Riviera, Singapore, NY World Garden Tour : Episode WGT-102 -- More Projects »
Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild
Cap Ferrat, French Riviera
The Gilded Age aristocrat Baronness Ephrussi de Rothschild wanted beauty in her world, and she had the money to create it--and the iron will. As she famously told one of the architects who had been hired to design the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, "I'm not asking your advice; I'm telling you what I want." The subtropical gardens at her Cap Ferrat villa on the French Riviera provide a stunning example of French Exotique style--a blending of formal and offbeat elements in a garden. The gardens are also symmetrical, in the French tradition, but Italian in their inspiration. Baroness Ephrussi bought the property at the turn of the 20th century, leveling the rocky outcroppings of land over the ocean and adding tons of soil to support the lush gardens. The view of the Mediterranean is intended to evoke the feeling of being on an ocean liner. The estate's seven exotic gardens--French, traditional, Florentine, Spanish, exotic, lapidary, Japanese and Provencal--reflect the baroness's extensive travels around the world. In addition, an enormous rose garden that she planted in 1910 was recreated in 1990 with 400 rose bushes, after being destroyed by a frost in 1956. Its premiere rose is 'Baroness de Rothschild'--a pink blossom, of course, the Baroness's favorite color. Singapore Botanical Gardens
The bustling city of Singapore lies on a 250-square-mile island at the tip of the Malay peninsula. A former crown colony of Britain, it is also home to Dutch, Indian, and Chinese cultures. "The Garden City" has worked hard to live up to its slogan. Although this Asian metropolis is intensely crowded, careful urban planning has left it with acres of gardens and parks. Dating back to 1822, the Botanic Gardens of Singapore are the only great British Colonial gardens that were sustained through the Japanese occupation of World War II. The Japanese appointed a botanist to maintain the gardens and records of the plants. Today the Botanic Gardens are cherished for their beauty and park-like setting, and various gardens and lakes offer enjoyment to city dwellers and visitors. Originally, the Botanic Gardens cultivated economic crops such as rubber and spices. It served as a laboratory of sorts to incubate money crops such as rubber (previously, Brazil had had a monopoly on the world's rubber). The Botanic Gardens feature a huge collection of plants, both tropical and non-tropical, that are cross-pollinated to make new varieties. Adjoining the scientific and working gardens are a series of landscaped parks, whose topiary combines Western and Eastern traditions, while the combination of water elements and flowers are also classic elements of English design. The distinct areas include an English rose garden with bronze statues of playful young girls by Sydney Hartley, the dry Rockery Garden, the Sundial Garden featuring desert plants, the Swiss fountain consisting of an enormous stone sphere spinning on a spray of water, and Swan Lake, which is near Singapore's main shopping district. In abundance are tropical trees such as sage, whose wood is used for cabinets and houses, and is also a source of red dye. Wave Hill
The gardens at Wave Hill mansion lie above the Hudson River in the Bronx, overlooking Manhattan's forest of glass and steel. Constructed in 1843, the property has been home to many luminaries, including President Theodore Roosevelt and author Mark Twain. The gardens on the 28-acre property are open to the public, and contain thousands of flowers divided naturally into four sections by color. The pink section features salvia and foxglove; the purple section has clematis and hollyhocks; the red section, nodia and smokebush; and the yellow section, lemon balm and hydrangeas. In contrast to the riotous display in the flower garden, the Aquatic Garden is highly formal: stately pergolas bound three sides of the "throne room," and the pool area has cattail, papyrus and lotus. The Herb Garden is an educational space, with its carefully labeled beds of mint, patchouli, and other aromatic plants laid out in gravel beds. The Dry Garden blooms in late summer and early fall, and its plants--lavendar, rosemary and euphorbia--like a Mediterranean or Australian climate. The Alpine Garden blooms in late winter and early spring; its plants love cool air and high altitudes. Finally, visitors from New York City can make believe they are in a wilderness in the Wild Garden, which was designed with winding paths and nooks. Its mounding bushes, such as yew, establish eyesight boundaries and create hidden spaces. So close to one of the world's great cities, Wave Hill's countryside feels like a private haven.
Resources Riviera Tourist Office
Office Municipal du Tourisme
French Tourist Office
Website: www.francetourism.com
Singapore Botanic Gardens
Singapore Botanic Gardens
Website: www.sbg.org.sg/index.asp
Wave Hill
Wave Hill
Website: www.wavehill.org
Guests James de Lestang
Director
Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild
Website: www.villa-ephrussi.com
Martin Paleros
Landscape Architect
c/o Tierra Design
179 River Valley Rd., #20-01A
Singapore 179033
Phone: 65-474-3034
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