Pale green-yellow with black and oyster to suit the various art pieces displayed in this vaulted room with German rice paper chandelier.
Art rail systems and pinspot lighting put the focus on art in this bathroom tiled floor to ceiling. Photo Nicholas Lapp
Antique sconces retrofitted with dimmable LED strips provide a luxe and practical flexible lighting option for the vanity mirrors. Photo Nicholas Lapp
Neutral tones in a Hamptons beach house provide a cozy setting for reading or cocktail seating, Barbara Lane Interiors. Photo Thierry Malty
Hampton home with bold modern pieces in black and white for a crisp take on a summer house entry, Barbara Lane Interiors. Photo Thierry Malty
Amagansett open plan family room is warm and cozy with a parchment covered coffee table, simple palette and African woven fabrics, Barbara Lane Design. Photo Thierry Malty
Wide open spaces let the Family room and kitchen flow together for an airy feeling and genial atmosphere for the cook, Barbara Lane Design. Photo Thierry Malty
A custom plaster work chandelier is light and fresh in this beach house dining area with custom French furnishings in wire-brushed oak, Barbara Lane Design. Photo Thierry Malty.
A children’s playroom converted into a cozy loft style bedroom with gallery grays and taupes with black.
Warm rust colored fabrics in mixed patterns on soft rounded shapes provides a fun and comfortable seating arrangement for a private theater, Barbara Lane Design. Photo Thierry Malty
Custom blue glazed lavastone island counter provides a sanitary and beautiful element to a white and glass-blue kitchen, Barbara Lane Design.
Upholstered walls studded in shell buttons provide texture and detail to a luxurious powder room for an art collector. The custom light fixture is by Dubreuil in Paris, Barbara Lane Design.
Soaring wood ceilings and furniture with clean sculptural lines offer an open, airy, modern take on country living, Barbara Lane Design.
Dark bronze metals are a crisp contrast to the icy palette of this white and seaglass bedroom with horsehair end tables and embroidered pillows, Barbara Lane Design.
Of the many rooms in five story showhouse decorated for the American Hospital of Paris Foundation, our cream and black Master Bedroom was one of two singled out for praise in the NY Times’ Style section. Photo: Lars Klove/NY Times
A table with leaves allows a round, general purpose library table by day to convert into a dining table. An elegant Delisle chandelier provides warm evening lighting without interrupting the skyline views, and chairs are backed in goat suede, (safe from gripping hands and food). Photo: Emon Hassan/NY Times Barbara Lane Design.
White custom cabinets, Caesarstone counters and linear oak veneers give a renovated kitchen a modern makeover without being cold. To avoid a sterile feel, texture is provided by the wave glass cabinet doors and the handmade dimensional tile backsplash. Kitchens are like operating rooms, bright light, cleanablility and function should be the primary directives. Since they fill up quickly with people, food, utensils and projects, it’s best to keep the base lines simple and useful.
In an era of white plate restaurants and take-out food, entertaining with style and an attention to detail and sensory stimulation has become a rarity. Nothing shows gracious hospitality more than some effort, detail and attention to the dining table. People need to return to a slower dining experience where they can enjoy their friends and a meal and spend time with better quality.
Purple artichokes mimic the dusky water glasses in this late winter setting with black and slate colored hellebores.
Hand-painted Russian porcelains from the Lomonosov factory inspired the Russian theme of this holiday table, with malachite boxes and obelisks from the Urals on an antique gold obi.
Black, white and taupe with a pop of chartreuse.
Reactive glaze turquoise plates inspire the blue, green and yellow setting on an ikat tablecloth.
Snow iridescence was the inspiration for a wedding engagement in white, silver and pale tones of pearlescent blue and ice green. Porcelain birds peck at rhinestone jewels and white on white flowers in textured bisque vases add interest within the monochromatic palette. Tiny cloches cover the starter, a crab amuse-bouche.
Vibrant color quilting fabric inspired the violet, teal and tangerine setting with rhinestone brooches, shoe clips and satin ribbons for a fun play on luxe for a Crazy Rich Asians book party.
