Exploring a Secret Garden in Venice with Tudy Samartini

Flowers & Fabric at the gardens of the Fortuny Factory and Showroom

On my first visit to Venice, Italy, I had the rare opportunity to tour gardens on the island of Giudecca with Tudy Sammartini, the celebrated historian, landscape designer, and author of The Secret Gardens of Venice and Verdant Venice.  Away from the mobs of tourists, Tudy introduced us to the quite edges of Venice where we discovered a silent natural world of graceful walled-off gardens of the palazzi.

Tudy’s intimate knowledge of Venice inspired a large part of her life as historian, landscape designer, and preservationist of this hidden natural world among the alleyways and canals of this magnificent city built upon water. Exploring these gardens with her really brought to life the special and unique qualities of Venice both past and present.

In Venice, gardens were a rarity owing to the limitations of a city and reflected the prestige of their owners. Although many of these gardens changed owners and form, today they still remain graceful private spaces and quiet refuge from the marvelous theater of Venice. Today many of the gardens still exist and are being restored by Tudy's creative talent and restoration efforts.

One of my favorite gardens we visited with Tudy was at the world famous fabric factory of Mariano Fortuny (1871-1949). This magnificent garden is hidden behind an industrial brick façade of the Fortuny factory.  Fortuny was a celebrated Spanish artist, painter, designer, and stylist. He created innovative dyes, printing and the manufacturing of fabrics.

Fortuny was an innovator of silk and velvet fabrics known for impressions of carved relief. Many of his fabrics reflect an influence of ancient motifs, Morris prints and botanical designs. Fortuny lived in Venice during his last years, and here created an exclusive fabric factory in 1919, which is still in use today. Many of the varieties of plants and flowers in this master garden inspired some of Fortuny’s most innovative and beautiful fabric designs.  

Thanks to the restoration efforts of Tudy, this large historic garden has been beautifully restored, and still inspires design of the Fortuny fabrics created today.
Formal in its geometry and lined with boxwood, romantic elements abound in this grand garden; complete with rose covered arbors, ivy covered brick walls and marble statuary and benches. One would never guess that such a large parcel was hidden behind the factory's facade complete with towering magnolias, ornamental pomegranate trees and a large swimming pool anchoring the rear of the garden. The graceful draping wisteria and grape vine covered arbors softened and offered a balance to the hard geometry of the sculpted  boxwoods and the brick walls of the factory. After our tour of the garden, we were invited into the exclusive showroom to see the rich and sumptuous fabrics that are still produced and inspired by this wonderful garden today.

Visits to the factory are not permitted in order to maintain the secrets of production but the showroom and garden are accessible by appointment only or with Tudy Sanmartini who has been an official guide in Venice since1969. Tudy has become quite a celebrity in luxury travel articles which feature her many gardens and work. My family and I were lucky to meet her and over a wonderful lunch with a view of St. Mark Tower across the water became friends. I look forward to working with Tudy on a future restoration project in this magnificent city sometime soon!

Tudy Sammartini with my boys and me posing togetherunder a grape arbor

 

 

Today's Bouquet Travel Impressions: Claude Monet's Garden at Giverny

Claude Montet in his garden, 1921

I think my version of heaven looks a lot like this!

I am following Nature without being able to grasp her.
I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.

In the Garden, 1895,
Collection E. G. Buehrle, Zürich

I think without my love of art, I perhaps would not have become a gardener or floral designer in my third life career; following that of a mother and art curator. This summer on my first family trip to Europe, I got to finally visit "the" garden that was the source of inspiration for many of the paintings of the great Impressionist painter Claude Monet. Monet's garden and lily pond at his country house in Giverny, France, has been a continuous source of inspiration to creativity, art research and gardening throughout my life.

Visiting Monet's vibrant gardens and lily pond at Giverny, has been a dreamy personal goal and on my bucket list, since I was a young art history student who could never afford such travel.  Experiencing this fantasia of flowers for the first time in June--when blossoms were exploding with color--was simply, wondrous.  The garden's vast variety of flowers seemed as etheral in their vitality as the ones that Monet immortalized in his Impressionist paintings.

Located half way between, Rouen and Paris, is the small country town Giverny, where Claude Monet spent 43 years cultivating and composing this magnificent garden and lily pond that was the subject of the beauty, poetry and prose of his many painting that now hang has in the finest museums of the world.

 I ‘m extremely busy with my garden; it’s such a joy to me and…I am in raptures at the wonders of nature.

Agapanthus, between 1914 and 1926, Museum of Modern Art, New York

It is well documented that Monet had a deep love and connection to his garden and sought inspiration from its beauty. Monet first rented his pink stucco one-room wide country home in 1883; and finally purchasing it in 1890 with the considerable success of the sales from his paintings of the 1870s that were the hallmark of the revolutionary art movement,  known as Impressionism.
 The Impressionist artists moved away from realism to a style that tried to capture fleeting and momentary light through short brush strokes side by side.  Over the years, Monet transformed his simple country garden typical for the Normand region--with a kitchen garden and an orchard of apple trees-- into a garden with wild vitality like that of his impressionist brushstrokes in one of his landscape paintings. He also added a lily pond that reflected the interest and fashion of Japanese prints that influence many artists of the time. This addition seems to balance the vitality and vibrancy of his more traditional flower garden with the pond's viscus, quite and more contemplative space that is reflective of a deeper more mysterious quality evident in many of Monet's late paintings.

