is located directly at the Museum of Sex!  Coincidence?  With all the sensual garden design I saw at Gramercy Park Hotel, I don’t think so.

 Lynn - oh so elegant with fabulous garden footwear!

Gramercy Park Hotel

2 Lexington Avenue, NYC 10010

212-920-3300

www.gramercyparkhotel.com

Check out the visual images slide show – next best thing to being there.

Maialino, a Roman Trattoria at Gramercy Park

2 Lexington Avenue, NYC 10010

212-777-2410

http://www.maialinonyc.com

Two Garden Book Reviews: Vizcaya and Hidcote

In a recent issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine, I read the story on Vizcaya, the amazing garden estate that is now a must-see garden museum.  The article reminded me that I had reviewed a book about Vizcaya a few years ago for my local Garden State newspaper, "The Two River Times." 

http://www.tworivertimes.com

I thought I'd dust off that book review and "revisit" Vizcaya since it seems so topical :)   Plus my garden review also includes the book "Garden at Hidcote"  so you'll enjoy two gardens!

Garden Book Reviews:

Whether you think of snow flurries as winter reality or fantasy, cold temperatures help the plant kingdom hibernate till the glory of spring adjusts our color contrast screen!  In the meantime, let’s use our garden passport: books -- and head out for this month’s garden tour.  Like many a snowbird, it seems appropriate to make the first stop tropical Florida.  We’ll visit the palatial Miami estate, Vizcaya.  Then we’ll head to Cotswold, England to tour what is arguably, the most influential garden of the last century.

Vizacaya: An American Villa and Its Makers

Named for a Spanish Baroque province – Vizcaya was the winter home of Chicago industrialist James Deering.  Today it is a museum.  As told in Vizcaya: An American Villa and Its Makers by Witold Rybczynski, professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania and Laurie Olin, Practice Professor of Landscape Architecture there, as well as a principal in the Olin Partnership, his landscape architecture firm, these two experts masterfully document the making of this extraordinary home and its garden.  Architectural Digest’s Steven Brooks lends the book the intimate view of the garden today that balances the images, blueprints, maps, plant lists, and correspondence included from the Vizcaya Museum and Garden Archive.  Reproduced for the first time in the book – and not surprisingly, on the book’s cover --are the rich watercolors rendered by the famed portrait artist, John Singer Sargent, who was a guest at Vizcaya throughout much of 1917. It is said that the glory days at Vizcaya were from that year through 1923.

The story of this Gilded Age mansion is a unique collaboration among Deering, Paul Chalfin, artist, F. Burrall Hoffman, Jr., architect, and garden designer, Diego Suarez—all neophytes in their fields.  Other country house mansions like San Simeon, the “cottages” in Newport, or the Biltmore, were all designed by leading experts, such as Carrere & Hastings.   Vizcaya is also unique as it was the first grand estate located on the water’s edge. In contrast, contemporary mansions were located perhaps with a water view, but featured great expanse of lawn separating house from water, whereas Vizcaya’s frontage sat right on Biscayne Bay.

Located on 180 acres on Brickell Point in Coconut Grove, Vizcaya was artistically researched and painstakingly compiled: “a lens through which readers learn about architecture, landscape and garden design, interior decorating and art” threaded through the personal story of the design team and the times in which they lived. The book notes the influence on the design team of Sir George Sitwell’s On the Making of Gardens: “To make a great garden, one must have a great idea or a great opportunity…” and in this book, the reader learns that there is indeed an abundance of both those elements.

Chalfin had been an assistant to the socialite interior decorator Elise de Wolfe but saw the opportunity when Deering asked him to act as his artistic director. Deering’s immense wealth from the merger of McCormick and Deering to create the International Harvester Company, allowed him to indulge in collecting art. Chalfin helped him to build a collection that included Tiepolos and Manet. This was the time of Edith Wharton. And the wealthy of the period were obsessed with Europe.  The first part of the book narrates the touring and research trips Deering and Chalfin took there to determine first, what style of house they would find most inspiring, and then later to collect many items for the house and garden as was the custom of the day.   The building of the house and the interior design is also included in this part of the book. 

According to the authors, the two selected an odd choice of house style; finding their inspiration in the 17^th Century Villa Rezzonico in the mountains of Italy, rather than a seaside or lake house – which, considering Vizcaya was to be located on the water, would have been a more apparent or logical choice. 

The second part of the book details the design and construction of the gardens at Vizcaya.  James Deering and his brother were both naturalists and ecologists, which helped to make the garden unique.  Botanist David Fairchild worked with Charles on his nearby estate, Buena Vista and later that of the gardens at Cutler, whose work anticipates the work of noted Brazilian landscape architect, Roberto Burle Marx.   A frequent guest at Vizcaya, Fairchild was later instrumental in establishing a botanic garden there, and today, the Fairchild Botanic Garden is named for him.  James embraced the outdoor living environment and respected the frailty of the environment, and according to the book, sought to preserve the surrounding “hammocks” – what we call ridges, as well as the lagoons and water, in addition to producing the manicured, European-influenced gardens surrounding the house and dock areas. 

