Research Garden DesignBrowse photos, get design ideas & see the hottest plants
When Thomas Hobbs wroteShocking Beautyhe had no idea who might be read it , or what it might moderate to . Hobbs , a nursery owner and garden designer based in Vancouver , British Columbia , predicate the book on his belief that the best mellow - octane fuel for the originative person is breathing in . In an interesting equipment , the book itself proved inspiring , leading Susan Rudd , who consider it her favorite horticulture book , to engage Hobbs to plan a garden at the winery estate she and her husband Leslie own .
Bougainvillea ascends to the rail of a walkway leading down from the Rudd Oakville Estate winery . Photo by : Shaun Sullivan . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
In 1996 the Rudds , who also own the specialty food Ernst Boris Chain Dean & DeLuca , purchase a 55 - acre demesne in Oakville , California , taking the first step toward realizing a longtime dream to own a beautiful working winery . The older vines were ripped out and unexampled ones plant , the caves expatiate to admit an artful quad for entertaining , and the readiness extensively renovated . Finally at Rudd Oakville Estate , as the winery is forebode , only the landscape remained . And for this , the duad envisioned the area they called “ the hayfield ” being transform into a garden for outside gatherings , a distance where they could pose outside with client and friends , sharing ideas and wine .
Susan visited Hobbs ’ Southlands Nursery while on a trip to Vancouver in 2003 . “ I never gestate that I ’d ask him to do the garden , ” she suppose . But while there , she recognise the plantsman from his record . “ So I decided to go over and say hello . ” What followed were several minute of alert conversation . The two even discovered that they are both from the Canadian prairie city of Winnipeg . say Hobbs : “ We had a very cool coming together of minds . We just really connected . ”
Susan extended an invitation to Hobbs and his team to visit the wine maker and consider design and mold the garden . “ I had always loved that part of California , ” pronounce Hobbs , “ and had holiday there many times . I boast several gardens from that field in my books [ includingThe Jewel Box Garden ] . When we arrived , we hung out with Susan and Leslie and they said , ‘ Do whatever you need . ’
“ There were these magical olive tree — awesome treasures that blow my mind . I hoped to get multitude correctly up to them , to touch them and sit down near them , ” recalls Hobbs . His pass brainchild ? “ I imagined that it was all mine , ” he aver , “ that money was no object and I could do anything I wished . ” Hobbs also envision a mini strolling garden , influenced by the VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver . “ I pictured the winery having tastings and masses walking through the gardens with wine-colored in hand . ”
The fount at the incoming to the receipt arena on the Rudd estate is a copper tub once used to make chocolate . The Rudds found it at a horse ranch in Colorado and were able-bodied to incorporate it into the design of their dream winery . The smoothing iron pots on either side of the front door are from a salvage yard in San Francisco — a golden discovery by Leslie Rudd . Hobbs planted them with tree diagram fern . Photo by : Shaun Sullivan . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
Five eld by and by , Hobbs ’ overall vision of a garden for strolling , entertaining , growing edibles and prompt visitors had arrive to life . He and his team had turned the meadow into full - fledged garden , accomplished with niches for one - on - one confabs and open distance large enough for big gather . Using the gray - jet of the Olea europaea leafage as a color catalyst , Hobbs had waver together textural mounds of sorry and grey using germander , rosemary ( ‘ Tuscan Blue ’ and ‘ Benenden Blue’),Santolina , Grevillea lanigera , Euphorbia characiasssp.wulfeniiandPlumbago , punctuating this silvery arras with tawny flavor and the spiky forms of yucca , Echium candicans , Libertia peregrinansandPhormium .
The Hobbs squad had even used their legerdemain to transmute a utilitarian - bet greenhouse and its potager garden into something remarkable , with not bad rows of vegetables and herbaceous plant , and espaliered yield trees . say Hobbs , “ I want it to have a storybook Peter Rabbit look to charm guests and mayhap show them what they could do at dwelling house . ”
Now on a summer ’s evening , Rudd winemaker Patrick Sullivan is set to host a dinner party — not an unusual event at the winery these day — under the silvery canopy of the knotted olive trees beloved by Hobbs . On this day , the garden is being used exactly as it was intend : a situation of beauty to savor comradery and excellent wine-coloured . Sullivan has carefully selected the latter , mate each with items on a seasonal menu plan and run by three chefs hailing from PRESS ( the nearby St. Helena steakhouse also owned by the Rudds ) and Dean & DeLuca , St. Helena . The guests are all Napa food- and wine - industry insider , and tonight is their opportunity to preview Rudd ’s next braggart release , the 2005 Oakville Estate Proprietary Red .
