ELLE DECOR, first and foremost, covers the world of interior design. But the interiors of incredible homes aren’t the only things we celebrate. Here, we’ve rounded up 28 of the most spectacular gardens we’ve ever photographed—in these images you can take a fantasy stroll among French lilacs, English boxwoods, Tuscan umbrella pines, and at least one Florida lily pond. And the collection of statues, pergolas, and mazes you’ll encounter demonstrates that the beauty of a garden often derives from what you place in it as much as what you grow in it. So whether it’s the landscape surrounding an 18th-century French château, the grounds of Ina Garten’s East Hampton home, or one of the most beautiful gardens in the Garden State, each setting that follows provides the possibility for endless inspiration.
In this courtyard designed by Long Island– and Manhattan-based landscape architect Ed Hollander, limestone steps are intertwined with steel planters leading to the house’s main entry.
Renowned French landscape architect Louis Benech lined the pool of a home in Portugal designed by Jacques Grange with various trees and grasses. Benech’s previous work also includes a renovation of the Tuileries in Paris.
The Central Los Angeles garden of designer Cliff Fong includes a koi pond and some 400 varieties of orchids. The chairs are by Mathieu Matégot, and the pendant is by Louis Poulsen.
In the garden of celebrated landscape architect Thomas Woltz’s Virginia home, a 19th-century Triton sculpture is centered beneath a row of Annabelle hydrangeas.
In the garden of art gallerist Alex Logsdail and Skylar Pittman’s Hamptons home, a sculpture by Hélio Oiticica was erected in the gardens designed by Edwina von Gal.
The exterior of the 1770 Georgian home of Alyse Archer-Coité is swathed in climbing ivy. The surrounding gardens feature a variety of roses.
Villa Tavernaccia, the family estate of Carlo Pallavicino just oustide of Florence, is lined with umbrella pines, cypress, and lime trees, among a variety of other plants. The landscape design is by Enzo Margheriti.
Statues representing summer and fall frame a pathway to the garden at Villa Tavernaccia.
This original portion of the Gartens’ garden features plantings of white roses, Russian sage, and salvia framed by boxwoods.
Clematis grows along the pergola of Ina and Jeffrey Garten’s garden. Limelight hydrangeas and dahlias grow on either side of the pergola.
Ina Garten’s garden shed is almost completely covered by climbing hydrangea.
13
An English Garden Path
Boxwoods line the path leading to the 18th-century Welsh home of textile and interior designer Penny Morrison. The Morrison family planted the boxwoods more than 30 years ago.
A path of boxwoods leads to the terrace of Penny Morrison’s garden (the border between Wales and England is in the distance).
The restored Greenwood Gardens, in Short Hills, New Jersey, features paths lined with boxwoods and accented with antique garden sculptures.
Date palms and Eagleston hollies surround the perimeter of a lily pond in a garden designed by Jorge Sanchez in Coral Gables, Florida.
Garden designer Jorge Sanchez created a formal garden and a children’s garden bordered by a row of false ashoka and Japanese blueberry trees.
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An Idyll in the Hamptons
The lily pond at the Amagansett, New York, home of John Alexander and Fiona Waterstreet was planted to resemble the landscapes of Alexander’s youth in the South, which is a point of inspiration for the artist’s landscape paintings.
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An Amagansett Garden Terrace
The terrace of John Alexander and Fiona Waterstreet’s home looks out onto the lily pond. Wisteria vines branch out over the pergola; boxwoods are planted around the terrace.
The gardens of this 18th-century château near Orléans, France, were designed by landscape architect Louis Benech. Yews shaped like cones surround the path, and lilac bushes and Atlas cedars flank the main house.
The château garden’s series of pools were original to the 1837 garden plan.
Vegetable and flower plantings, in addition to apple, pear, and plum trees, sit amid boxwood hedges in the château’s kitchen garden.
The water maze within the château garden was designed by Louis Benech.
25
A Very Fashionable Garden
A sphinx sculpture by Paul Manship overlooks Untermyer Gardens in Yonkers, New York. The grounds were originally designed by landscape architect William Welles Bosworth and recently underwent a major restoration headed up by architect Stephen F. Byrns, who founded the Untermyer Gardens Conservancy.
A pavilion known as the Temple of Love sits atop a hill at Untermyer Gardens, surrounded by oak trees (one of which dates to the 1910s).
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A Hudson Valley Garden
The Catskill Mountains are visible over the hemlock hedge and Scotch pine trees at Jim Joseph and Scott Frankel’s 10-acre garden in New York’s Hudson Valley. Boxwood shrubs and American sweet gum trees line a path to a pond.
