The Parrish Art Museum’s Landscape Pleasures Showcases Five Stunning Gardens

The Parrish Art Museum’s Landscape Pleasures ended on Sunday with self-guided tours of five private gardens in East Hampton, Sagaponack and Bridgehampton. Hamptons.com visited all five gardens, each one different and all of them exceptional.

East Hampton

When the current owner purchased this narrow 4-acre property it was overgrown and full of weeds. Now a peaceful, calm feeling pervades the beautiful landscape. A long, gated driveway leads to the home. Past the gate a sunny meadow of wildflowers and grasses was abloom with coreopsis and daisies. A path through the meadow leads to a stately oak tree surrounded by a lawn. Closer to the house are beds and borders of perennials and shrubs, in a series of garden rooms with trees, shrubs and flowers. A terrace off the rear of the home overlooks the pool and the meadow beyond.

East Hampton

Historic home was built in 1900 and was part of an original summer colony. Enter through a gated hedge to a brick courtyard with beds of pachysandra, hardy geranium and shrubs leading to the front porch. A brick path to the right turns toward the rear of the property, and passes several magnificent tall trees – a stately Magnolia grandiflora, three hollies in a bed near the house, and a towering weeping purple beech surrounded by a perfectly square bed of ivy centering the space. A gate opens to a courtyard and perfectly shaped hedges line a stone walkway to the pool area. A brick walk lined with pots of hydrangeas leads to the pool house, and to the left is a weeping purple beech tree and bench. There are flowers, too – hostas, hellebores, Japanese anemone, yellow wax bells, lady’s mantle and ajuga.

East Hampton

This striking waterfront contemporary has sweeping views over Georgica Pond. The home is united with its setting by carefully considered landscaping that integrates the home into the site. The clean lines of the home are complimented by plantings of trees and shrubs, and ornamental grasses adding softness. In front of the house on the right a combination of golden yuccas and purple meadow sage adds dramatic color. In back of the house grasses spill over a wall. Close to the water some blue flag iris add a note of color. A path through switch grass leads to the swimming pool. And for those who walked onto the front porch and peeked through the front door revealed a central courtyard with a Japanese garden.

Sagaponack

Upon entering this property you are struck by the truly majestic, towering old trees here. They just take your breath away. There are Katsura, purple beech, weeping birch. Alongside the house are flowering shrubs – spiraea, and rhododendron, as well as evergreens. An arbor leads to the backyard where there’s a border with alliums, foxgloves and Calycanthus (also known as Carolina allspice for its fragrant dark red flowers). There are peonies, spiraea and nepeta, and beautiful large dogwoods. On one side of the home is what remains of a huge Paulownia, or empress tree, on the ground, with a newer one growing nearby. The same family has lived here since the 1980s, and they take devoted care of the gardens and the venerable trees on the property, using organic chemical-free practices.

Bridgehampton

A classic shingled home is located on this long, narrow property where the owners have made inspired use of the space. The backyard is a series of garden “rooms,” each different and designed for a different purpose. In the garden closest to the house neat, low hedges define beds of shrubs. A shallow reflecting pool surrounded by bluestone patio has a plashing central fountain.  In the second room of the garden there’s a cottage. A pathway of stone slabs passes through neatly clipped round shrubs, blooming Lenten rose and white bleeding heart.

The third garden room contains a wonderful butternut tree which centers the property, tall hedges, and a swimming pool with lounges on two stone patios, one on either side of the pool. The pool house has walls of glass that can be opened to become a delightful pavilion for entertaining, and there is seating on a stone patio beneath a wisteria-covered arbor.