Silk lanterns echo the table colors and provide ambient glow as the sunlight fades.
Spring flowers and eggs for an Easter brunch.
The guest of honor liked blue, so it was the focal color for an al fresco dinner celebration.
A modern print cloth with a retro feel is mixed with milk glass and bright orange and tangerine colors for a sunny tasting dinner.
Succulents add texture to a table of French faience and porcelain in neutral drab ware colors with Astuguevieille bronze candlesticks.
The bright colors in a French outdoor striped fabric literally inspire the lavender, green and orange spring table setting combo.
Spring flowers and morpho butterflies with lime green for a fresh and festive birthday dinner in a private museum cafe.
Classic red and green in a lively Marimekko print and spatterware dishes for a less traditional take on the holiday color combo.
Russet centered lilies echo the coppery tablecloth for a warm cozy feeling at an elaborate wine tasting dinner in Sonoma, Grant & Company.
Bright Martha Washington geraniums suit the queen and corgi for a cheerful breakfast setting.
You want a home to be welcoming when you do an open house. Here dried allium heads and pale opalescent glass with neutrals provides a calming invitation to join.
Freshly picked fall leaves are the only accented needed with a neutral setting and striking black Verdure water glasses.
Bold graphic Fornasetti plates work best paired with simple and clean elements. Spider mums in acid green provide a contrast and much needed texture with the many smooth surfaces.
Vibrant purple in French deco silver provides a strong counterpoint to the warm yellows in this art collector’s Fifth Avenue dining room.
Each setting a different French faience plate and napkin, in bright summer colors for a clash of vibrant hues.
Straw mice and random nuts scattered along brown transfer ware and pinecones for a clever take on the Night Before Christmas.
Candy eggs and a few fresh flowers with tiny chenille chicks are the references for an Easter dinner setting on hand-glazed French porcelain plates with rare boxwood handled flatware.
The perfect colors and textures of individual Icelandic poppies is all that’s needed against a background of neutrals in a tented anniversary party.
Classic silver ornaments echo the mercury glass displayed on the buffet, alongside Lobmeyr candlesticks.
Pastel yellow, lush flowers and a mix of new and antique tableware creates an interesting and festive setting for dinner.
Holidays don’t have to be kitschy or junky when clean shapes and strong patterns are used for this weeknight chili dinner.
Every shade of blue serves a double baby shower lunch for a pair of moms-to-be both expecting boys.
Gold and black porcelain and French silver mix wtih soft floral pastels and blush colored water tumblers for a subtle but sophisticated combination.
Fall fruit and foliages for an abundant centerpiece to fill up a long, wide table and make it less bare.
Paper fans for heat and blue tones for a late summer celebration dinner outside.
Rustic living requires more casual looking flowers, here a mix of summer perennials to play off the blue glassware by a pond.
This formal and traditional Christmas dinner setting is lightened by a miniature potager garden centerpiece of succulents and tiny flower heads, with miniature pewter figurines.
Bright oranges with gray neutrals pop for a summer dinner.
Gold, orange and ochre with black are the warm colors for an elaborate Spanish dinner with Spanish wines. Photo Brandyn Morley
A neutral palette allows the bright centerpieces to be the festive pop of color and focus on each of the tables in a cream colored tent for Grant & Company.
Preserved butterflies with lilac and ranunculus and bright green colors for a birthday in a museum.
Finishing the centerpiece on a long table, nothing makes guests feel more special than something completely different in scale from what they encounter at home or in restaurants. Guests should be made to feel special.
Casual mason jars with different types of white bridal flowers (dahlias, lilies, queen anne’s lace, etc.) are casually lined down long tables with a spectacular view of the wine country hills in Napa, Grant & Company Design.
Late summer corporate luncheon for Grant & Company.
With enough decor, you’d never guess this “nightclub” was actually a tented Golden Globe dinner built over a pool for the Hollywood agent set by Thomas Ford Design.
Crisp and warm is what a wine cellar dinner setting required for Grant & Company. Heavy linen napkins and massed roses suit the barrel lined room.