The book literally takes the reader on a tour of the garden today.  http://www.vizcayamuseum.org/

There is a map detailing the 29 garden rooms, including the Garden Theater, Barge, Rose Garden and Fountain, and the Maze.  The reader can’t help but ooh and ahh at the artistic design of runnels, statues, obelisks, and loggias with fireplaces fronting the lagoon. It is noted that Deering’s lagoon designs were influenced by the Duke Estate in Somerville, NJ, having consulted with James (Buck) Duke.  There are also delightful, whimsical touches, such as the rococo garden swing that can only come from the passionate, hands-on care of Chalfin’s artistic oversight.  The thoughtful presentation of the layout sets a mood and makes this an enduring garden classic.  The authors note that by1920 Deering had already spent more than $334,000 on Vizcaya’s garden and more than $3 million on the house. 

The Garden at Hidcote

The Garden at Hidcote, authored by Fred Whitsey tells the garden story of the creation of one of the world’s most admired and imitated gardens. The book is 150 pages, with lavishly appointed photographs of the American owner, designer, and gardener, Lawrence Waterbury Johnston.  The book offers a garden tour that is also an analysis of garden design.  The author readily demonstrates how the disparate elements of this expansive garden offer inspiration and guidance, no matter how humble a garden space may be.  Gardens tell a story, and the fact that the more than 21 garden rooms at Hidcote are arranged as unique cottage gardens, they appear more like “episodes” or “chapters” in this brilliantly-told garden story.  There is a sense of exploration as the reader is taken from one garden room enclosure to the next. There is a theatrical quality to how the views and perspective are presented at Hidcote.  Reading the book offers a garden enthusiast a model of what an exquisite garden can be: given a love of plants, patience, and a keen artistic aesthetic that is both inherent and learned.

The exuberant perennial plant borders Johnston designed were those that wealthy Edwardians favored over the fussy, clipped carpet bedding of the Victorian era.  Described as a reclusive, well-heeled bachelor, Johnston was widely admired.  Russell Page said Hidcote influenced him more than any other and the director at Kew Gardens called Johnston a “genius.” 

The book documents how he came to influence the use of hardy, herbaceous groups of plants that feature dense companion plants.  Today, this is a most admired and sought-after garden look that to many, defines the English garden look, and is a mainstay of many Two River gardens.

Hidcote was the first garden to be named a National Trust Garden in the UK. The irony is that Johnston was a Yankee transplant!

He possessed an innate style that promoted the artistic use of plants arranged by color: more blends than contrasts, size, texture.  Also, for the first time, the garden beds were designed using plants with varying bloom times so that there is a succession or near-constant display of bloom – as one group’s seasonal luster fades, there is another to capture your heart.  Besides the aesthetic, it is noted that Johnston believed this intense planting scheme reduced the need for water and eliminated a lot of weeds, as there wasn’t room for them to grow in the beds.

The reader can see Johnston's shrewd use of surprise throughout the gardens at Hidcote.  Whitsey shows how Johnston was an illusionist: concealing the art of the garden, referred to as a “Gallery of Plants.”  At the same time, Johnston weaves the relational threads to make a seamless whole from the independence of the various cottage gardens.

The book also tells the story of Johnston, although there are some unavoidable lapses due to his reclusiveness and extreme reticence.  He never wrote or kept records. Even those who worked for him rarely recall conversations. He was an only child, born in Paris in 1871 to wealthy Americans.  His father died when he was a young teenager and he and his mother moved to New York.  His mother soon remarried – to Charles Winthrop, a successful lawyer. All too soon, she was a widow again.  After graduating from Trinity College in Cambridge, Johnston became a British citizen.  His mother was able to fund his purchase of more than 280 acres in Cotswold and by 1907 he was an English country gentlemen. His mother lived with him until she died.  And except for two stints in the military and the occasional plant exploration, he only left Hidcote for his home in Menton on the Mediterranean. His garden there, Serre de la Madone was the first garden in France to receive a monument historique designation from the Ministry of Culture.

My husband and I visited this garden on a trip to Monaco.  It is truly magical.

For the next 50 years Johnston’s total preoccupation were the gardens.

The author speculates that his inspiration was possibly the many travel books he read and the burgeoning Arts & Crafts movement he studied.  Also inspiring were his neighbors and visiting guests.  It seems Johnston hosted a "plant salon” of sorts.  From his neighbors Norah Lindsay and Heather Muir, plants women and acclaimed garden designers, to Edith Wharton, a frequent guest, Johnston hosted compelling get-togethers of like-minded garden aficionados.  Wharton described Hidcote as “tormentingly perfect”. 

Some of the planting hallmarks at Hidcote are the tapestry hedges—which are green and copper beech or yew and holly -- grown together.  And a peacock topiary – both of which are beautifully illustrated in full color photographs.

The book offer planning tips, too. The rich, colorful photographs are stunning, personal views of the garden’s planting schemes so that the dripping purple wisteria, yellow tulips or Red Borders and Fuchsia and White Gardens jump off the page.

