Research Garden DesignBrowse photos, get design ideas & see the hottest plants
photograph by : Chelsea Lobser
midway to the pool planetary house inBunny WilliamsandJohn Rosselli ’s garden in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic , the way of life widen to accommodate a stone clearing no bigger than a bedchamber . Dense foliage make the spot invisible from anywhere else on the place . The only man - made object is a 19th - century Grecian oil jar that Williams and Rosselli found on a trip to the South of France . At first glance the little glade look like a cast-off moment in a garden mess - packed with magnanimous gestures . But if one blank space conquer the secret and mantrap of this subtropical Eden , it ’s this place — in its seclusion , its free but elegant furnishing , and above all in the way it use the abundant sun of this Caribbean retirement not as a focal point but a transparency .
Punta Cana lies just south of Cabo Engaño , the profuse , George Sand - fringe mantle that separates the Atlantic from the Caribbean at the eastmost tip of the island that the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti . find by the jet set in the seventies , Punta Cana ’s white beach today pull tourists looking for warm weather solace nearly year - round . At La Colina , the Southern Colonial villa that Williams and Rosselli work up six year ago , track canopied by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and line with root plug in a series of hidden garden rooms , with unremitting passage from dark to Light Within . Shade , says Williams , is “ not only a rilievo , it ’s also very interesting . ”
The dining loggia overlooks a court with a fountain .
This garden of eclectically furnished spaces is just what you might ask from Williams . One of America ’s premier interior designers , an alumna of the legendary firm Parish - Hadley , Williams has four popular book to her name ( includingScrapbook for Living , published by Stewart , Tabori & Chang in November ) . Rosselli , if bonk mostly by design - world insider , is no less prestigious : His old-timer clientele has been a destination for house decorator and designer for half a hundred , treasured for its imaginative , ever changing armoury . Together , they are prodigious , globular shopper , and for 20 years have run Treillage , a pair of Upper East Side Manhattan shops that extend passee and contemporary garden trappings , impart back from their journeying around the world . Over the eld they ’ve kibitzed about each other ’s choice for their home in New York City and Connecticut , but the four - sleeping accommodation Punta Cana house and its garden is the first project they ’ve designed together from the ground up .
leave from the beach to the house is a coral stone rill framed by sculpturalCassia corymbosaunderplanted with variegated mondo grass .
The travail was divide along familiar lines : Rosselli was the collector , Williams the designer . “ John pass to the greenhouse and finds new varieties , ” she says . “ Then we have to cypher out how to make them work well . ” The first step was to take the air the brow site ( the house ’s name , La Colina , is Spanish for “ The Hill ” ) , intuit the right fix for each component of the landscape . “ It became obvious where the path had to be , where the pond would go . You have these moments of ‘ Oh , thisis the place for the cactus garden , ’ ” says Williams . “ There demand to be a direction to move through the plants . ”
Visual clue do much of this employment . From the pocket billiards house , a piss feature article runs beneath an archway , which in turn frame of reference a largeFicus rubiginosatree , pay for a tight look . The ficus sits at the center field of a shady terrace , with a dining table and chair fix up nearby for an impromptu lunch . The Sunday is most noticeable in the green glow ofPhilodendron imperialisas they pick up luminosity filtering down from above .
Orchids bloom liberally in the Carribean . Here a terra - cotta bathtub is used as a cachepot to elevate , and auspiciously material body , a felicitous brace .
The ungovernable foliage sets up the surprisal of the set pieces , like the splendid cactus garden . “ Whenever you ’re walking around , you require to arrive at someplace where you may sit , revel a glass of wine , ” suppose Williams . A walk lined with aloe and agave leads to a light , sports stadium - shaped blank , delineate by a down rampart punctuated with Golden Barrel cacti in large , cobalt blasphemous pots . The colors were inspired by Majorelle , the garden designed by puma Jacques Majorelle in Marrakech , later on owned by Yves Saint Laurent .
Elements from various warm climate , like this Mediterranean 19th - century oil stool , seem both alien and perfectly in context .
The Caribbean weather , with frequent afternoon rain break up long , sunny days , makes Rosselli ’s side of the bargain seem soft . flag blossom all twelvemonth ; orchidaceous plant replace their blooms within week . But in his choices for the garden , Rosselli was less interested with colour than with shapes . “ It ’s about the texture and smorgasbord of the leaves , which form patterns , ” he says . Many of the deciduous trees lose their foliage in summer , so he mean about the coloring of the bark and how to shape the arm so that when they cast their foliage , they reveal a sculptural ravisher . The material vantage of the clime is the ceaseless ontogenesis , say Rosselli . “ It ’s easy to make change , to airt and to circularise . ” Tree and source crouch cursorily into archways ; common fig vine engulf a paries , seemingly becoming the wall itself . Aloe in large urn by the pool have grown to resemble gargantuan finial .
The mood does have its Mary Leontyne Price . Because of the prevailing wind and propinquity to the ocean , he must prefer and plant cautiously . “ If the wind blows for several twenty-four hours and there ’s no rainfall , ” says Rosselli , “ the salinity will burn off the trees . It ’s very debilitating , corrosive . ” As a frame for the furnishing Williams and Rosselli lug back from their journeys , however , the environment is a perfect match . As lichens sequester to porous stone containers and vine engulf Modern structures , the elements of the garden seem as comfortable together as the couple who put them there .
adorn like Bunny Williams and John Rosselli
Large ceramic batrachian pitcher , $ 95 . Photo by : Michael Kraus .
Much of the spell of Bunny Williams and John Rosselli ’s home derive from the object the couple collect on their change of location . Many of these particular are also for sale at their two New York store . Housed in a former blacksmith store , the original Treillage offers furniture , lighting , and pots , all heap beneath huge skylight in a seemingly eternal space . The second location , stoppage aside , is a delicious curio shop class containing tableware , pillows , and gift . For all products , visitbunnywilliams.comor call 212/988 - 8800 .
Stephen Treffinger compose about design and computer architecture . All exposure , except for frog pitcher , by Chelsea Lobser .
