9.03.2010

Latest Obsession - Topiaries

Maybe it is due to the dismal state of my own front yard (why invest a ton of energy into a yard that you are leaving in a year?), but lately I have really been fawning over topiaries.  It could also be that I am getting a little home sick for Virginia and all of its Colonial goodness. Also, how can you resist the colors?



1.  Serpentine walls? pretty. Thomas Jefferson's version of them at the Pavilion gardens at UVA? - swoonworthy

2. Sometimes I wish I knew botany, just so I'd be able to look at a flower and know exactly what it is without pretending and feeling like a fool when I'm wrong.  No clue what theses are, but I love them cascading over the very Wisteria Lane looking white picket fence.

3.  May I have this in my backyard (if I had one) please?  Thank you

4.  Boxwood Winery is a tiny boutique vineyard in Middleburg, VA, right outside DC.  They specialize specifically in Bordeaux style red wines and their Topiary variety actually is one of the smoothest red wines I have ever had the pleasure of drinking.  What's even better?  Their facility was designed by architect Hugh Newell Jacobson, whose work is just amazing (think colonial inspired modern - simple, sleek, super clean lines.)  come to think of it, i should do a post on his work sometime soon....


5.The Penultimate colonial garden - This is the formal European Garden of Drummond Castle.  The castle that stands now is an 1890 re-build of the original castle, which dates back to 1619(!).  The gardens, however, have been kept up and completely restored to the original 1619 layout -- a Phenomenal feat for landscape preservationists.


6. Who doesn't love an early 1700s drawing of a "proper" garden layout?  Everything had a place and a purpose.


7.  The formal gardens of Kenmore Plantation in Fredericksburg, VA (I spent two years here in college as a restoration intern... my love and hate of house museums dates back to time spent here.).  It has a very rustic elegance -- as this was the home of George Washington's sister and Bro-in-law, but still considered "provincial" by English standards.  Oh colonial America...


I'm thinking inspiration for spring wedding invitations anyone?  

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