Garden Tour Season

Put on your garden hat and enjoy the beautiful month of May. It is garden tour season. If you live in the Los Angeles area, don't miss The Friends of Robinson Gardens Annual Benefit Garden Tour. It is a spectacular event and will give you all kinds of inspiration for your garden. Hope to see you there!

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An Abundance of Flowers

Peonies in the Loggia at Robinson Gardens

If you love flowers, then you would love visiting the Virginia Robinson Gardens estate on the day of the "into the Garden" Tour that happens once a year in May.   Each year the florists who participate in this event seem to outdo themselves. They create arrangements that lend an air of beauty, magic and enchantment to each room of the house. The environments they create are a feast for all the senses.  If you have a chance to go next year, you will be enchanted and inspired by what you see.  Be sure to take your time to walk through each room of the house so you can absorb all the beauty that these florists create.   You will be inspired to go home and add flowers to your house. Here's a little tour of what these talented florists did this year.

The Library by Stephanie Grace

The Guest Bedroom by Botany

Entrance Foyer by Lily Lodge

Dining Room by Marc Byrd Flower Design

Loggia by Eric Solberg Gardens

Mrs. Robinson's Bedroom by Tre' Designs

Kitchen by Teryl Designs Landscaping

Ivo's Office by Bel Air Garden Club

Butler's Pantry by Beverly Hills Garden Club

Kitchen Patio by Cottage Garden Design and The Flower Box

Concierge Special Events by Lulu Powers Food to Flowers

Library Patio by Stephanie Grace

Kitchen Gardens by Dale Witt and Lucia Burke Garden Design

Peonies on the Front Porch by Magical Blooms Flowers and Boutique

This year the florists did a spectacular job creating their floral masterpieces.  I think that everyone who visited Robinson Gardens was transported to a place of beauty and fantasy.  Flowers communicate so much with their color, fragrance and texture.  They light up a room and create a mood of celebration and happiness.  I hope this has inspired you to go out and buy some flowers for yourself.  It will bring you a little burst of happiness and brighten up your day. And it is a wonderful way to celebrate the beginning of summer!

Books, Flowers, and Dinner

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."

-- Virginia Woolf

The annual "...into the garden" Tour at Virginia Robinson Gardens was on Friday, May 18.  On that day each year the historic 1912 Virginia Robinson estate in Beverly Hills is opened to the public.  Each room in the house is decorated by talented Los Angeles florists and interior designers and the guests can see the entire house before exiting out onto the Great Lawn for a garden party and lavish lunch.   Each year the house is a wonder to behold.  As I walked through the rooms on Friday I had many favorites. The library was one of them.

I have always loved the idea of a turning a library into a dining room.  And this is exactly what designer Stephanie Grace and botanical illustrator Parnell Corder did.  What could be better than eating a delicious meal surrounded by beautiful books?  Great ideas, stories, and inspiration are all around you.  Conversation would be enhanced as your eyes wander around the room noticing titles and you discuss favorite books and writers with your dinner companions.

Food and books are complemented by fresh flowers and greenery.  What a visual feast!

I was enchanted by the botanical art work done by Parnell Corder that was displayed in the library.  I love the charming way he hung these paintings.  Here was another element that added to the overall effect of this room -- art and the unique way it was hung.  Just gorgeous!

The richness of the leather bound books and the color and freshness of the flowers was such a great combination

Parnell Corder next to one of his lovely botanical paintings

The room was overflowing with flowers

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever."
--  John Keats

Books and flowers, fine dining and art -- these are the elements that went into making this an enchanting room and an inspiration for everyone who saw it last Friday at Virginia Robinson Gardens.  Who says a room has to be used for just one thing?   The gardener and the book lover would feel equally at home having dinner in this exquisite library.

Library decorated by Stephanie Grace and Parnell Corder.  Flowers by Stephanie Grace and art work by Parnell Corder.

Garden Party

"And after all the weather was ideal.  They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden-party if they had ordered it.  Windless, warm, the sky without a cloud."  -- Katherine Mansfield

The Coral Tree at Virginia Robinson Gardens 

Morning Room at Robinson Gardens decorated for the Garden Tour, 2011

"The first time I saw her, which was in a garden in Bloomsbury -- we were both at a delightful tea party -- she was quite at her best and was then wearing a soft lavender muslin dress.  I don't remember her clothes well in themselves, because they seemed merged in her.  I remember this original mauvy dress, and the hat worn forward over her face."  
                                         -- Elizabeth Bowen, "Recollections of Virginia Woolf"

"...Only is the sunlight ever normal at Garsington?  No, I think even the sky is done up in pale yellow silk, and certainly the cabbages are scented..."  --  Virginia Woolf

