Flower March/April 2018

“Spring drew on … and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.”– FROM JANE EYRE BY CHARLOTTE BRONTË LAST SUMMER, a storm with the somewhat benign, Caspar Milquetoast-ish-sounding name of Harvey ravaged Houston, Texas, inflicting $125 billion worth of damage, tying Katrina dollar for dollar. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Houston many times, starting with my post-college year while working in Dallas. Then, during the last 10 years, we at Flower have had the opportunity to be involved in several cultural mainstays. Last fall, I was slated to moderate a design panel at the Theta Design Weekend. After the rains finally abated, we had given to disaster relief,…

HOUSTON, TEXAS River Oaks Garden Club 83rd Annual Azalea Trail March 2–4 riveroaksgc.org NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA NOMA Art in Bloom March 14–18 noma.org MACON, GEORGIA Macon, Georgia’s International Cherry Blossom Festival March 16–25 cherryblossom.com SAVANNAH, GEORGIA Savannah Tour of Homes and Gardens March 22–25 savannahtourofhomes.org NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE American Daffodil Society Show & Convention April 5–8 daffodilusa.org HOUSTON, TEXAS Design in Bloom at the Houston Design Center April 10 designinbloom2018.com VIRGINIA (STATEWIDE) Historic Garden Week April 21–28 vagardenweek.org WASHINGTON, D.C. Georgetown Garden Tour May 12 georgetowngardenclubdc.org SHARON, CONNECTICUT Trade Secrets May 19–20 tradesecretsct.com Indicates Flower is sponsoring the event. For more events, visit flowermag.com.…

City Green: Public Gardens of New York THE CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY defines the phrase urban jungle as “city life, especially the unpleasant parts of it,” such as traffic noise, pollution, and huge concrete buildings. New York City certainly has all of those, and they affect even the casual tourist. But it also possesses wonderful pockets of respite from all that—many more than the city’s crown jewel—Frederick Law Olmsted’s 843-acre Central Park. City Green, captured by the talented garden photographer Mick Hales, takes us on a tour of 25 verdant spaces in Manhattan and the outer boroughs. It’s a celebration of the ingenuity that urban gardens demand when short on acreage. Consider Paley Park, tucked between two buildings on 53rd Street just off Fifth Avenue, with its wall of water that drowns…

Minty Fresh Pretty shades of pale green are popping up all over, taking their place in spring’s style show Curve Appeal Whether inside or out, this season’s furniture shows off decidedly feminine lines…

LOCATED IN THE CENTER OF MARRAKECH and dating back to the 18th century, La Mamounia was originally a garden given to Prince Al Mamoun as a wedding gift from his father, the Sultan. The hotel opened in 1923 and soon drew an international elite, including Winston Churchill (for whom one of the bars is named). It reopened in 2009 after a lavish makeover by French architect Jacques Garcia. Rich in intricate Moroccan tilework, keyhole arches, and burbling fountains, the hotel and its surrounding gardens conjure a vision out of The Arabian Nights. With a backdrop of the snowcapped Atlas Mountains, the grounds embody an ancient Islamic ideal: the garden as earthly paradise, appealing to all the senses. It contains hundreds of orange, lemon, palm, Barbary fig, and centuries-old olive trees,…

Flower: Congratulations on your new book, Evocative Interiors (Rizzoli New York, 2018). I love the idea of emotion-driven design. Can you expand on that? Ray Booth: I believe that emotions are the seeds from which beauty grows. Before discussing aesthetics with my clients, I strive to harvest their emotions by asking personal, thought-provoking questions. What gives them joy? What brings them peace? What life experiences can we plant as seeds for their design? That sounds like an enlightening exercise. What kind of response do you get when a project is complete? Hugs, smiles, screams, and tears—of joy, that is! These reactions, when our clients see their spaces for the first time, make the process worthwhile. Ah, the big reveal! How does it play out? I like to create a little…