Inside a magical, rose-filled garden in the Hamptons
To be in Charlotte Moss’s East Hampton garden at the height of rose season is to be in the midst of a floral fantasia. Roses of every imaginable color, shape, and variety soar majestically in borders, ramble along brick walls, peek through cloud-pruned yew and boxwood, and climb over arbors and walls. And perhaps the most breathtaking rose display of all is the row of arches where pink climber varieties Leontine Gervais and Madame Alice Garnier intertwine meticulously with espaliered apple trees.
There are over thirty varieties of roses in Charlotte’s gardens. She continues to add more. “Roses ... oh, let me count the ways ... so many things to say,” Charlotte romanticizes. “I love Koko Loko,” referring to a multi-petal repeat bloomer that starts off in a shade of mocha then transitions to lavender. “I love Lykkefund and Mrs America as they are profuse climbers blooming only once. I want to be present when they are in bloom. I visit them several times a day as they continue to explode with blossoms. I love simple five- petaled varieties like Mermaid and Sally Holmes. I could go on ...” she trails off, thinking of the fragrant varieties she has yet to mention.
When Charlotte and her husband first acquired the property in the estate section of East Hampton, there were only trees that bordered the perimeter, and some large oaks. “What we needed was a plan, a framework, and what I needed was a professional. Lisa Stamm and her late husband, Dale Booher, created that plan,” recalls Charlotte, referring to the team behind The Homestead. “We needed the large gestures like the design for the border along the pool, which is flanked by monumental arborvitae. A stone wall gave it structure and form. It was a perennial border with lots of flowers, but I was working all the time, and it was so much work. Over time I opted for fewer plant varieties, hence now it is all roses.”
Charlotte has taken influences from American and European garden design and applied these to her property by way of the layout, horticulture, and accents that have been arranged in stylistic tableaux across the landscape. Examples of these include the pleached hornbeams that provide architecture, especially in the garden room behind the pool house, the rondel windows shaped out of the hedges, and the living willow pavilion by the putting green, which is a quintessential English garden flourish.
“The garden evolves as your taste changes ... You adapt ideas to suit your taste and your property,” she explains, citing the great gardens of Le Prieuré Notre Dame d’Orsan in France, Rousham House in England, the Alhambra in Spain and Mount Vernon in the United States as some of the places that have informed her eye. “There are so many beautiful gardens that just enrich you and position you to make informed decisions. Everything becomes more personal as you learn because the decisions are made based on what you have seen, learned, and experienced.”
Charlotte has become a doyenne of gardening in America and has penned books and columns on the subject. Apart from her garden in East Hampton, she also tends to her gardens in her townhouse in Manhattan and her farm in Virginia. Asked to impart some sage advice to those looking to get their hands dirty, Charlotte says: “For heaven’s sake, never be a snob. Everyone, in their own way, is working to create their own version of beauty.”
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Blue Carreon11/11The Gardens of the Hamptons: Grand Estates, Village Jewels, and Public Sanctuaries by Blue Carreon is available to order now.
