Architectural Digest
EDITOR IN CHIEF MARGARET RUSSELL ON BETTE MIDLER‘S GREEN THUMB AND COMMUNITY GARDENS PROJECT
May 6, 2014
I’ve never been particularly keen on surprises, but when we were in the midst of producing this month’s Architectural Digest, something unechitecturaxpected came to my attention and I couldn’t have been more delighted. It turns out that Bette Midler, the focus of our cover story, was friends with the legendary tastemaker Bunny Mellon, who died recently at age 103 and is also the subject of a profile in this issue.
Actually, their connection makes perfect sense. After all, the singer-actress and the genteel socialite have both played prominent roles in enhancing the great outdoors. Bette is the founder of the New York Restoration Project, an inspiring nonprofit that revitalizes woebegone public parks and oversees dozens of community gardens across New York City’s five boroughs. Mrs. Mellon, on the other hand, designed and planted exquisite landscapes for the aesthetic elite (Hubert de Givenchy and Jacqueline Kennedy among them)–gardens that have since influenced legions of others. She also assembled one of the world’s most important horticultural libraries at her estate in Upperville, Virginia. Still, as Bette told Mitchell Owens, AD’s decorative arts and antiques editor, “Mrs. Mellon was a real gardener,” adding modestly, “I’m an appreciator, a facilitator.”
Certainly the two came at gardening from different angles, but they shared a common goal: to coax people outside, into lush green spaces where they can relax and feel renewed. We learned that when Mrs. Mellon began to plan her own funeral–she was impressively organized–she asked Bette to sing at the ceremony. And on March 28, the Divine Miss M did exactly that. The song? Midler’s 1979 ballad “The Rose.” I can’t think of a more appropriate send-off for the doyenne of American gardening, or a more passionate garden lover to do the honors.
–MARGARET RUSSELL, Editor in Chief
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