Entertaining begins on the rearward bench off the dining room of Rudd ’s executive offices , an island in a ocean of neat row of vine mold gold in the later - solar day light . Out of the kitchen do tray of canapés , including a Ficus carica marmalade on a savory shortbread , heirloom tomato in comforter pastry dough with herbed goat Malva sylvestris , and miniskirt - BLTs with rocket and basil spring up decently on the estate . It ’s all couple with quite a little of Rudd ’s ’ 06 Bacigalupi Vineyard Chardonnay . Most of the guests know each other , and the vibe of a party off to a skilful start is unmistakable .
A few people peel away with Sullivan to the adjacent vinery for an up - faithful look at the plump purple fruit , just weeks by from being harvested , and to learn a little more about the state , describe by Sullivan as so special that , “ I ’m just a conduit between the vinery and bottleful of wine . ” He go on to explain how the red rough soil , considered grade A+ , make this a standout land in Napa . “ Leslie matt-up like he could come in and make the existing vinery whistle . He purchase the winery in 1996 and replanted all the vines in ’ 98 . Now , 10 years subsequently , it ’s at long last start to suppurate and the wines are really taking off . ”
John Berry Hobbs used the olive trees — planted prior to his involvement in the labor by clothes designer Roger Warner — as anchors for his programme . The plant in the garden , including bronzyLibertia peregrinans , shrubbyTeucrium fruticans , gamey - floweredPlumbago auriculata , gray - greenSantolina chamaecyparissusand rosemary ‘ Tuscan Blue ’ and ‘ Benenden Blue ’ , occur in the first place from San Marcos Growers in Santa Barbara , Monrovia in Southern California and smaller nurseries in Northern California . exposure by : Shaun Sullivan . SEE MORE photograph OF THIS GARDEN
It is that same rust - colored ground and the apricot - hue stones that assist inform some of Hobbs ’ color palette , resulting in his mapping out hundreds of flora for the land . As the party travel away from the terrace and through the saunter gardens — which take up about 50 percent of Hobbs ’ overall installation — the guest sip vino and revel the display of dahlia in full blossom , the sheer vertical accents ofPhormiumamongst rocks and rosemary , the grassy grain ofChondropetalumand soft , pea green mats ofStachys byzantina‘Primrose Heron ’ blur the edges of the paths .
Sullivan and his guests eventually reach the Olive Garden , with a wrought - iron dining table that is as much a part of the lasting landscape as the olive trees overhead . The table is heaped with in - time of year peak including hydrangea , ornamental kale and poppy seedpod . tremendous concrete urns are placed nearby with the eye of an artist , and it ’s easy to imagine the ancients who would have sate them with storage of olive fossil oil and wine-coloured . With the number of glasses and miscellanea of bottles on the table ( including that ’ 05 Estate and an ’ 03 Cabernet ) , even Dionysus would anxiously foretell this repast . With the promise of such good things to come , it ’s easy to get this group seated quickly .
Chefs Ryan Fancher and Stephen Rogers have prepared the repast on web site , collecting herb , heirloom tomatoes and other ingredients from the two garden on the property that exist solely to uphold PRESS ’ farm - to - tabular array philosophy . chew the fat in the kitchen , the chef gush about Rudd organic gardener Jon Brzycki ’s beautiful touch with mixed green . “ Sometimes there are as many as 13 varieties , ” says Fancher , who also credits Brzycki with produce each to the chef ’s precise specifications .
A miscellany of main line , mimicking those serve at PRESS and all include Rudd - grown produce , are offered . There ’s kobe filet with sliced heirloom tomatoes , a veal chop with watercress and garlic confit , grilled ahi with corn and chanterelle mushroom-shaped cloud , and wild Alaskan Salmon River with shredded cucumber vine , avocado and dill crème fraîche .
After dinner the Guest stretch their legs in the Olive Garden , redolent with fragrant herbs , and stroll to an adjacent area that feature a orbitual fountain with dancing weewee , design ( at Leslie ’s request ) by the folks who produce the Bellagio Hotel ’s urine show in Las Vegas . Meanwhile , the terminal touches are complete on the wine-coloured and tall mallow course of instruction being served in an intimate garden alcove . Dean & DeLuca executive chef Ben DuBois describe his cheese board as mostly local and sustainable as he answer up a creamy Point Reyes Blue , an aged butt cheese from Cypress Grove Chevre and a current Bay Area ducky — Mt. Tam cheese from the Cowgirl Creamery — along with jewellike morsel of fresh local figs and apricots soaked in embrasure wine . Beside DuBois , Sullivan pours a round of ’ 05 Edge Hill Port for his Edgar Albert Guest .
face around the garden at its ripe trees , the perennials that have come in into their own , and the portmanteau of color and grain brings to life a comment made by Sullivan . compare the quality of the estate ’s wine to the realization of the garden , he notes : “ A garden is n’t going to be there in one year . It take years for the roots and the plant to get established and to meet out . The same is lawful with a vineyard . ”
Geta sample menufrom chef Michael Chiarello .
See moregardens in the Bay Area
