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Photo by : Chelsea Lobser
Halfway to the consortium house inBunny WilliamsandJohn Rosselli ’s garden in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic , the track let out to suit a Harlan Fisk Stone clear no bigger than a chamber . Dense foliage make the spot inconspicuous from anywhere else on the property . The only human beings - made object is a 19th - C Grecian oil jar that Williams and Rosselli found on a misstep to the South of France . At first glance the little glade looks like a throwaway moment in a garden hole - packed with adult gesture . But if one place captures the mystery and smasher of this subtropical Eden , it ’s this place — in its seclusion , its scanty but graceful trappings , and above all in the direction it use the abundant sun of this Caribbean retirement not as a focus but a foil .
Punta Cana lies just to the south of Cabo Engaño , the luxuriant , sand - fringed cape that secern the Atlantic from the Caribbean at the easternmost point of the island that the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti . Discovered by the jet mark in the 1970s , Punta Cana ’s white beach today draw tourist looking for warm weather solacement nearly twelvemonth - round . At La Colina , the Southern Colonial villa that Williams and Rosselli built six years ago , paths canopied by tree and line with roots connect a series of out of sight garden rooms , with unvarying transitions from dark to light source . Shade , says Williams , is “ not only a ministration , it ’s also very interesting . ”
The dining loggia omit a court with a fountain .
This garden of eclectically supply spaces is just what you might expect from Williams . One of America ’s prime internal designers , an alumna of the legendary business firm Parish - Hadley , Williams has four pop books to her name ( includingScrapbook for aliveness , print by Stewart , Tabori & Chang in November ) . Rosselli , if get it on mostly by design - world insiders , is no less esteemed : His antiques business has been a destination for decorators and architects for half a century , treasured for its imaginative , ever change inventory . Together , they are colossal , global shoppers , and for 20 years have melt down Treillage , a pair of Upper East Side Manhattan shops that offer passe and modern-day garden furnishings , bring in back from their journeys around the world . Over the years they ’ve kibitzed about each other ’s choices for their homes in New York City and Connecticut , but the four - bedroom Punta Cana sign of the zodiac and its garden is the first project they ’ve designed together from the land up .
lead from the beach to the house is a coral stone runnel framed by sculpturalCassia corymbosaunderplanted with motley mondo grass .
The labor was divide along familiar pipeline : Rosselli was the collector , Williams the designer . “ John endure to the nursery and finds novel varieties , ” she says . “ Then we have to estimate out how to make them turn well . ” The first step was to walk the brow site ( the household ’s name , La Colina , is Spanish for “ The Hill ” ) , intuiting the right emplacement for each ingredient of the landscape . “ It became obvious where the paths had to be , where the pool would go . You have these moments of ‘ Oh , thisis the place for the cactus garden , ’ ” says Williams . “ There needs to be a direction to move through the plants . ”
Visual cue do much of this work . From the kitty house , a water feature runs beneath an archway , which in routine frames a largeFicus rubiginosatree , inviting a closer look . The genus Ficus sit at the centre of attention of a louche patio , with a dining table and chairwoman arrange up nearby for an impromptu dejeuner . The sun is most noticeable in the green glow ofPhilodendron imperialisas they pick up light filtering down from above .
Orchids bloom generously in the Carribean . Here a terra - cotta tub is used as a cachepot to elevate , and propitiously physique , a happy couple .
The boisterous foliage set up up the surprise of the dictated pieces , like the splendid cactus garden . “ Whenever you ’re walk around , you need to make it at someplace where you’re able to sit around , enjoy a glassful of wine , ” articulate Williams . A base on balls line with aloe and agave leads to a light , bowl - shaped space , delineate by a low wall punctuated with Golden Barrel cacti in large , atomic number 27 blue pot . The colors were inspired by Majorelle , the garden contrive by panther Jacques Majorelle in Marrakech , later have by Yves Saint Laurent .
element from various tender climates , like this Mediterranean nineteenth - century oil pot , seem both alien and perfectly in circumstance .
The Caribbean weather , with frequent afternoon pelting breaking up long , sunny days , makes Rosselli ’s side of the buy seem easy . iris flower all year ; orchid put back their blooming within weeks . But in his alternative for the garden , Rosselli was less concerned with color than with shapes . “ It ’s about the texture and diverseness of the leaf , which spring patterns , ” he enunciate . Many of the deciduous trees fall behind their leaves in summer , so he think about the color of the bark and how to shape the arm so that when they throw away their foliage , they reveal a sculptural smasher . The real vantage of the climate is the unceasing growth , says Rosselli . “ It ’s easy to make changes , to redirect and to propagate . ” Tree and etymon bend quickly into archway ; fig vines engulf a wall , seemingly becoming the bulwark itself . Aloe in declamatory urns by the pocket billiards have grown to resemble giant finials .
The clime does have its monetary value . Because of the obtain malarky and proximity to the ocean , he must take and engraft carefully . “ If the wind fuck up for several days and there ’s no pelting , ” says Rosselli , “ the salt will cauterize the tree . It ’s very debilitating , corrosive . ” As a frame for the furnishings Williams and Rosselli tote back from their journey , however , the surroundings is a utter match . As lichens attach to porous stone container and vines engulf new structures , the elements of the garden seem as well-to-do together as the couple who put them there .
Decorating like Bunny Williams and John Rosselli
Large ceramic Gaul pitcher , $ 95 . photograph by : Michael Kraus .
Much of the charm of Bunny Williams and John Rosselli ’s home derive from the physical object the couple collect on their travels . Many of these point are also for cut-rate sale at their two New York stores . Housed in a former blacksmith workshop , the original trellis offer article of furniture , lighting , and pots , all heaped beneath huge skylight in a apparently eternal space . The second location , blocks away , is a delicious curio store containing tableware , pillows , and gifts . For all products , visitbunnywilliams.comor call 212/988 - 8800 .
Stephen Treffinger write about design and architecture . All photos , except for frog mound , by Chelsea Lobser .
