horticulture

Nashville Antiques and Garden Show

Filed under: Events

Maybe it's magic, but the usually pedestrian Nashville Convention Center becomes the best and most alluring place to be in this city of best places. It only happens once a year during the Nashville Antiques and Garden Show, February 11-13. But don't be misled. This is a show of beautiful floral presentations, but also of spectacular antiques and decorative arts. The largest show of its kind in the nation, some 150 exhibitors set up their booths and showcase their wares at the Convention Center. Themed "Elements," the show is a mecca for antique collectors, gardeners, and anyone who follows design trends.

Tags: antiques show, antiques shows, Charlotte Moss, garden show, horticulture, house plants, Sarah Champier, urban gardens

Continue reading “Nashville Antiques and Garden Show”

The World's Most Luxurious Private Landscapes

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Garden, Books

The lush oases pictured in Luxury Private Gardens, the newest title in teNeues' brilliant Luxury Books series, veer between the pleasantly inspirational and oppressively beautiful. In other words, while looking at it made us want to rush outside and start planting things, it also made us despair of ever creating anything one tenth as attractive as the private paradises portrayed between its covers. Much better, we feel, to simply sit back, mix a drink, read the damned book and let someone else do the digging, pruning, weeding and whatnot. But we digress.

Even the most lavish gardens in these pages displaying "the highest standards of horticultural excellence" are founded on simplicity, the book assures us: "Stripped down to their bare essentials, they are like a well-cut couturier's gown - nothing but an utterly simple response to the unadorned landscape or the naked human body they are designed to fit." The incredible Villa d'Este in Lake Como, Italy (where part of Casino Royale was filmed) pictured on the cover, with its elegant, elaborate parterres doesn't exactly scream simplicity to us, but we could stare at it all day. See the gallery for a luxe garden tour.

Gallery: Luxury Private Gardens