Tag: Hydrangeas

Magic in Maidenhead: An English Garden That Glows in the Winter – Gardenista

When Sarah Pajwani and her family moved into their house near Maidenhead (an hour from London) in 2011, it was surrounded by an “overgrown field.” Having created a design rationale with the help of professional landscapers, Sarah set about filling her garden with plants of her choice, border by border. Despite her best efforts, in winter she would gaze out of the windows and still feel that there was nothing to look at.

Now, every garden-facing room in the house frames a different aspect of the winter scene, and the house has a lot of windows. Dare we suggest that winter is the garden’s best season? We can report that Saint Timothee, as it is called, was the first garden of the year to be open for the National Garden Scheme and Sarah gave us a tour.

Read on for 11 clever design ideas from Sarah to make the garden glow in the winter:

Photography by Britt Willoughby Dyer, for Gardenista.

1. Red Twig Dogwood

Above: A row of glowing red Cornus sanginea ‘Midwinter Fire’ brings out the best in Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii. Famously vivid in spring, the euphorbia holds on to its structure and excellent leaf color in winter.

Saint Timothee is a picture of 1930s gentility, with an Enid Blyton kind of name. Yet the garden is not in a time warp. Sarah uses colorful stems, scented shrubs (such as Lonicera fragrantissima, Viburnum x bodnantese ‘Dawn’, Sarcococca confusa), sparsely flowering trees (Prunus x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’) as well as grasses mixed with evergreens to brighten the winter scene. Several paths and borders lead the eye from one of the inside windows, across the garden.

2. Mixed Grasses

Above: Smoldering dogwood stems draw attention to the drama of super-sized pampas grass, flanking a pond.

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January 13, 2026
Brooklyn Backyard Visit: Pea Gravel Stars in the Transformation of an Urban Garden by Verru Design

Post-renovation, the back yard was filled with debris, including shards of concrete. “Instead of dumping the stuff, we used what was there to create what I call an urban berm,” says Arrington. The berm was built on shards of concrete that were covered with a little landscape fabric, and topped with about two feet of soil, which was brought in for the entire yard. “When we pop elevations into a garden, the shadows change, the way we can see the plants inside changes. If you’re in the hot tub and you’re looking at a berm, it’s like the plants are surrounding you. That sense of privacy is something we wanted to create,” says Arrington.

3. Focus on local materials.

With the naturalistic aesthetic, hot tub, and gravel as their starting points, Arrington and Green leaned into local materials and native plants. Arrington notes that because the rock steps, pea gravel, and cedar are all locally sourced, they are more sustainable—and just feel right. “The colors are already a part of the landscape,” he says.

4. A small garden needs curves.

Sarah Jefferys Architecture Brooklyn Backyard

To create the wild, rambling feeling their clients desired, curves were essential, says Green. Using cedar shakes to edge the beds allowed them to perfect each swooping bed design. “The curves are informal, but still there is an art to creating and finessing them to feel natural, ” says Green, who describes how one of them would look down from the deck while the other placed the edging.

5. Rethink the privacy fence.

Not all fences are created equal. “The first day we stood back there, it was so hot and the air was really stagnant,” says Green of the existing fence. To get better air circulation in the garden, Arrington and Green proposed a louvered design. Crafted from rough cedar, it provides natural texture and will become grayer over time. Because privacy was still a concern, they designed the angle and span between louvers to be on the tighter side; relaxing the span would bring even more air in.

Caption: The bed at the base of the stairs is the sunniest spot in the garden, the amsonia turns golden yellow in fall. Photo courtesy of Verru Design.

6. Select a strong color theme.

A pale blush color theme holds the plant palette together in this garden. Designed to bloom throughout the year, Arrington and Green included Magnolia virginiana, which blooms a a silky white-almost blush color in spring; Geranium Biokovo, which is really light blush on the inside; and ‘Limelight’ hydrangea, which turns a twinge of blush at the end of the season.

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October 30, 2024
The Merz House in Brooklyn Heights: Nishiel Patel Reconfigures and Re-beautifies the Landmark Home’s Backyard

A couple months ago, I wrote a story for Remodelista about a modernist landmark Brooklyn Heights townhouse restored by Starling Architecture. The post focused on the sophisticated midcentury-style kitchen, but I was equally enamored with the verdant backyard, cleverly laid out as multiple outdoor “rooms.”

The goal, says landscape designer Nishiel Patel, the mastermind behind the exterior overhaul, was to forge a better connection between the inside and outside. “Previously overgrown with non-native shrubs, the garden acted as a barrier between the two ‘living rooms’ (interior and exterior), discouraging use of the garden completely,” she explains. In addition, the path from the home to the rear pergola (the main living space in the backyard) was awkward, requiring “two sharp turns to even enter the garden.”