Johnston was 86 years old when he died in 1958.  But the gardens at Hidcote – and Serre de la Madone live on.  And if your schedule prevents you from visiting on-site, enjoy this book about a master garden artist and his passion. Next best thing.

Gardens in the Cinema and Garden Conservancy's Open Days 2010 Program Announced

The Garden Conservancy just sent their email announcing this year’s line-up and schedule for their always exciting, groundbreaking (^:^) Open Days program.  What’s better than being able to sneak a peek and tour beautiful gardens? 

(In Charleston, gardens are open all year for visits.  If the garden gate is open, visitors are welcome!)  For the rest of us, we look forward to the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days program:

Join us for another season of exploring gardens!  

Ten years ago, author Michael Pollan predicted that the Garden Conservancy's Open Days program "could do more for horticultural cross-fertilization than anything to hit the American garden since...the bumblebee."

We are still at it! Today, Open Days continues to offer thousands of people across the country the opportunity to exchange gardening ideas and to explore and enjoy magnificent private gardens from coast to coast.

http://gardenconservancy.org/opendays/

Gardens in the Cinema

And speaking of great gardens, I sent out a query this morning – right after the Oscar nominations were announced – to learn what are favorite gardens in a movie.  Some interesting responses so far are “The Hours,” “Enchanted April,” “Room with a View.”  I like “An Affair to Remember’s” wonderful Mediterranean gardens, “Avatar,” and “Suddenly Last Summer,” to name a few. 

Bonvaneture Cemetery featured in the Clint Eastwood film,

“Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil.”

  

Photo Credit:  Mike LaPalme

What are your favorite movie gardens?

The great gardens in movies can be make for an inspiring evening. Why not plan out a movie schedule leading up to the Oscars?  (and take you into spring!)

Annual Rare Plant Auction @ Longwood Gardens Benefits Delaware Center for Horticulture

The Delaware Center for Horticulture’s Communications Manager Wendy Scott (what a pro!) recently wrote to inform me that this year’s Rare Plant Auction will be held on Saturday, April 24, 2010 at Longwood Gardens.  Located in the beautiful Brandywine Valley, this event is one that every plant lover should attend.  And aren’t all gardeners curious about the “next big thing?” 

Just like no one wants to miss out on the latest in fashions from Paris, Milan or New York’s couture runways, so too, plant-loving enthusiasts (and that’s just about all of us!) won’t want to miss the premiere of what’s Hot in Plants for 2010. 

I’ll be there to blog about it. You should be there to enjoy the beauty of Longwood Gardens while sipping champagne (that combination alone is worth the price of admission :) )

There are options for admission (see below) with Auction newbies and the under 40-year-old tribe gaining entrance for just $100 (or dinner in New York City!)  

It is the 30th anniversary of this gala event that raises more than $100,000 each year for the Delaware Center for Horticulture. Help celebrate and mark the occasion by attending the Auction.

http://www.dehort.org/events_education/auction.php

You can register for the Auction and purchase tickets here

Join us as we celebrate the Pearl Anniversary of the Rare Plant Auction® on Saturday, April 24, 2010. 

Buffet Dinner &
Open Bar

Auction Preview for Pearl and Benefactor attendees at 5:30 p.m., Ballroom

6:30 p.m. Silent Auction and General Admission
7:00 to 7:30 p.m. Champagne Live Auction
7:30 to 9:00 p.m. Dinner

All registration levels include admittance to the General Rare Plant Auction®, and to Longwood Gardens for the day.

Pearl: $500 per person

Benefactor: $250 per person 
  


Subscriber: $175 per person 
  


Seed Pearl: $100 per person for those 40 and younger, or Auction first-timers, by pre-registration only.

Invitations will be mailed in late February. For information about the Auction, please contact Joe Matassino, Director of Development, at (302) 658-6262 ext. 103 or email him at jmatassino@dehort.org.

The monies raised go to fund the Delaware Center for Horticulture whose excellent reputation and work extends far beyond their geographic region. So know you will be supporting a superior organization with a track record of success.

The Delaware Center for Horticulture (DCH) is a non-profit community resource organization dedicated to promoting knowledge and appreciation of gardening, horticulture, and conservation. DCH’s two community program areas–Educational Programs and Greening Initiatives– focus on the greening of our urban environment and include educational programs for children, teens, and adults. Our work includes community gardens, public landscaping, roadside beautification, tree programs, and community events.

Mission Statement

The Delaware Center for Horticulture cultivates a greener community; inspiring appreciation and improvement of our environment through horticulture, education and conservation.

Longwood Gardens

Get to Longwood early – or spend the weekend. There’s plenty to do and see. Especially in the spring.  Glorious!

and this year’s signature program is “Making Sense: The Art and Passion of Fragrance.”   Ahhhh.

http://www.longwoodgardens.org/

(And I love this about Longwood’s start.  Mr. duPont was a “tree hugger:” 


"In 1906, Pierre S. du Pont purchased the Pierce Arboretum to save its trees from being cut for lumber.  Over the next nearly half century, Mr. du Pont developed Longwood Garens into what it is today, a magnificent horticultural showplace." 

Thank you, sir.