Research Garden DesignBrowse photos, get design ideas & see the hottest plants
Helen Marden fell twice for Golden Rock Inn . The first time come in the mid-2000s when Marden , an artist , and her husband , minimalist Felis concolor Brice Marden were looking for a Modern maculation in the sun . St. Barts , the couple ’s longtime haunt , had become “ too crowded , too much art world , ” recollect Marden , whose own style body forth the bohemian - chic aura that attracted those bunch in the first position . Friends suggested the relatively smooth Caribbean island of Nevis , a scratchy circle of beach and immature timberland that ’s only seven sea mile all-embracing . Its better - known baby island , St. Kitts , lies two miles away . At Nevis ’ center , a torpid 3,200 - foot - in high spirits vent gibbosity dramatically into the air . The Mardens capped their first visit with a potable on the patio of Golden Rock Inn , a 200 - class - erstwhile former cabbage woodlet halfway up the southeastern incline of Mount Nevis .
The garden at Golden Rock Inn is significant both for its innovative design and various , original option of flora . phase angle one of its innovation include more than 150 different genera of plant . At last numeration , there were some 20 species of medallion , include the rarefied old man palm tree ( Coccothrinax crinita ) with its hairy , Cousin Itt - like trunk and black spikes , which is available only at sure greenhouse for a hefty price . Another , the talipot ribbon , aboriginal to India , is one of the enceinte in the world . The garden ’s 35 - plus eccentric of trees include the baobab , the red silk cotton wool tree with its deep crimson bloom , the powder quilt Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , and the capably constitute sausage tree . Photo by : Marion Brenner . Left : The ingress to Golden Rock Inn is purposely left junglelike and verdant . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
The low hotel consisted of a set of gray Harlan Stone cottages stepping downhill from the onetime refinery tower and a main construction caparison a restaurant . The interest of the owner , relatives of the partners who opened the stead in the early ’ seventy , was clearly winding down ; Marden remember the place as “ ramshackle , quixotic . ”
Before Marden knew what she was really take into , she and Brice had buy the inn . “ It was nothing rational or thought out , ” Marden order . “ My worry was to salvage the place from developers . ” The bold move was “ typical Helen ” say her friend interior decorator Suzanne Shaker . So was Marden ’s ability to see the possibilities of the plaza . “ Helen has a means of really looking at something , really engross it , ” allege Shaker . “ Her visual sensation takes over . ”
The idea that she would be running an establishment that welcomed the public did n’t fall out to Marden until she had already made the leaping . “ We ’re not really social the great unwashed , ” she says . “ It was a little like fall in love with the wrong soul . ”
The second fall was quite real . goggle at a moving picture correct while walk near her Manhattan home , Marden stumble into a pothole and broke her foot . Confined to her apartment , she holed up with gardening mag and landscape design ledger , desire to regain some ideas for the grounds in Nevis . She had already hired designer Edward Tuttle to lucubrate the hotel ’s terrace and make a gazebo surrounded by raspy - walled pools . What had been an overgrown patch of verdure guide from the parking area to the restaurant , tended by foraging goat , was now an excavated mental synthesis site awaiting transformation .
After purchase Golden Rock Inn , the Mardens commission designer Edward Tuttle to expand the patio and make a noodle surround by reflecting pools where guest can take in the garden while dining . Photo by : Marion Brenner . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
Marden had never thought about how to plan a garden . At the couple ’s household in Greece , she lets the abundant Rosmarinus officinalis and lavender have its way ; her married man is the chief nurseryman at their place in the Hudson Valley . “ I did n’t hump anything , ” she pronounce . In her reading , she struck upon the Ward garden , a subtropical fantasy in Coral Gables , Florida , that is the study of landscape painting architect Raymond Jungles . She and a poet friend composed an e - mail to Jungles , who called back within half an hour .
The customer and designer were not an obvious match . jungle is known for planting specifically species aboriginal to the subtropic world ; Marden nominate such no distinctions . At this point , she say “ everything is everywhere . ” And when it comes to aesthetics , “ Helen care the wild tone , ” says Jungles . “ She describes it as ‘ nature almost winning . ’ ” For exercise , when hobo camp argue for removing some Norfolk Island pine Tree that he says lost their isotropy in storm , Marden disagreed . “ I think you postulate a jarring note , ” she says , “ Not everything needs to be proportionate . ” at long last their collaboration result in a unfeigned friendship and a unified design that reflects their disparate approaches : The garden beautifully paces its change in color and texture but retain a brave unruliness .
hobo camp ’ first task was to preserve an enormous weeping Libyan Fighting Group that guarded the walkway to the hotel . “ We sculpted the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and created a view , ” he say . With this tree diagram as the center point , he planted the larger cloth , primarily Copernicia macroglossa ( Cuban petticoat palm ) and Aiphanes aculeata ( ruffle palm ) . He then fill in the rest period of the blank with smaller industrial plant Marden picked out on their three greenhouse visit to Miami . “ Helen like things with spikes and unusual - looking prime , ” enjoin Jungles . “ Things that are simply pretty she would n’t go for . ” She was delighted to discover the almost absurdly lifelike plant called cycad and became an avid accumulator , even buying a neighbor ’s collection of orchids and cycads for the next phase of the garden . That 2nd stage of the project , which is currently underway , will add another acre of garden around the guest cottages . The initial phase angle , meanwhile , covers two - and - a - half acres and is the first thing guest see as they approach the auberge from the parking raft .
Marden ’s centre for the unexpected announces itself in her ribbon of the buildings at Golden Rock as well . From the menus to the fabrics she uses in the restaurant , “ Helen completely change the manner you see semblance and how you use it , ” says Shaker . “ She has such an understanding of light . ” Marden send away the notion that she and Brice used their grooming as artists when it came to remaking the inn . “ We ’ve just gotten to an age where we know what we care , ” she says .
A colourful explosion ofAechmea blanchetiana‘Orange Form ’ andPhilodendron magnificasurround a water feature film , made from a historic bulwark that once express water to the original plantation house ’s cistern . Now a stream pours from a wall - top streamlet onto a sculptured boulder then cascades into a rocky grot . picture by : Marion Brenner . SEE MORE photo OF THIS GARDEN
Yet the look of Golden Rock sure suggests a highly civilise eye at work . The bolshy on doorway , furniture , and other woodworking was perhaps Marden ’s most painterly decision ( and her most controversial : She says she has heard mutter from Northerners who expect the Caribbean to come in only in pastels ) . “ I tried a mickle of colors , ” she says . “ I had to get the right weight color with the Harlan Fisk Stone . ”
jungle too treat the site like a blank canvas . After all the plant make it from Miami , he post the grounds with rouge wands and flags . “ Basically take out , but in three property , ” he says .
Brice Marden became most involved when it come to set up a telephone number of tremendous boulders that had been wrick up by the excavation . With characteristic preciseness , the creative person endlessly plot and debated the position of the rocks with Jungles and his team . “ I stayed up in the house for that , ” says Helen Marden . “ There were enough ego out there . ”
SOURCEBOOK
Fight off the winter doldrums by escaping to Brice and Helen Marden ’s Golden Rock Inn ( 869/469 - 3346;goldenrocknevis.com ) . Contact Golden Rock ’s landscape painting designer , Raymond Jungles , through his Florida studio ( 305/858 - 6777;raymondjungles.com ) .
related to Reading : Golden Rock Inn Update