Water Lilies, c. 1915, Musée Marmottan Monet

From a gardeners perspective, it just doesn't get much better. In fact, I think this is what my version of heaven may look like; as it is an explosion of color with wild energizing abundance that is simply joyful. Monet was a master gardener carefully composing his garden over many years to reflect the spontenaiety and naturalness just, as he depicted in his plein air paintings-- that we know were carefully planned and usually sketched in nature only to finish the painting in the studio. Every color and variety of flower was composed for contrast and pop like  brushstrokes in his paintings. In his garden planning, exploration was encourage by the soft gravel paths and flower arches throughout his garden. I enjoyed too the exotic beauty of his lily pond, but the untamed vitality, abundance of color and variety of his flower garden filled my heart. I think Monet and I are kindered garden spirits as we share the unbridled love of color, wild vitality, and joyful abundance in our garden aesthetics.

After our visit to  Monet's country house, garden and lily pond, we toured  the small town of Giverny. We ended our visit in the old church yard where Monet was laid to rest. Monet left his country home and garden to his son Michael, who gave it to the French Academy of Arts in 1966, and after 10 years of restoration, it opened to the public in 1980. Giverny was a place of inspiration and solace for Monet, and  each season, his garden continues to serve as a vibrant bouquet that continues to inspire and provide joy. It is no wonder why it is one of the most celebrated gardens in the history of art and gardening.

 

 

 

Today's Bouquet Travel Take-Always from Versailles Summer 2014:

Eye-Dazzling Elegance on a Grand Scale

One thing Louis the XIV knew how to do was go BIG.   The court of Versailles was the center of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime.  The gardens of Versailles are celebrated for their timeless formal elegance on a grand scale.

Gardens and palace of Versailles in 1746, by the abbot Delagrive

Today Versailles is an icon for elegance, grandeur and opulence with interior and exterior rooms of the the palace brimming with eye-dazzling and awe inspiring ornate baroque elements that can still work today on any scale in your home or garden.

A few obvious take-aways from my visit:

1.  Florals are Fabulous

2. Spice it up with Citrus

2.   Magnetism of Garden Sculpture

3.  Power of Water Features

4.  Beautiful Boxwoods

5. Key Take-Away: Garden Maintenance is Everything
Timeless design through impeccable maintenance. In any garden no mater the scale or type--formal or organic--the garden must be properly maintained, or  it will loose its form over time.

Carnations: An Old-Fashioned Charmer for the Modern Girl

On Mother's Day I generally write about how I appreciate and connect with my late mother's spirit through her roses that I inherited for my garden.  During the week before Mother's Day,  I caught a whiff  from a breeze of a clump of bright pink charming mini-carnations while weeding in my garden, that instantly brought me back to a memorable moment with my mother conjuring a brief moment in time,when a daughter realizes her independence, from their most powerful role model and force in their life--her mother.

One summer when I was home from college,  my mom and I went to buy flowers for a dinner she was hosting for one of my college friends and her parents, who was visiting our home in Los Angeles for the first time. My mother was fawning over a super market cellophane wrapped bouquet of mixed carnations: white, red, and pink.   "Aren't they beautiful? " I remember. No. Instantly, I thought. They were the tackiest bouquet and as old fashioned as the many antiques that cluttered our house as my parents were antique dealers whose living room at times resembled a warehouse stuffed with old furniture and dustibles. Carnations? Really? We can't possibly buy them? I was repelled.

In this microcosmic moment of realization in a super market, I remembered feeling  independent in my cultivated taste, and modern, as the art I was studying away at school. So different from whom I thought my mother was that afternoon while shopping together. In that simple and infinitesimal moment, I remember feeling so separate and independent in heart and mind--identity and self. I think she saw it too! But nevertheless, my mother bought the carnation bouquet anyway; to my dismay! At home, I immediately mixed them with roses and other flowers from her garden for a more sophisticated presentation! I was an independent modern girl with my own point of view--and my adored my arrangement, my independence, and my new friend and her family.

And as a daughter often learns with maturity and time, my mother loved carnations because they were her mother's favorite. The very same reason why I love my roses.  My grandmother though loved the fragrance of all carnations; including: white, red, and pink! Catching the scent of my bright pink carnations while weeding was another microcosmic and infinitesimal moment bringing me full circle with a deeper appreciation for my mom, myself, and that charming old fashion favorite that now grows in many varieties in this "independent modern girl's" garden--the carnation! Ha! Happy Mother's Day!

Simple Elegance: Candying Organic Edible Pansies

Organic Poached Pear Tart with Candied Pansies

Pansies in my Garden

Now that it is Spring, I will be using the variety of edible flowers in my garden to garnish and enhance some of my favorite recipes.  This week I will be using Pansies from my garden for candying and decorating my favorite poached pear recipe.

Container Pansies

Pansies have such old fashion charm and are a favorite as they come in so many different colors -- single and combinations. These velvety flowers also have soft mild flavors and delicate fragrance--primarily the blue flowered ones.  Did you know that when eating Pansies,  unlike most edible flowers, you can eat both the petals and the pistils and stamens. In fact, you can eat the pansy sepals as well! Before you add these beautiful edible flower to your favorite recipe, be sure that the Pansies are not sprayed with pesticides and are grown organically.

Pansies Ready to Candy

To candy pansies you will need the following:

1. Art Brush
2. Fine Baking Sugar
3. Egg White lightly beaten

4. Organic Pesticide Free Pansies
5. Plate for drying



 Watch how easy it is to create a beautiful candied Pansy on my very first video post produce entirely on my HTC cell phone!