Now that spring has arrived, give yourself a treat this May and take a little journey into the gracious past with a garden tour of some magnificent private gardens.  After the tour,  you are invited to a beautiful garden party at the Virginia Robinson Gardens.  Dress up in your garden best and don't forget to wear your hat!  Come to the "2012...into the garden Tour" (May 18, 2012) put on by the Friends of Robinson Gardens and take a little vacation from the rat race of daily life.  Turn off your computers, put away your cell phones and readjust your time frame.  Enter the world that Katherine Mansfield, Elizabeth Bowen, and Virginia Woolf were writing about, a time when friends would dress up and meet over tea and champagne and garden parties were a common occurrence.  Enjoy the splendor of five private gardens in West Los Angeles and then come for lunch and tea at the enchanting Virginia Robinson estate in Beverly Hills.  The house will be decorated by talented Los Angeles florists and designers and the gardens will be blooming. This is truly the garden party of the year.

I hope you can make it this year to the annual "2012...into the garden Tour."  Click here to order tickets. 

  Be sure to dress up in your garden best and don't forget to wear your hat!   It is always a day of elegance and beauty.  There's nothing like it for getting ideas for your own garden, enjoying a visual feast, and meeting some wonderful garden friends.  You will be inspired!

The Promise of Spring

Spring is almost here and flower arrangements like these from Botany Flowers bring it a little closer.  Friends came over for dinner last weekend and the flowers above were a beautiful centerpiece for the table.  A few days later I hosted a meeting for the "...into the garden" Benefit Garden Tour put on by the Friends of Robinson Gardens.  I wanted to add a dose of spring freshness to both occasions and so called on the wonderful florist Botany for two flower arrangements.

About 25 dedicated women attended the fundraiser meeting at my house and it was very successful.  Have you ever noticed how creative women are when they are motivated and passionate about their cause?   A friend of mine said something so true, "I have always believed in the power of women gathering to work on good things in this world."  I agree with her, there is nothing like a group of women for getting a job done.  I am so inspired by all the talented women I know and the contributions they make to their community.

The Benefit Committee's task is to put on a garden tour (guests see five private gardens in West Los Angeles) which is followed by a garden party at the Robinson Gardens Estate.  This takes place on May 18.  It is our biggest fundraiser of the year and an event that every garden lover in Los Angeles looks forward to.  This year I am working on the boutique and we have gotten some very exciting vendors to participate.  They will be selling garden hats, jewelry, purses, art, home decor, garden ornaments, plants, clothing, and other lovely items.  I have been going on this tour for many years and it has always been a highlight of the spring season for me.  Now I get to work on it with the talented women in this group and it is an inspiring experience.  Spring is traditionally a time for garden tours and other fundraisers.  It is a season of people working together as volunteers on projects they care about.  If you are involved in something like this in your community, I would love to hear about it.

Spring is the season of renewal and rebirth, and there is nothing like getting involved in your community to make you feel energized and alive.  

By the way, today is the birthday of English writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West who was born in 1892.  Happy Birthday, Vita!  Her garden at Sissinghurst Castle has been a source of inspiration for so many gardeners.  You can read more about her on the Writer's Almanac.

Happy Spring!

Robinson Gardens in Bloom

Morning Room:  Anna Clark Designs and Lily Pad Floral Design 

The gardens at Virginia Robinson Gardens in Beverly Hills are known by many people.  A visitor can make an appointment to tour them. The house however is not open to the public for tours.  A guest is typically taken to the center hall of the house and can peer into the dining room, library, and living room.  But there is one day that the entire house is open to the public and that is the day of the "into the Garden..." Tour that happens once a year during the month of May.  Each room of the house is decorated by florists and interior designers and the guests can see the entire house in all its splendor before exiting out onto the Great Lawn for a garden party and lavish lunch.

This year's event was on May 13 and here are some images of the rooms embellished and adorned by some of Los Angeles' most talented florists and designers.

Morning Room

Dining Room:  Christofle Paris and Marc Byrd Eventful Flower Design

Library:  Suzanne Rheinstein

Suzanne Rheinstein with some of the beautiful botanicals from Hollyhock

Suzanne signing her new book "At Home"

Here I am with two of the wonderful friends I worked with on this event

Master Bedroom:  Yves Delorme and Sticks & Stones Florist

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom:  Bel-Air Garden Club and Friends of Robinson Gardens

Galleria Bar:  B & L Rootenberg Rare Books and Beverly Hills Garden Club

The Kitchen:  Anthropologie and Teryl Designs

The newly refurbished stove, decorated by Anthropologie

Rear Patio Concierge Guest Seating:  Wildflower Events

Close-up of Table

Rear Patio:  Kristen Buckingham and Sally Paul

Entrance Hall:  Mindy Weiss

This year's theme was "Under the Tuscan Sun" and you can see from the above photo how one of the designers brought it to life in the Entrance Hall.   The 2011 "into the garden..." Tour turned out beautifully and I think the guests truly enjoyed seeing the Virginia Robinson House transformed by the talented florists and designers who participated.