I love the stories of famous gardeners—past and present–and read as many of them as I can. When I noticed that veteran pop biographer Meryl Gordon had written a biography of Bunny Mellon, I had to get my hands on it.
Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend is about a woman known in her lifetime for incredible wealth, peerless taste and gardening acumen. I knew that she had designed the White House Rose Garden during the Kennedy era and had a vague idea about her gardening library, but that was all. As the 516-page biography illustrates, there was much, much more.
Bunny’s birth name was Rachel Lambert. She was the daughter of Gerard Lambert, a merchandising/PR genius who made millions by convincing us all that bad breath was a major societal problem for which Listerine was the only cure. By doing that, Lambert took his small family pharmaceutical company and made it a business powerhouse that became the Warner-Lambert Company.
Gerard Warner and Listerine provided the Lambert family with great wealth and gave his younger daughter an enviable start in life. The nickname “Bunny” came early on and stuck with Rachel Lambert through childhood, two marriages and a very long life.
Bunny also developed an early passion for gardening and nature, thanks largely to her grandfather, who filled a nurturing role that did not seem to interest anyone else in Bunny’s life. She began gardening early, at the same time that an artistic bent compelled her to sketch things that she saw and, perhaps just as important, things that she dreamed of. She continued the sketching habit throughout her life.
Bunny’s first marriage produced two children, but was interrupted by World War II. The separation and anxiety caused by war, added to suspected infidelity, contributed to the subsequent divorce. Bunny then married Paul Mellon, a widower who was heir to a banking fortune and, for a time, the fifth richest individual in America. The marriage to Mellon made many things possible for Bunny, but also brought her a large measure of grief. Through all of that, gardening was her salvation.
The Mellons were jet setters from the beginning of their marriage and eventually had homes in Upperville, Virginia, New York, Paris, Cape Cod and Antigua. Bunny decorated all of them and made substantial gardens at each one. The gardens at the Mellons’ home base in Upperville were widely considered some of the most perfectly designed and exquisitely executed in the United States, if not the world. Bunny, a self-taught gardener and garden designer, was responsible for all of them Maintenance was largely handled by a very large, well-trained staff, but when Bunny was in residence at any of her homes, she would put on her designer gardening clothes and go out with her clippers in hand. She reportedly had a strong grip until she was well over 90 because of that perpetual pruning.
During the nineteen fifties, the socially prominent Mellons met another socially prominent pair, the John F. Kennedys. Bunny and Jacqueline Kennedy became close friends and the couples socialized, even though Paul Mellon was a staunch Republican. The relationship, and Bunny’s reputation as décor and garden style-setter, led President Kennedy to ask her to redesign an outdoor space on the White House grounds into a rose garden that would be both useful for public events and beautiful. After first turning down the assignment, Bunny agreed, and the Rose Garden was created. To the end of her life, Bunny considered this her crowning achievement.
Though she never accepted money for garden designs, she went on to work on other significant landscapes. When tragedy struck, she also organized and arranged the flowers for John F. Kennedy’s and Robert Kennedy’s funerals.
Bunny Mellon was all about flowers—arranged throughout her living spaces and furnished lavishly in her landscapes. Despite the artifice necessary to produce those wonderful floral and horticultural effects, she aspired to the “natural” look. Her mantra, often repeated during her lifetime, was “nothing should be noticed.”
As every serious gardener knows, it takes an awful lot of work to make things look simple.
Throughout her life, Bunny did what we now call “professional development”, reading everything she could get her hands on about horticulture, nature and plants. Her wealth made it possible to amass an incredible collection of garden literature, from which she created a horticultural library at her Upperville home. Under the terms of her will, the library, now professionally cataloged, housed and staffed, became an endowed resource for garden researchers.
Bunny Mellon died at the grand age of 105 in 2007, but not before she made some unwanted headlines. In old age, she believed that presidential candidate John Edwards might be the next John F. Kennedy. After much personal attention from Edwards, she was persuaded to contribute millions to his campaign. Much of the money was used to support Edwards’ mistress, a fact that was unknown to the aged widow.
The Edwards imbroglio was a sad coda to a life that was full of peaks and valleys, beauty and purpose. Bunny Mellon had many flaws, but I find her inspiring because she never stopped looking for inspiration—in flowe