Sometimes simple works best, cloths to match the autumnal leaves is elegant and understated for Grant & Company in Napa.
Sometimes a little touch can go a long way; pink dyed peacocks with jewelry and headdress detailing to highlight a party for Thomas Ford Design.
Plentiful votives and amber hurricanes warm up a dark setting with gold silk obi runners topped with air plants and ripe persimmons in low trays.
Carnation balls provide texture and fragrance around alphabetical seating charts combined with a floor plan graphic to facilitate seating at a large table.
Lush lilies and delphiniums soften the hard lines of a marble lined church for Thomas Ford Design.
Tied back panels dress up the edges of a tented wedding and allow easy airflow and egress.
A lovely view and turquoise and white color combo provides a fresh dinner setting on a hot Napa evening. The small wedding was intimate but detailed with lush all-white flowers and fragrant herbs, Grant & Company.
Fragrant gardenias and luch garden flowers for a romantic candlelit dinner under a leafy arbor for Grant & Company.
A giant mirror ball, custom colored peacocks, vibrant colors, bead curtains all add up to a dramatic setting for a Hollywood party, Thomas Ford Design.
Belgian gray and Schiaparelli pink combine cozy with modern dinner seating during the televised award segment of the Oscars, Thomas Ford Design.
Classic red roses look bold and modern at a Chinese wedding in the SF Asian Art Museum with patterned paper-wrapped hurricanes emitting a soft glow for Grant & Company.
Simple olive branches - but on a massive scale elevated on a tall plinth - suit the multi story ceilings of San Francisco’s City Hall, Grant & Company.
A contemporary look for the seating cards for a white wedding for Grant & Company.
Large arrangements flank the main stairs of San Francisco’s City Hall for the bride’s show stopping entrance down the staircase, Grant & Company.
With a view this spectacular, the table centerpieces needed to be simple, clean and low so as not to compete, Grant & Company.
Warm tones and fruit in baskets give a casual quality to a bankers’ winery lunch in Napa in September, Grant & Company.
Dramatic backlit bookcase walls for a gala dinner for Thomas Ford Design.
Clean sharp lines and mirror make for a sleek wedding at the Four Seasons , San Francisco for Grant & Company.
Three layers of metal mesh hung with thousands of hand-tied crystals provide a transparent but mesmerizing oversized floating chandelier of bits of sparking light for a tent, Thomas Ford Design.
Under domes with projected clouds, the foyer of the Met Museum in NYC is filled with beds of tall French tulips and towering arrangements of dogwood, viburnum and quince for the setting of a grand society wedding, by Robert Isabell.
A Tailored chuppah for a wedding at the St. Regis Hotel.
A younger me the day of the thank you reception at the Clinton White House. After weeks of the crew of Robert Isabell Inc. designing, building and installing Christmas decor at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. For the record, services are donated and you have to pass strict security background checks to even be allowed to work as a volunteer. Was a great privilege and fun to be working there in my hometown. Behind me, the twenty-five foot wreath involved a custom welded multi-piece giant frame, cranes to lift in place, truckloads of fresh and artificial greens (to hold up for weeks of display) 500 strands of tiny blue lights and then hundreds of larger bulbs hand dipped to get the matching blue shade - just one part of decking the halls. The whole crew was proud and pleased to meet the President and First Lady, and contribute to decor enjoyed by thousands of visitors during the season.
25th anniversary dinner for Geoffrey Beene featured fun polka dotted tablecloths for a chic twist on basic black and white, Robert Isabell Inc.
2400 guests for dinner at the reopening of the Washington Union Station, newly renovated, Robert Isabell Inc.
The polaroid overlay shows some of the hundreds of buckets of wide open flowers it took to compose this image for the iconic ABSOLUT VODKA ad campaign.
Wedding editorial for the NY Times Sunday Magazine, bridal bouquet of stephanotis, roses and lily of the valley with French satin ribbon, Robert Isabell Inc. Photo Michael O’Brien
Two page spread of the Celeste Bartos Forum decorated for the NY Public Library’s Ten Treasures charity dinner. A huge dogwood and white cherry blossom arrangement towers in the room while the centerpieces of Casa Blanca lilies in handblown crystal bowls are low and easy for guests to converse across, Robert Isabell Inc.
