Landscapes for All Seasons
The impressionistic style of Monet has been translated into a landscape with a plant palette changing with every season. From colorful foliage in the fall and hearty greenery in the winter to pastel tulips in the spring and bright pink and purple impatiens in the summer, each season offers a different approach to elegant landscape design.
“For many of our clients, we rotate annuals in the spring, summer and fall,” says Mariani client representative Shari Precht. “In the winter, we create a dramatic display with evergreens and outdoor lighting.” Adjusting the landscape to accommodate each season is an intensive process and can take up to three to four days to install, yet the resulting landscape showcases the beauty of each season. Designing a four-season landscape also goes beyond seasonal plant rotations by incorporating evergreens and deciduous plants which provide year-round interest in the landscape design.
In the fall, the Lake Michigan home features sky blue and purple pansies surrounding bulb beds that will eventually emerge as tulips in the spring. “During the initial design phase, we plan for these beds and create open bedding areas to plant annuals which flower and provide more impact,” says landscape architect Sara Furlan. “Planting burning bush, witch hazel and crab apples also brings beautiful fall foliage to the property.” Burgundy Mums are planted roadside as well as in 18 containers featuring kale and ivy.
During the winter, Mariani covers the Lake Michigan home’s annual beds with evergreen boughs to act as a groundcover to add seasonal elegance. Containers are filled with Noble firs, winterberry, boxwood and dogwoods and feature classic white lighting. A fountain on the property is shut down during the winter but is adorned with evergreen accents and curly willow. All evergreens along the entrance are accented by subtle blue lighting and crabapple trees produce winter fruit dusted by snow. “We also bring in and light a Fraser fir tree for the interior of the residence,” says Precht.
For a home in Winnetka, spring is the most grandiose season. The French-style home features Versailles boxes filled with French tulips, daffodils and Algerian ivy. “The client is a French purist, so it was important to keep that aesthetic throughout the landscape,” says Head Horticulturalist Jim Osborne. Lenten Roses, an herbaceous perennial, bloom in early spring and may even push through a blanket of snow in late winter. Sweeps of color are provided by extensive plantings of tulips throughout the property.
Summer brings shade gardens to the Winnetka property with large locust trees creating a canopy for perennials such as hostas, goat’s beard and astilbes, which are long-blooming, plume-like flowers in shades of white and pink. Pots and containers overflow with white- and salmon-colored impatiens and during the first rotation on the summer feature hydrangeas. “Versailles boxes are a permanent outdoor feature for the property, so for each season it’s essential that we keep them filled with seasonally appropriate foliage,” says Osborne. After being stored at Mariani’s greenhouse during the winter, large six-to- seven-foot gardenia trees are brought in and placed in the property’s Versailles boxes.
