Victoria Gardens of Bliss 2018

One of my favorite friends, an elderly gentleman whose hobby is propagating shrubbery, said to me recently, “You don’t have to be a gardener to appreciate the beauty and serenity offered by a garden.” I think his statement is true, for all of us can enjoy flowers and plants, regardless of the interests we pursue. This amazing man certainly has a proverbial green thumb (or, more likely, green hands), as it seems every plant he touches flourishes. His botanical efforts grace many lawns around town. In addition to sharing his talent with the community, he welcomes friends and strangers alike to tour his property via a path that winds among sunny beds and shady corners. Most visitors leave with a new cutting or a recently rooted plant or two. He is…

The magic begins when Gina Galvin opens the wrought-iron gates and the peacocks unfurl their regal rainbow tails like fancy folding fans. She and what she calls her menagerie—two cats, two dogs, three miniature horses, one donkey, and a sheep named Molly—welcome guests to Peacock Park, her fairy tale–like palace in Grand Blanc, Michigan. “I’m passionate about all things French,” Gina says. “And I love antiques and things that have a timeworn look.” So it’s not surprising that the 130-acre estate looks as though it were transported from nineteenth-century Paris or that Gina uses it as the main inspiration for the vintage-style home accessories she creates for her company, Peacock Park Design. “Ideas just flash into my mind,” she says. “I feel like Tinker Bell. I wave my wand, and I have the…

A tumbled mix of leftover stone and assorted old bricks proved just the right building materials for a simple square structure, where the owners plan their garden, start seeds under grow lights, and store all manner of terra-cotta pots and horticulture-related implements. The charm of French-enameled flower buckets, dried hydrangeas in a weathered market basket, and collectibles such as blue-glass Ball Mason jars complement the functionality of the generously sized shed. Tucked beneath the shelter of a towering oak tree, designed with windows on three sides, and equipped with a Dutch door, the little building keeps the interior pleasantly cool. And for sultry summer days, a ceiling fan suspended from a crossbeam stirs the air. The resident gardeners can comfortably mix potting soil and transplant tender shoots at a central island…

Ladies once described elegant garden parties as “pearls and peonies.” Dressed in smart frocks and wearing pearl necklaces, these women gathered to delight in the sight of peonies that graced late-spring gardens. Flower specimens wax and wane in popularity, and so it is with peonies. But Michael Hsu is spearheading a revival of the blooms in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. What began as a hobby in celebration of his family’s Chinese heritage is now a flourishing floral haven. In 1998, Michael and his father, C. K., bought a fifty-acre farm in Richlandtown. They wanted to grow something unusual, so they selected Chinese peonies. The oasis features twenty thousand plants imported from China, comprising 450 different varieties of the flower. The spectacular display reaches its pinnacle in May, the peak blooming period. When Michael began,…

On mornings in Donna O’Brien’s garden in Northern California, the mist curls around trees and shrubbery, their shapes hardly distinguishable in the shadows of this early hour. Then light begins to pale. The sun rises and burns the enveloping fog to a haze. Donna steps into her garden for a solitary moment. The view—including the green terrain and mists of the distant Celtic land so close to her heart—touches her sensibility for her Scottish heritage. The garden, fully mature at ten years, began on a cold, damp day. Donna’s sister, Kristine Wahlberg, a designer specializing in European gardens and interiors, picked up a lonely branch nearby, using it as an artist uses a brush. “I began to move and glide through the wet soil underfoot, carving into the ground the terraces, pathways,…

“It was such a pleasure to sink one’s hands into the warm earth, to feel at one’s fingertips the possibilities of the new season.”—KATE MORTON…