Janice Parker Landscape Architects: Rose Manor

The new-construction traditional-style house, set on 22 acres overlooking a freshwater lake in Greenwich, Connecticut, is so in sync with its grounds that it looks as though they grew up together.

And that’s exactly how Janice Parker Landscape Architects planned it.

“Our job as landscape architects was to create a harmonious whole composed from picturesquely positioned garden spaces, or rooms,” says Janice Parker RLA, ASLA, principal and founder of the Greenwich firm that bears her name. “This was an opportunity to create a classical garden design using all the classical principles—axial lines, balance, and symmetry but not necessarily matching—on a wild site that blends with the natural surroundings. We carved a path in and out and in the center created a classic garden.”

The classic garden she designed revolves around roses, the client’s particular floral passion.

“He grew up in Denmark, and his mother was an avid gardener and rosarian,” Parker says. “He came into my office with a book and catalogs of David Austin roses with over 100 of his favorites marked with Post-it notes.”

Parker’s program has separate components and focal points of horticultural interest positioned in each garden room. The plants and color schemes selected are in sync with the vocabulary and material palette inspired by the architecture of the house.

“These gardens are not easy to maintain, which was not an issue for this client,” Parker says. “I always explain to clients upfront what the maintenance costs will be and tell them that they are in a relationship with their landscape—you can’t just date your garden, you have to marry it, to batten down the hatches and do the work.”

The client’s admiration for the prized garden rooms of France and England led Paker and her team to compose garden beds in a symmetrical plan. Pea-gravel paths surrounded by grass-trimmed hedged beds serve as guides through the plantings, fountains, lower gardens, and fully around the residence.

“The design of varying patterns and textures of hardscape provided the scale of connectivity required for functionality and for the garden spaces to relate to the home,” Parker says. “There’s a constant adherence and sensitivity to the assemblage of volumes, authenticity of the materials selected, and the proportion of scale from the largest volume down to the smallest detail.”

In addition to the formal rose garden, which is curated by the client, Parker’s landscape includes specimens of green cut-leaf Japanese maple trees, clipped columnar hornbeams, Donald Wyman crabapples, Kousa dogwoods, and magnolias.

In a nod to the classic garden features of Dumbarton Oaks, Parker positioned an urn atop a pedestal surrounded by iron arches to create a focal point viewed from the library windows.

The landscape transitions from the formal to the informal as it gets farther from the residence, with the parterres giving way to natural meadows, woodland hiking paths, the lake, and the vegetable garden.

Formal stone staircases match the residence’s architecture and segue from the upper landing to the lower-lawn terraces. Farther away, hand-carved stone risers encase the lawn landings to guide the way toward the informal strolling paths throughout the property.

“The vegetable and cutting gardens are designed to be hidden but easily accessible through a shaded woodland path,” Parker says. “Here, the woodland archetype is preserved as a welcome juxtaposition to the formal gardens surrounding the main residence.”

Parker’s garden rooms perfectly reflect the style of the house and personality of the client.

“We try to create magic for each person and pull each client into the garden, and I’ve done that with this one,” she says. “The gentleman understood. He was looking for a strong relationship with his landscape—he’s cutting roses all the time.”

She adds that “to have the opportunity to work in the classical style and to have it so appreciated by the client was a dream.” TB