Los Angeles: All The Pretty Houses….Of Beverly Hills

In Hollywood, it’s well known that appearances are everything and a recent visit on a sunny winter California day by DBLS to the feted suburb of Los Angeles, home to the stars, was a lesson in horticultural high maintenance. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills have been busy lately — or at least their gardeners have! Manicured, orderly and thriving are a few observations of the exquisite and expansive gardens that can be seen at some of the most gorgeous homes on earth.

One home in particular we visited was in the midst of a major landscape overhaul prior to hosting a charity event for five hundred people. This was being done a scant 3 weeks before the event itself. Featuring a pool with breathtaking views out to still snow-capped Mount San Antonio, (more usually known as Mount Baldy) the highest peak in the San Gabriel mountain range, and a pool house with a private screening room, the home had ample room for entertaining. We enjoyed a detailed tour with the designer and took notes for our own future projects.

The neighbourhood was equally impressive with a range of house styles from Hamptons-inspired to Modernist and the evergreen classic: Spanish Mission. Ornate driveway gates and layered hedges restrain lush gardens with manicured lawns featuring established trees such as date palms and weeping willows. Multiple varieties of bougainvillea featured extensively and overhung on walls, loggias and carports, creating instant appeal and a kind of controlled romance. Most gardens use some formal symmetrical planning but the more interesting ones combine formality with a layered approach to planting and mixture of plants.

Greystones Mansion (The Doheny Estate) is one example of a stately Beverly Hills home with spectacular formal gardens now used for private parties and functions, watch this clip of this magnificent property.

Not bad for what once was a lima bean ranch!

Still want more on Beverley Hills – see some Hidden Gems in Beverly Hills.