When the hostess for a man’s 70th birthday at the 21 Club asked “do it like he’s 7” the decor was bright colors, mix and match chairs and cushions, paper hats and crowns, balloons, candies from his childhood, noisemakers, classic toys, puzzles and games all over the tables and place settings. After a few glasses of wine everyone was spraying silly string, blowing whistles and laughing, just what you want from your guests enjoying themselves. Plus everyone took home trinkets as mementos and memories of being a kid again.
Over 500 Photos are available in higher resolution prints and various sizes at nicholaslapp.smugmug.com
Nothing has the amazing range of coloration that fresh flowers and leaves offer. Here are a series of collages of both vibrant and pastel flowers from the mundane to the rare and hard-to-grow, in clashing and complimentary color combinations. Great in pairs or groups, grab a bunch of Ikea frames and print sizes to fit!
Mixed summer flowers blend from one to another in this floral version of the spectrum of color.
Orange and blue may not be a common color combination but this mix of orange, blue, coral and blush flowers is amazing.
The rare ‘Wisselink’ chestnut has amazing pale white green leaves with prominent veining that slowly mature through stages of chartreuse in summer heat.
Pansies and colored hellebores with hyacinth, cineraria and blue pulmonaria.
Unusual colors in green euphorbia, tawny bearded iris petals, hybrid baptisia, nectarscordum and mustard colored cestrum create a moody mix.
Flowers with intense red pigment are showcased against those with none in a mix of summer flowers from petunias and pelargoniums to spider gerbera, begonias and picotee hydrangeas.
Hibiscus, roses, begonias, geranium, chelone and asters with other late season annuals.
White eucharist lilies and a giant pink orchid cactus with clerodendron and begonias.
Delphinium, clematis, pansies, osteospermum and vinca play against white ruffled tuberous begonias.
The interesting shades of hybrid sunflowers in blush and russet and pink with zinnias and dahlias.
An array of the new hybrid colors in carnations from lilac and lavender to deep plum and small spray mums.
Mostly yellow combination of sunflowers, marigolds, gerbera, mimulus, scabiosa and freesia.
White and pastel flowers including begonias, jasmine, phalaenopsis orchids, double Shasta daisies, hydrangea and phlox with opalescent and latticino glass.
Strongly patterned violet streptocarpus pop on a bed of café au lait dahlias, cornflowers, dianthus and green zinnias.
A mix of mid summer flowers including roses, phlox, nicotiana, abutilons, ivy geraniums, fuchsias, cosmos and double clematis.
Deeply colored hyacinths, cinerarias, and hybrid pansies with butterfly wings.
Large and small pansies, violas and waterlily magnolia in striking color ways.
White, pink and nude shades of peonies in single and double varieties with Iris and lupine and rue foliage.
Lime green coleus with hot pink and orange zinnias, begonias, roses, poppies, parrot tulips, geranium and gazania.
Nothing but fully opened white and picotee paper thin ranunculus heads in late spring.
Aventurine and twist cane Venetian glass finger bowls with an array of lavender and pale purple flowers including roses, clematis, wisteria, foxglove, lilac, iris and chive blossoms.
Black red and burgundy dahlias mixed with begonias and black scabiosa.
Clematis, heliotrope, geraniums, daisies, marigolds, fuchsias, zinnias and other summer annuals in vibrant shades.
On a bed of sugar cake sprinkles, brightly colored mid season roses, Icelandic poppies, calendula, pelargoniums playing warm colors against cooler blue and lavender tones.
Lunaria, explodin clematis seedheads, glaucous cedar pods, wild fennel, and arbutus pods blend into a serene palette of nature’s neutrals.
A small sampling of over 40 varieties of hybrid hydrangeas from my yard.
Acrid begonias, marigolds, abutilons and echinacea pop against hydrangeas.
Various pink camellia varieties with double Delnashaugh daffodils.
Vintage silk jacquard ribbon with spray, multi-flora and English roses in complementary shades.
