Gardens for Connoisseurs Tour

Things to Do

Gardens for Connoisseurs Tour

Gardens for Connoisseurs Tour in Buckhead

Livia and Scott Hostetler's Atlanta home will be part of the Atlanta Botanical Garden's annual Mother's Day event Gardens for Connoisseurs. The tour features 11 private gardens, including formal French and English gardens, a Japanese garden and several Southern gardens.

The garden was completed less than a year ago but is as luxuriant as any mature landscape. The garden was designed by the Hostetlers to complement the chateau-style home on their property.

Scott Hostetler, whose garden has several large-cut flower gardens, is a partner in HZS, an international landscape architecture design firm whose work includes hotel resorts and high-end residential development.

Looking for a home base for the new company and a place to raise their two daughters, Scott and Philippine-born Livia, 36, decided on Atlanta. Their home on Harris Trail was built in 2000 for a player for the San Francisco 49ers. The property features a 15,000-square-foot French chateau-style home and 2 acres of flat, open land.

The garden features several Golden Cypress topiaries. In preparation for their move to the house, the Hostetlers made several visits to France, taking more than 6,000 photographs at classic French chateaus to document the layout of the gardens.

The property features Parterre gardens in the back yard. The couple took measurements and noted details such as the use of arcs rather than 90-degree angles for the corners of garden beds

The garden's backyard is designed with matching staircases wrapping around pocket gardens on either side of the yard.

The yard features a classical french structure with spiraled white pine trees.

The Hostetlers used a Blue Atlas Cedar living fence in their garden. Scott Hostetler estimates he put in 6,000 plants in 100 varieties. One of his goals was to use a family of plants that was familiar to Atlanta gardeners, but in new and interesting ways.

"What I like to do is what some might call design backward," Hostetler said. "I procure really distinct plant material and then strategically place it where it can best be showcased."

Larch trees, native to england, are used as archways in the garden.

Detail of a Parterre garden in the back yard of Scott Hostetler's Atlanta home.

Long-stemmed purple Alium are planted near red dwarf azaleas. Scott Hostetler finds that sitting back now and looking over the landscape, he feels a sense of relief. "I was my hardest client, my worst critic," he said. "I put a lot of pressure on myself."

Two small creeks and steep terrain shape Bill Hudgins' Buckhead property, a perennial garden tour favorite.

1/14

Livia and Scott Hostetler's Atlanta home will be part of the Atlanta Botanical Garden's annual Mother's Day event Gardens for Connoisseurs. The tour features 11 private gardens, including formal French and English gardens, a Japanese garden and several Southern gardens.

Today's Gallery Headlines

Georgia students organize protests against ICE after Minnesota killings

PHOTOS: Snellville's Brookwood High School students rally and march against ICE

Ice storm warning

PHOTOS: Scenes from icy winter storm in Metro Atlanta

As storm inches closer to Georgia, metro Atlanta braces for ice threat

PHOTOS: Georgia readies for incoming ice storm

01202026 day of protests

PHOTOS: Metro Atlanta ICE protest join national effort

More Galleries

the weeknd

PHOTOS: The Weeknd electrifies the crowd at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz stadium

PHOTOS: Beyonce fans saddle up for 4-day Atlanta Cowboy Carter Tour stop

PHOTOS: Beyoncé fans arrive for 4-night Atlanta Cowboy Carter Tour stop

College Park Juneteenth Parade standalone photo

PHOTOS: Juneteenth Parade held in College Park

4th Annual Rick Ross Car Show

PHOTOS: Rapper Rick Ross holds 4th annual car show in Fayetteville