Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.In her preface to landscape designer Fernando Wong\u2019s first book, The Young Man and the Tree, Martha Stewart recounts their first meeting on the TV show Clipped. It wasn\u2019t about hairdressing. Both had been brought on as judges to \u201cdecide the fates of several topiary artists\u201d in a shrub-shaping competition. She and Wong hit it off: \u201cWe spoke the same language,\u201d she writes. \u201cSerious gardener tongue, Fernando with a Spanish accent and I with my New Jersey\/New York college-girl intonations.\u201dHaving Stewart, the US queen of domestic arts, endorse Wong\u2019s \u201cfanciful and classical\u201d designs only adds to a series of accolades for the Panama-born designer. He has made a reputation in Florida and the Bahamas with controlled and elegant gardens, including for the Four Seasons Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, the Firestone estate on Lake Worth, designed by architect John Volk, and Providence House, a pink beach house in the Bahamas. \u00a0These year-round gardens, in tropical rainforest and subtropical climates, are designed to cater for heavy rain and hurricanes as well as for intense and humid summer heat and milder, drier winters.Wong finds great joy in plants: incorporating palms, hibiscus ficus hedges, drought-resistant zoysia grass lawns, with jasmine and bougainvillea framing doors and climbing walls. \u201cI love to do green gardens \u2014 tone-on-tone green gardens \u2014 because you settle down and have a tea and see the sunlight reflecting back at you these beautiful shades of chartreuse, olive, emerald,\u201d says Wong. \u201cIf, like me, you\u2019re an early riser, you\u2019ll notice how the dew on the grass shimmers at you.\u201dHe is increasingly using native species, better able to cope with the local climate and exposed coastal locations. Then, he says, \u201cthe success of the project is more guaranteed\u201d.But he always starts with trees, whether duranta or banyan trees, retaining or transplanting existing specimens where possible: the right one can be a \u201cbeautiful sculpture\u201d, he says, or a \u201cwonderful focal point\u201d, as well as benefiting insects. At the Firestone estate, pride of place is an existing kapok tree, brought there from the Bahamas in the 1800s. For one Miami property he worked with the architect to position a new French-style house so that as many oak trees as possible would be preserved. The trees were arranged to flank the driveway, framing views of the house and the water.\u00a0Wong\u2019s designs incorporate rooms, or \u201cexperiences\u201d, in which clients can swim, cook, relax, entertain and work in outdoor offices, \u201cproviding shelter not only from the sun but also sometimes from the rain. It\u2019s about climate control,\u201d he says. These designs, which reflect Wong\u2019s architectural training with their adherence to classical rules of proportion, scale and layering of plantings, are a seamless, outdoor extension of the house.\u00a0The hard landscaping is a delight, featuring round pools, statues, formal fountains and, for one 1986 Regency-style Palm Beach house, a cross-hatched driveway where grass grows between its Greek key pattern border. For a Biscayne Bay property, he painted the house pink, adding coral-coloured stone walkways and Italian-style railings.\u00a0\u00a0Wong\u2019s holistic approach is evident in Providence House, his first project in the Bahamas, with a private beach on Clifton Bay. Buttonwood trees, coconut palms and sea grape trees were added along with native dune plants on the waterfront, while Wong worked with the architect to add a pool house and glass-walled breakfast room. But, ultimately, for him, the landscape is the real star: \u201cWith that view, how can you compete?\u201d he says.Find out about our latest stories first \u2014 follow @FTProperty on X or @ft_houseandhome on Instagram<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.In her preface to landscape designer Fernando Wong\u2019s first book, The Young Man and the Tree, Martha Stewart recounts their first meeting on the TV show<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-96174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96175,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96174\/revisions\/96175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}