English roses, peonies, fuchsia and verbascum.
Dahlias with salpiglossis, salvia, jasmine, allium, lantana, coreopsis, rudbeckia and other late season bloomers.
Remarkable coloring on a hybridized beard iris “Coffee Trader” with lavender, blue, taupe and brown tones on heavily ruffled petals.
Sun and shade on a mix of cool and warm toned late summer/early fall flowers.
Celadon squash, pale gourds and Dusty Miller foliage with begonia, rose, hydrangea and passionflower.
Heliotrope, autumn aster, clematis, pansies, flowering cabbage, Japanese anemone, stokesia and strobilanthes leaves in deep he’s of blue and purple.
Autumn leaves with chocolate cosmos, brown vanda orchids, smokebush, coleus, hydrangea and rudbeckias in brown plum and orange, the colors of fall.
White ruffled begonias, cosmos and phalaenopsis with blue salvia, hydrangea, passionflower and scabiosa in a classic color combination.
Various Japanese anemones with flowering mint, eucomis and begonias.
A late rose in October inspired a mix of sedums, clerodendrum, penstemon, heuchera and fuchsias with hydrangeas altered by the cold nights.
A range of autumn colors in early fall leaves and mixed berries including sumac, euonymous, maple, beech, berberis, callicarpa, symphoricarpos, geranium and Exbury azalea.
A monochrome emphasizes form, texture and veining in a collage of leaves and fronds and pods in shades of green.
Brown and yellow leaves from maples, hornbeam and fothergilla mixed with begonias and an array of lavender and mauve-toned flowers with a touch or orange creates a striking palette.
Various begonia leaves (right side up and upside down) with late chocolate cosmos, chocolate mimosa, blue hebe, jewel orchid leaves and immature viburnum berries clustered with dahlias, sedums and cuphea.
Ruffled begonias with two varieties of passionflower and anemones.
Deep violet blue monkshood with bright orange marigolds, abutilon, rose hips and yellow/red flowers like alstroemeria and coleus leaves.
Ruffled begonias in orange and deep coral with species fuchsias, coleus and impatiens.
Variegated foliages from ivies, hostas, rhododendron, vinca, lonicera, cyclamen and lamium show a huge range of diversity in pattern.
Various leaves affected by cold evenings (with mixed berries and apples) show an amazing range of coloration.
Pink cupped daffodils look almost surreal compared with Navy Jacket blue hyacinths and cinerarias.
Contrasting colors and textures create a pop and zany combination with cactus dahlias, chocolate cosmos, monkshood, begonias and other cool season flowers.
A brown turkey fig and prickly pear fruit add deep tones along with red hazelnut leaves to grocery store gladiola and seasonal dahlias and campanula.
Silvery plectranthus argentatus leaves, with heavily ribbed undersides, and common plectranthus ciliatus mimic their common relative the hybrid coleus, here a bright green Lime Time variety.
Flowering kale intensify with frost to meld with stock, roses, pansies, mums and end of season flowers for this vibrant mix.
Pink and spring green is a classic combination, here in roses, immature hydrangea, snowberry and coleus leaves.
Houseplants meet hothouse, and early winter blossoms: Amaryllis, apricot blossom, pansies, paper whites, hellebores, orchids, African violets, begonias, carnations, osteospermum and alstromeria.
Loquat and early hellebores with moss, lichens, beech leaves, hydrangea, ivy, pansies and snowberry.
Double and single amaryllis echo the color of young and mature sliced watermelon radishes, with hellebores, quince and paper whites.
“Pacific Giants” primrose in crazy bright shades appear in the grayest and coolest of wintertime.
18 Digitally printed cotton fabrics
9 Floral collages and 9 coordinated two tone solids for the first of my floral collections from Maywood Studios, in quilting cottons.
All 18 First Light fabrics with additional scraps to create a modern ombré
two of several pairings of floral photo print fabrics with coordinated two one solids.
My hellebore fabric gridded with a group of solids for a modern plaid.
Fresh dahlias with Hand Picked fabric with painted daisies and lilac and the companion solid “duo” two tone printed chambray look.