Her solution: “We designed the garden to re-orient the home and the exterior deck [the rear pergola] towards a central and usable verdant courtyard, unlocking new views and connections between the two.”

Here’s how Nishiel reset the landscape design on the right path.

Photography by Adrian Gaut, styling by Glen Proebstel, courtesy of Starling Architecture.

Above: “The facade of the house is landmarked, including the integrated large plant beds and entry stairs, so we treaded lightly,” explains Nishiel. “We did, however, add a Hollywood juniper and two Japanese maples to the front with a shrubby understory of rugosa rose and ‘Pee Wee’ oakleaf hydrangeas. The junipers and maples were selected for their twisted and gracefully open forms, respectively, as a contrast to the monolithic cube form of the house. Both trees are commonly found in the neighborhood which, over time, will make them feel as if they’ve always been there.”

Above: Nishiel redirected the path from the interior living room to the exterior living room (the raised deck with pergola in the rear) so that it was more straightforward and easily accessible. In the middle, she added a fire pit area with Adirondack chairs (left) and a hot/cold plunge station (right).

Above: “While the garden’s primary exposure is from the south, the light is filtered through two existing and large honey locust trees on the adjacent street. Naturally, the light is dappled, and the pockets of more direct and intense light change throughout the day. So we chose to create a matrix of plants that do well in the shade (oakleaf hydrangea, Pennsylvania sedge, Japanese anemone, Actaea, and Brunnera), and then a lot of perennials that prefer varying levels of direct sun (Amsonia hubrichtii, Sesleria autumnalis, Echinacea pallida, Echinacea ‘White Swan’, Martagon lilies, Verbascum, and Penstemon), with the goal of letting nature take over at some point. The plants will do well if they find themselves in a location that allows it!”

Above: The cedar hot tub is from Northern Lights with the all-electric pumps, and the cold plunge is the Cold Stoic from Renu Therapy. “Both are intentionally recessed into the new deck so that they appear almost like pure shapes carved into the deck rather than stand-alone objects. This meant that we needed to excavate and retain the earth below by almost four feet to maintain airflow around them and provide subgrade drainage (in the form of a dry well) when the pools needed to be drained. We took advantage of the space below to also hide the hot tub equipment and provided a secret hatch in the deck for access below.”

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October 1, 2024
DIY: Foraged Thanksgiving Tabletop with Berries and Branches – Gardenista

Above: In autumn, shrubs sport all color of berries. Branches with green leaves and colorful berries make pretty garlands. In my Northern California neighborhood, there are lots of orange bittersweet berries, black privet berries, and purple privet berries. Other berries to look for: purple beautyberry and orange winterberry. (See What’s that Berry? Test Your Knowledge of Fall’s Red Fruits.)

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Above: Before arranging foraged finds, rinse them–extremely well–in the kitchen sink. Bugs are not welcome at the dinner table.

The Look

Above: I used garden twine to tie a sprig to each napkin. You can also get fancier and make a tiny bundled bouquet for each guest’s napkin. See how at Botanical Napkin Rings for Thanksgiving.

Above: I like a big napkin, preferably made of soft linen because the fabric drapes beautifully and absorbs spilled wine better than cotton.

Available in nearly two dozen colors, 22-inch-square linen napkins from Hudson Grace are washable and can be tumbled dry (and if you pull them out of the dryer while they’re still warm, you won’t need to iron them–they fold beautifully). Hand-dyed in San Francisco, the napkins are $18 apiece.

Above: To assemble the floral arrangement, I laid a linen runner down the center of the table. The fabric defines the boundaries of the floral arrangement (a helpful visual cue for when you don’t use a vase or other vessel).

Next, I laid a line of smoke bush branches down the middle of the table runner. Into them I tucked shorter lengths of privet, allowing the smoke bush leaves to cup clusters of privet berries. For extra drama, I tucked one hydrangea bloom into each end of the free-form garland.

Above: I placed the napkins on top of the plates to add some height to edge of the table and offset the bulk of the foraged floral arrangement. This prevents the table from looking like it has a big, impenetrable hedge in the middle of it.

Above: I wanted the table to contradict itself, to look glamorous and casual at the same time. So I skipped the tablecloth this year and instead relied on the runner to create a painterly frame around the florals.

The Day After

Above: After you disassemble the tabletop arrangement, turn the water pitcher into a vase with a sprig of long-lasting berries.

We’re feeling thankful. See:

N.B.: This post was first published November 2017.

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November 23, 2023