Design New England - March/April 2011

the work of various local craftspeople provides punctuation (and is simultaneously for sale), while
‘Tardiva’ hydrangea and banana, which is sheltered in a greenhouse over winter, also serve as focal points
in a garden spilling with exuberance.

in by the dangling, foot-long, ghostly white trumpets of a brugmansia or an oversize angel wing begonia that seems poised to take flight.

Bockbrader still creates massive flower arrangements, the kind that require a ladder to finesse, but nowadays, orchestrating the look at Campo de’ Fiori inside and out takes most of her time.

At Campo, she can let all her opinionated proclivities rip. “Stubby, ungraceful scrum,” she’ll mutter at the slightest mention of wax begonias. She prefers orange Exbury azaleas, any lettuce leaf poppies except red, white love-in-a-mist, “scrumptious sherbet peach” dahlias, and magenta four-o’clocks. Actually, the four-o’clocks are on probation. They went downhill rapidly after their moment of glory last season. “But that was all right, because I’m always editing,” she says. “Some people are loath to pull things out. Maybe I’m just a control freak.”