Pansies are one of the harbingers of spring and cool weather, but they don’t last long so why not enjoy them forever in prints.
My photographs as fabric, here a collage of flower petals in two tones with a coordinated solid in Maywood Studio cotton fabrics.
By using digital one pass printing, it saves water and time since only the yardage needed is printed and doesn’t require cleaning or multiple screens or offset rollers to do each color.
Two clever designs by Boersma, McMinnville for my First Light collection.
A traditional Bargello pattern in solid and floral photo prints creating a vibrant take on flamestitch patterning overquilted in a horsetail pattern.
White, blue and yellow flowers with coordinated solids for a vibrant palette to combine.
The full line of florals in the Forget Me Not collection with hydrangea, echinops, forget-met-not, Shasta daisy, cornflowers, daffodils, calla lilies, delphinium, runners, cineraria and more.
Maywood’s free quilt pattern that was an easy way to replicate my improv style quilting. Shown here in a baby quilt.
It’s fun seeing flowers from the garden become yard and yards of happy color ways. Here open and budded globe thistles (Echinops) ar the blue pops against hydrangea and white asters and achillea.
One of the kits in my Forget Me Not collection, by Maywood.
Some of the red and green fabrics in my 2024 Christmas fabric collection.
The floral fabrics in my Christmas collection including a 108” wide back in peppermints with bicolor carnations.
Reinterpreted in my Christmas floral fabric line of holly, hydrangea, pine, and poinsettia in greens and reds.
Detail of an improv, my Christmas Chaos quilt in my holiday fabric line.
This improv quilt is 10 1/2 feet wide for a Palm Springs Living Room with 16’ ceilings.
Over 19,000 pieces recreate a marble bust.
Mixed media on canvas.
Gouache and watercolor on cold press cotton rag paper.
Soap ground aquatint etching on cotton paper.
Oil on canvas.
Bright Warhol colors and acrylic paints were used to depict the four Ragdoll cats in this household.
Da Vinci’s iconic portrait in interlocking pixelated translucent plastic
Random ombres in blues, yellows greige tones greens and taupes inspired by a dawn on a Salem farm lot.
Oil, resin, mica and metallic powders.
Venetian and Mexican glass smalti, Pyrite and gold leaf mosaic.
Detail of multi paneled oil marbleized float painting
Cable, bobbin and intarsia sweaters, self-taught knitter.
Three related pantos on one modern quilt where the concept was X and for me X is the intersection of two lines.
A candy and gingerbread Chinese temple for a client’s dining room at Christmas to suit the museum caliber, hand-painted 18th century wallpaper.
180 green to earth tone fabrics in a strip quilt bedcover.
No easy feat cutting and arranging 1152 different fabrics into a rainbow ombré, but I think it’s modern paradise.
Full color ombré with square and rectangles in this version.
An all white quilt with custom monogram border corners for the couple.
A simple strip pattern of mixing 60 fabrics in shades of purple and plum.
An improv with ethnic patterns, solids and skates.
Variation on the first irate, with yellow per a client commission.
Japanese fabrics and white, simple and graphic.
Shade doesn’t have to mean sparse plantings, with the right soil and moisture you can layer rodgersias, dormer, astilbes, aralias and create lush bog plantings.
Fertilizer is better low dosed frequently to get massive growth on annuals. This 6’ wide window box is literally 4’ x 7’ of flowers.
The striking deep blue ‘Lingholm’ hybrid of the difficult and unpredictable Himalayan poppy.
Arisaema graffithii var. pradhanii has huge striped and spotted flowers with the shape of a rearing cobra head.
Flowers are temporary, but the foliage is 9-12 months a year between deciduous and evergreen choices. Here an Arizona Blue Ice cypress provides contrast to a gingko, pillar structure of an Italian cypress and the stunning foliage of a tiger leaf sumac.
Short-lived hybrid “Sugar Plum” poppies with lavish lacinated petals that last at most 2 days.
Black-edged eggplant colored petals on a double hybrid hellebore.
