Victoria Flowers & Gardens 2021
In a frantic and hurried world, Victoria offers a respite from the chaos of everyday life. The pages are dedicated to living beautifully when entertaining, cooking, and decorating and even in artistic pursuits - and now you can enjoy every single page on your tablet! With a distinct personality all its own, Victoria personifies feminity, passion, and an enterprising spirit. Each issue features decorating and entertaining ideas, recipes, travel stories, essays from inspiring women, and much more.
in this issue
editor’s letter
DEAR FRIENDS From my earliest days, I remember being captivated by the bounty in my mother’s garden. One of my first recollections is helping her plant bulbs when I was three years old. The autumn weather had already turned crisp when we began our task, and copper-colored leaves crunched beneath our knees as we pushed a trowel into the cold earth, nestling tawny orbs in the soil. I could not imagine what might come from such humble beginnings. The wait seemed eternal as fall eased slowly into winter, but just as the faintest sounds of birdsong returned, we were rewarded with the most glorious sight my young eyes had ever seen: rivers of tulips in radiant bloom. I was awestruck by these showy harbingers of spring—slender green stems stretching heavenward to offer…
where love grows
As Carolyn Aiken takes an early morning stroll through her garden in the idyllic Canadian community of Warren Grove, the cheerful lilt of birdsong and the staccato whirr of darting dragonflies blend in a stirring symphony that accompanies her steps. There is a hushed serenity here among the magnolias and peonies that hearkens to an earlier, less-hurried way of life. “I find gardening relaxing,” says Carolyn, as she dons a broad-brimmed hat to shield the sun’s rays. “I love being out here surrounded by beauty and all the sights, sounds, and fragrances of nature.” The 100-year-old farmhouse—where she and her husband, Andrew, raised their seven children—sits amid ten peaceful acres, with a meandering brook and a large pond completing the rustic scene. It’s close to the city but feels miles away…
bedecked in blossoms
“THERE IS ALWAYS MUSIC AMONGST THE TREES IN THE GARDEN, BUT OUR HEARTS MUST BE VERY QUIET TO HEAR IT.”—Minnie Aumonier Priscilla Hillman chose her home for its apple trees. Located around the corner from the family’s Litchfield, Connecticut, home, she had admired the property’s arboreal beauty for years. “Some people care about a floor plan,” she explains. “I am drawn by trees.” When the house came up for sale and the Hillmans’ son, Glenn, grew old enough to want a house of his own, Priscilla and her husband, Norman, made the purchase. It wasn’t until they began clearing the recesses of the two-acre landscape that they discovered even more apple trees hidden in an overgrown thicket. But those were not the only residents on the property. When devoted nurturing encouraged forgotten…
the allure of the cottage garden
A financial adviser who retired to a second career in landscape design, June Mays recognized a worthy investment for her family in a historic Alabama home. “We had attended parties in this house,” she says, “and loved the location, its grace, its personality.” Built in the early twentieth century with brick and stucco in a half-timbered style, the two-story Tudor charmer nestles into the side of a mountain, giving the grounds a steep elevation. When the Mayses purchased the property in 1982, the backyard was waist-deep in kudzu, an invasive vine that took three years to eradicate. With the lot restored to a blank canvas, June breathed life into her vision for creating a brimful cottage oasis. Removing a freestanding garage and filling in a ravine allowed June to lay out…
petites fleurs
“THERE IS SO MUCH HOPE IN A LITTLE FLOWER AND SO MANY FLOWERS IN A LITTLE HOPE.”—Mehmet Murat Ildan…
blooming branches
