22 Dreamy Gardens

At Haseley Court, Nancy Lancaster planted an allée of laburnum that still enchants today. British designer David Hicks once called Nancy—a native Virginian— “the most influential English gardener since Gertrude Jekyll.”

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In his garden at Hummelo, world-renowned Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf brings home the essence of his aesthetic. In mid- and late summer at Hummelo, the combination of Lythrum virgatum, ‘Visions in Pink’ astilbe, wild indigo, tufted hair grass, and ironweed commands attention. 

See more of Piet Oudolf’s garden.

Drawn to Nantucket’s allure, a Philadelphia couple created a classic cedar-shake home with an enviable garden full of layered color, texture, and cottage charm. The courtyard garden features perennials such as echinacea, buddleia, liatris, and various biannuals and annuals. And with a photo like this, how could it not be one of the magazine’s most popular gardens?

See more of this Nantucket garden and cottage.

Sharon Santoni has found heaven on earth in Normandy, France, but rather than keeping the treasures of the region to herself, she’s on a mission to spread the ambience. Thanks to the many parterres, the property belonging to Sharon Santoni and her husband, Eric, feels much larger than its modest one acre. 

See more of Sharon Santoni’s garden.

One of the great things about Charleston gardens is the element of surprise they hold. That’s what Mark Maresca wanted to create with this one at the John Blake House (ca. 1800). Mark worked with landscape architect Hugh Dargan to re-create much of the 18th-century garden by restoring the parterres and laying out an overall square with subdivided spaces. 

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When a garden is built on hopes and dreams, there are no limits. Explore the rose-bowered arbors, evergreens, and chorus of annuals and perennials of a 3-acre Connecticut paradise. At regular intervals, in the rooms created by the archways and conifers, benches offer a place to sit, chat, and enjoy the garden. Feverfew and silene line the walkways. 

See more of Plantsville Pines.

Conceived for the pleasure of a king, with grand avenues, fantastical water features, and rows and rows of blooms, the gardens of Versailles continue to reign supreme. Versailles’ Orangerie, designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, looks out on four quadrants of parterres de broderie and boasts trees from Spain, Portugal, and Italy.

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When New York designer and author Charlotte Moss needs to relax, recharge, and refuel, she heads to the garden of her East Hampton getaway, Boxwood Terrace. Stone steps and a parade of urns and cypress lead from main house to the pool house.

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Newton Vineyard in Napa Valley boasted some of the most distinctive and delicious wines in the world, but the gardens were equally exquisite. Before the 2020 wildfires destroyed it, the winery possessed breathtaking views of the corkscrew topiaries and cypress trees that frame the parterre garden, which cleverly covered the Chardonnay cellar and acted as natural insulation. 

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Interior designer Bunny Williams transformed her 12-acre Connecticut garden into a progression of spaces as beautiful and livable as the rooms she creates. The garden’s perennial borders change colors with the seasons. Late spring is a symphony of blues and purples. 

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Behind the centuries-old houses that front Amsterdam’s iconic canals lie verdant spaces rarely seen by the public. The main room of four parterres at Herengracht 460 features a circular lily pond with a bronze figure of baby Hercules. 

See more secret gardens of Amsterdam.

Most coastal landscapes look outward, but Rose Cove in Maine also brings the foreground into focus. Professional gardener Michael Walek’s landscape design pays homage to previous gardeners and honors the location’s roots. 

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The book Italian Gardens of Lake Como (Mondadori Electa, 2019) takes us along captivating shores to explore the history and landscape of majestic villas.  Flower readers love this view of the nymphaeum with the prospect that ends with the temple and statue of Hercules and Lichas at Villa d’Este. 

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Famed for its topiaries, Ladew Gardens in Maryland is both whimsical and formal, capturing its creator’s sense of fun. Seen here, the Cottage Garden, the first garden you see upon arriving at Ladew, shows the exuberant nature of the property and its original owner. 

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With a lot of study and careful selection of plants, landscape architect Jamie Purinton designed a sweeping Hudson Valley landscape that looks as if it’s always belonged. Even in late fall, the meadow continues to be a rich, vibrant tapestry composed of plants such as showy goldenrod. 

See more of this meadow garden and tips for growing a meadow.

As Gioia Browne set to work creating gardens around her new home at an old Rhode Island farmstead, she was guided by her strong sense of style and savvy feel for color. But paramount in her priorities was always a reverence for stewardship because Little Compton, Rhode Island, has a beauty worth preserving.

See more of this Little Compton garden.

Tucked into the picturesque Cotswolds countryside, Highgrove Gardens at the home of King Charles III and The Queen Consort, sits surrounded by gardens, wispy meadows, marching allées, and ancient walls with fragrant climbing roses.

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In Andrew Grossman’s Seekonk, Massachusetts garden, the last vestiges of a former driveway became a crescent-shaped gravel patio adjacent to the sunroom addition. This landscape designer trained as a dancer, but he currently expresses movement with plants. 

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Tucked into rolling farmland in Dutchess County, New York, Wethersfield offers one of the country’s finest classical gardens. Lupines and columbines edge the Citrus Lawn overlooking the Pine Terrace. 

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Fletcher Steele designed some 700 gardens, principally in the Northeast. One of the few open to the public is Naumkeag in the Berkshires. The garden has recently seen a $3.5 million restoration that began with bringing back the iconic Blue Steps. These concrete steps, an Art Deco interpretation of an Italian water staircase, cut a swath of high drama down the steep hillside, through a grove of white birch trees.

See more about Naumkeag.

This elegant house designed by Willis Polk was much bigger than anything that Jon Kaplan and Julie Billings had been considering buying, but they were attracted to its graceful lines and its 105-year old, 1.5-acre garden. Teucrium, golden oregano, and lavender mingle in the beds beside the path. A rich mix of leaf color, including red berberis and loropetalum, ensures that the vibrant mood continues as the garden flows down the hill from the house.

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The restoration of a historic Newport, Rhode Island, property brought its monochromatic Blue Garden—conceived by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.—back to its original splendor. The Blue Garden was planted along a central water feature of blue-tiled pools connected by a water runnel, surrounded by formal planting beds. 

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Boasting prolific gardens with deep green roots, Rowallane speaks to the beauty of the Emerald Isle. The walled garden stacks a series of perennials such as daylilies and gooseneck loosestrife beside shrubs such as lacecap hydrangea and viburnums framing the walkway. 

See more from Rowallane’s gardens.