A Blooming Brownstone in Manhattan - Gardenista
What could have possessed Edith Wharton to call New York CIty’s brownstones “drab”? Flanking a prim Victorian facade of the sort Wharton once described as “chocolate-coloured coating,” the trees introduce visitors to garden designer Judy Kameon’s version of an Upper East Side black-and-white garden. A window box and two L-shaped planters, painted glossy black to match the townhouse trim, are packed with ornamental cabbages, junipers, and variegated creepers. The plant list, updated seasonally, is built around a backbone of perennials that includes Juniperus procumbens ‘Nana,’ Hedera helix ‘Glacier,’ Euonymous fortunei ‘Silver Queen,’ and Heuchera ‘Purple Palace.‘ The daybed (which is from Kameon’s Plain Air furniture line) on the fourth-floor balcony is where the client, a film producer, reads scripts. The garden’s palette echoes the cityscape, with Plain Air chairs and a custom table inspired by a vintage piece in Kameon’s personal collection. The lavender flowers of Verbena bonariensis “float like wands,” Kameon says, to create a visual counterpoint to the mounded ivies. The planters are made of fiberglass in a shade matched to Benjamin Moore’s Dill Pickle paint color. Planted in the terrace containers are Hedera helix ‘Gold Child,’ ornamental purple cabbages, Salvia officinalis, Thymus citriodorus, Pinus flexilis ‘Vanderwolf’s Pyramid,’ and Acer palmatum ‘Crimson Queen.’ A curtain of bamboo screens the back patio from the building behind. The built-in table and banquette are custom, and upholstered in blue Sunbrella fabric, inspired by the plum colors and blue-gray tones of the bluestone patio.