The secret with pelargoniums, is watch the right fertilizer and winter them over year to year to get really big plants.
Six foot Oriental lilies tower over a Sabrina hydrangea.
Striking silver foliage on the hyper split leaves of this uncommon vegetable.
Great green to white blending on a double clematis vine, keep the roots in shade and the heads in sun and you’ll be guaranteed success.
Amazing orange anthers on a striped Pickwick crocus
Striking ruffled centers on this lavender variety oddly named Blue Light which reblooms in the fall with single flowers.
Darlings of the English gentry, these temperamental spring flowers need water but detest rain which ruins their amazing velvety petals in stunning colorways.
Massive, dinner-plate sized blooms of the paper thin petals on these short lived wonders.
Chartreuse foliage on a Japanase full moon maple mirrors the bright green of Euphorbia Characias wulfenii paired with orange Exbury azaleas.
The most perfect color on this highly fragrant tea rose.
Striking shades of blue on early spring and chilly weather loving cinerarias which used to be the maintain of Easter displays in years past.
An Aquilegia bred for layered petals and barely any spurs changes the look of this spring perennials completely.
Another example of the wonders of modern hybridization taking an old farm flower standard and trebling the number of petals per bloom.
Stunning purple filaments on the anthers of this white hybrid.
Great infrequent flowers on this poppy with succulent and glaucous foliage.
Lush plantings conserve moisture, provide shade from summer’s heat, and attract an enormity of birds and other wildlife counteringthe damage of urban development. And a healthy biome of lush plants, keeps erosion to a minimum!
The orange, yellow and then buff flowers on this English rose as it ages make it look completely different. And when you can get self-root roses that aren’t grafted, they may be slower to take off, but you will never have sucker concerns with the original rootstock competing.
Aptly named the Painted Tongue, these flowers come in strikingly patterned combos and offbeat color pairings.
The lovely flowers on this long lasting variety are so green they get lost in the foliage, but make stunning additions to bouquets.
Like living Chanel corsages, this standard produces flawless white blooms for months.
Sensitive to long winters, this Euphorbia thrives in areas like Portland and produces tall, months long displays of bright green florets.
While it has 5 petals unlike the 6 armed snowflake, the lacy symmetry explains the name.
Orange Icelandic poppies via with blue senetti daisies in hyper tinted hues look completely artificial.
The lushness of Summer gardens works best with layered plantings, so that spring plants fading are hidden by robust summer annuals and perennials followed by autumnal flowers on the rise.
The stunning color and pattern on this vine’s huge flowers makes it worth growing.
Beautifully webbed petals on the white spider lily.
Not only are the glaucous leaves worth of a baroque pattern, but the veining in the flowers is different in every blossom of this double variety of opium poppy.
Though they can be short-lived, when a foxglove is happy, the crowns can send up multiple spikes of the dainty spotted blossoms.
Another annual poppy which blooms in a unique range of patterns and color combos on each plant, some all white, some red, some tipped, some spotted, etc.
Like the rarity of a four leaf clover, this normally 4 petaled blue poppy oddly had 6 petals on this plant.
One of the most striking patterns, crisp and fringed on this blossom which might last all of two days.
With conch shell like coloring, this Japanese hybrid camellia looks like porcelain in bloom.
Feathered, ruffled and tipped, this hybrid is attention grabbing.
Ferraria Crispa, has small but just amazingly patterned and textured flowers that look great blown up.
Beautiful eggplant colored racemes on these bulbs with blue gray leaves.
Small but patterned flowers on this aptly named bulb look like they’ve been lifted from a checkerboard.
Exotic herringbone-patterned flowers hang from evergreen shiny leaves and a thick bulbous trunk.
Another layered amazement of petals on this dark bloom which lasts one day open, one day wide open and then collapses into just a growing seedpod.
Small but graphically patterned hybrid pansies in browns and yellow.
Short, daisy like flowers in candy blue tones appear in moist areas each spring.
Nothing makes guests gasp more than an abundance of color and stunning plants at an entry.
It’s important to have winter bones in your garden, not just evergreens, but structure to capture snow, and light through 1/4 of the year.