Flower May/June 2018

“To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.” –JANE AUSTEN, MANSFIELD PARK I REMEMBER SEEING the movie version of another Jane Austen novel, Emma. I had read most of Austen’s books and was eager to see this one brought to life. My husband and I drove to an outlying theater on a Sunday afternoon and were two of five moviegoers seeing Emma. As it happened, we knew the other three. When the film ended and we filed out, I asked everyone what they found remarkable about the movie. Someone mentioned Gwyneth Paltrow’s excellent English accent, and another, the period costumes and props. I shared that I was transported by the leisurely pace of the characters’ lives, so dreamily evoked in the…

NEW YORK, NEW YORK Kips Bay Decorator Show House May 1–31 kipsbaydecoratorshowhouse.org SHARON, CONNECTICUT Trade Secrets May 19–20 tradesecretsct.com LONDON, ENGLAND RHS Chelsea Flower Show May 22–26 rhs.org.uk PORTLAND, OREGON Spring Rose Show June 7–8 rosefestival.org CHERRY VALLEY, CALIFORNIA Lavender Festival June 7–10 and June 14–17 hsresort.com MACKINAC ISLAND, MICHIGAN Lilac Festival June 8–17 mackinacisland.org SAGAPONACK, NEW YORK Much Ado About Madoo June 16 madoo.org NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND Newport Flower Show June 22–24 newportmansions.org ATLANTA, GEORGIA ADAC in Bloom July 18 flowermag.com/adac Indicates Flower is sponsoring the event. For more events, visit flowermag.com.…

IF NATHAN TURNER, the Los Angeles–based interior designer and entertaining expert, ever finds himself out of a job, he could work wonders at the California Office of Tourism. Reading his latest book, Nathan Turner’s I Love California (Abrams, 2018) feels like party-hopping through the state with your most stylish, gracious, and in-the-know host and friend. Starting in the northern towns of his youth, tracking south through the fertile farmland of the state’s central region, and ending on the sunny beaches of SoCal, Turner creates more than a dozen gatherings, each inspired by a California locale. There’s an outdoor lunch in Sausalito overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge with Pisco punch, deconstructed seafood Louie, and mud pie. In Calistoga wine country, it’s a meal in the vineyard with pitchers of sangria, fresh…

THOUGH CELEBRATED FLORIST Robbie Honey titled his new book The Accidental Botanist (Clearview, 2018), the term accidental may be a bit misleading. Honey’s latest iteration as a botanical photographer may have been unplanned, but his passion for flowers is lifelong. Growing up outside Harare, Zimbabwe, Honey spent his childhood barefoot and outdoors, roaming his family’s estate and the nearby countryside accompanied by a menagerie of animals, including a pair of monkeys. “Flowers always captured my imagination,” says Honey. “As soon as I could, I was growing things. I got a patch of garden where I was planting flowers. Even as a child I wanted to learn each flower’s Latin name.” At age 11 he became the youngest member of the Orchid Society of Zimbabwe, and his father built him his…

IF YOU ARE WILLING TO MAKE THE TREK all the way to Bali, you might want to go just a little farther afield for a more mysterious experience. The island of Sumba in the Indonesian archipelago, just an hour’s flight from tourist mecca Bali, has only one resort beautifully sited on its 660 acres. The resort has undergone a metamorphosis in the last few years, transforming from a cult destination for avid surfers hoping to ride the legendary Occy’s Left to one for anyone seeking sumptuousness and escape. In 2012, within a year after visiting the island, creative brand entrepreneur Chris Burch, along with established hotelier James McBride, purchased the unassuming hotel Nikiwatu on Sumba’s sugar-sand-rimmed west coast. Their goal was to create the finest hotel in the world in…

CAROLYN QUARTERMAINE LIVES in a world of her own invention. It’s a realm unbound by trends or convention, where romanticism meets modernism, the curves of a shimmering antique chandelier are juxtaposed with pictures irreverently taped to spare walls, moody cerulean blues are offset by crisp whites, and flora is all around. Through her paintings, photography, and art-directed interiors, Quartermaine lets others enter this magical place. “It’s about relationships: balancing the minimal with the sumptuous, constantly editing to let in fresh air and give all of the elements room to breathe,” says the British creative, who defies easy categorization. Educated at London’s Royal College of Art, she began blurring boundaries roughly three decades ago, experimenting with both paper and silk collages. Drawn to the decorative lines of old French calligraphy, she…