A biography of Bunny Mellon, the style icon and American aristocrat who designed the White House Rose Garden for her friend JFK and served as a living witness to 20th Century American history, operating in the high-level arenas of politics, diplomacy, art and fashion. Bunny Mellon, who died in 2014 at age 103, was press-shy during her lifetime. With the co-operation of Bunny Mellon's family, author Meryl Gordon received access to thousands of pages of her letters, diaries and appointment calendars and has interviewed more than 175 people to capture the spirit of this talented American original.
Throughout her long and storied life, Rachel "Bunny" Mellon's greatest passion was garden design. She and her husband, Paul Mellon, one of the wealthiest men in America, maintained homes in New York, Cape Cod, Nantucket, Antigua, and Upperville, Virginia, and she designed the gardens at all of them. She also designed gardens for some of her dearest friends, including the Rose Garden and the East Garden at the White House, at the request of President Kennedy, and the gardens at both the Paris home and the ch�teau of couturier Hubert de Givenchy. All of these gardens are featured in The Gardens of Bunny Mellon, illustrated with Mellon's own garden plans, sketches, and watercolors, as well as with archival photographs and specially commissioned photographs of Oak Spring, the Mellon estate in Upperville. Author Linda Holden's text is based on extensive interviews with Mellon before her death in 2014.
A treasure trove of Bunny Mellon’s garden design philosophy and advice from her personal archive. Garden Secrets of Bunny Mellon is for anyone who has enjoyed time spent in a garden, from aspiring garden makers to those who manage large estates. This collection is comprised of extracts from Bunny’s own writings and garden notes, as well as photographs and drawings from her archive. Chapters are organized by Atmosphere (sky, horizon, shadows), Climate, Light, Space, Shape, Maintenance, and more―readers will feel as if Bunny Mellon has come alongside as a gardening guide and friend. Bunny Mellon was of the affluent class and mingled along with her husband, Paul Mellon, in the circles of the East Coast gentry of the Kennedy and Reagan eras. But Mrs. Mellon, as she was respectfully called by those professional gardeners who worked with her most, wasn’t snooty about social position or afraid to get her hands dirty in the rich soil of her family’s Virginia farm. Beyond this, Bunny Mellon was known nationally and internationally as a style icon of her time, enjoying friendships with Givenchy, the Kennedys, and the like. Her personal passion was for design, and that was exhibited in her fashion and her garden. A late acquaintance, Linda Holden learned that Bunny wanted to write a gardening book but never found the time. Searching the family’s archive after Mrs. Mellon’s death, the editors―whom all shared personal relationships with Bunny―discovered a trove of photographs, illustrations, and writings and have now turned it into the how-to gardening book Bunny had hoped to write. Linda Jane Holden was a trusted friend of Bunny Mellon. She authored The Gardens of Bunny Mellon (October 2018). She lives in Chantilly, VA. Thomas Lloyd, grandson of Bunny Mellon, is president of the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation, established by Bunny Mellon to honor her father. Lloyd lives in Washington, DC. Bryan Huffman, an interior designer based in Monroe, NC, was a close friend of Mrs. Mellon for ten years. P. Allen Smith is the TV host of P. Allen Smiths Garden Home and P. Allen Smith’s Garden to Table. He is a garden designer, conservationist, and lifestyle expert.
Heather Clawson's wildly popular blog Habitually Chic collected the finer things in life: high fashion, fine art, interior design and arresting architecture. Now she narrows her vision in this stunning photographic collection that offers an intimate look into the workspaces of the world's foremost cultural generators. Clawson showcases the studious, workshops, offices and creative sanctuaries of cultural icons, including Jenna Lyons and Frank Muytjens of J. Crew, James de Givenchy of TAFFIN and potter Jonathan Adler, along with many more.
Illuminated with Bunny Mellon's own sketches and quotes about gardening and life. With alternating blank and lined pages, this journal satisfies every gardener's need to draw and write. It is for the garden designer, not just the grower. The dainty sketches throughout are taken from notes and letters that Bunny wrote to her friends and family. An elastic band closure, inside pocket, and a ribbon bookmark makes this a lovely keepsake, wherever your journaling may take you.
An Oak Spring Pomona is the second in a series of catalogues describing selections of rare books and other material in the Oak Spring Garden Library, a collection formed by Mrs. Paul Mellon. The Pomona describes one hundred books and manuscripts about fruit, with illustrations taken from some of the most beautiful books on the subject as well as from original drawings and paintings. The earliest book described is Bussatos Giardino di Agricoltura of 1592, the latest The Herefordshire Pomona, an encyclopedia of apples and pears from the 1870s. In between there are fruit books large and small: La Quintinie's Instruction pour les Jardins fruitiers, Duhamel's Traite des arbres fruitiers, and many others. The book is divided into sections on fruit-growing in France and Britain, fruit elsewhere in Europe, and fruit in America, as well as citrus fruit, apples and pears, peaches and soft fruit, grapes, melons, and tropical fruit. Each description gives the background of the book and its relationship to others and is accompanied by illustrations of its contents in color and black and white. The Pomona includes not only brief bibliographical summaries of each book but also background wssays that place the books in a historical setting.
How They Decorated illustrates some of the great rooms of the twentieth century, whose stylish residents influence our tastes today. Gloria Vanderbilt cleverly noted, “Decorating is autobiography.” Reflecting that truism, the interiors in this book capture the individual approaches of these icons of style: Bunny Mellon’s spare all-American elegance; Hélène Rochas’s refined sophistication; Vanessa Bell’s colorful bohemianism; Mona von Bismarck’s breezy opulence; and Georgia O’Keeffe’s earthy chic. Author P. Gaye Tapp analyzes each of her subjects’ refined way of living, how she embellished her residences (or left them elegantly stark), and the long-lasting effects on today’s generation of designers and connoisseurs of beauty. The book is presented in four sections that describe the aesthetic approaches that the ladies took in decorating their abodes: “The Fashionably Chic”, “The Unconventional Eye”, “In the Grand Manner”, and “Legacy Style”. Each interior illustrates the crucial aspect of the lady’s definitive taste. Some worked closely with decorating legends such as John Fowler, Albert Hadley, Billy Baldwin, Syrie Maugham, and Jean-Michel Frank. Others took to the task of decorating single-handedly—like Pauline Trigère, Sybil Connolly, Vita Sackville-West, and Fleur Cowles. The interiors of these trendsetting ladies defied their time and inspire and delight to this day. In How They Decorated, one can learn from the most notable style muses of the last century.
Welcome to a year of sustainable living with renowned ceramicist Christopher Spitzmiller, with advice and inspiration for seasonal entertaining, gardening, tending heritage chickens, and more. Christopher Spitzmiller is known to his many friends and Instagram fans as the ultimate weekend farmer, who raises his own chicks, grows his own flowers, and puts up his own jam, cider, and honey. In his first book, he treats readers to a full year at his country retreat, Clove Brook Farm. Organized into four sections by season, the book begins with spring: the lilacs and appleblossoms, the dovecote with Indian fantail pigeons, Easter lunch, with daffodils and porcelain, and Spitzmiller's recipe for rhubarb pie. Summer brings hydrangeas, dahlias, readying the chickens for the Dutchess County Fair, and a garden cocktail party. Fall focuses on collecting, cider making, an orchard luncheon and a Thanksgiving table, honey-gathering, and planting bulbs. Winter closes the book with holiday decorating, gilding allium, a holiday buffet, and homemade gifts. Filled with tips on creating beautiful seasonal flower arrangements, living with animals, and garden planning, this is a wonderful resource and gift for anyone longing for farmstead living.
