The owners of a home overlooking an Annapolis creek called on landscape designer Nancy Lowry Moitrier and her husband, Pierre Moitrier, to integrate disparate elements of their property. Their goal was to create a formal, French-style garden with clipped hedges and parterres, but with unexpected touches that would communicate a sense of fun.
“Their personality as a couple is gregarious and refined; they wanted a garden to reflect that,” says Lowry Moitrier. The landscape boasts a crape myrtle allée, a manicured holly hedge and boxwood parterres surrounding beds of roses. Each year, the owner plants hundreds of annuals and rare specimens such as Chartreuse Tiger Eyes sumac and Black Lace elderberry in containers throughout the property. A large Portuguese urn is the focal point of the allée, surrounded by a bed of flowers and succulents which Lowry Moitrier sometimes shapes into tapestry-like forms.
A lush perennial border of knockout roses, Autumn Joy sedum, and lady’s mantle adds lively color to the existing bluestone pool deck. Large containers display tropical smokebush, which adds dazzling color to sedum, coleus, and Agastache.
A trio of Dawn redwood trees stands 60 feet high in the entry garden. Bold tropicals such as Angel’s Trumpet add a whimsical touch. Vertical garden sculptures shaped like finials can be seen from the home’s library windows; they draw the eye out to the garden and the creek beyond. v
Award: Decade, Residential Maintenance. Landscape Design: Nancy Lowry Moitrier, APLD, Pierre Moitrier, Designs For Greener Gardens, Inc., Annapolis, Maryland. Photography: Nancy Lowry Moitrier.