The Magical Gardens of Bunny Mellon with Jennifer Yates

The Gunn Library welcomes landscape designer Jennifer Yates, who will explore the life of Rachel “Bunny” Mellon and the themes that shaped her work. Mellon’s aesthetic sensibilities were deeply influenced by her time in France, where she learned from colleagues, traveled extensively, and amassed a vast library of books by French landscape architects and other horticultural experts. Her work left a lasting impact on figures such as the Olmsted Brothers, Hubert de Givenchy, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Notably, it was Jackie Kennedy who invited Bunny Mellon to redesign the White House Rose Garden.

The program offers a timeline of Bunny Mellon’s life, tracing her journey to becoming a prominent American landscape designer. Learn about the legacy she left at the Oak Spring Foundation and explore the projects that earned her significant design awards throughout her lifetime—all the more impressive as Mrs. Mellon was entirely self-taught, without a formal college education.

Jennifer Yates is an artistic, experienced & award-winning landscape designer. Her work focuses on the impressive & beautiful as well as ecological. Her lifetime of study in the complementary fields of architecture, horticulture and the environment including five years of Architecture & Design at Rhode Island School of Design and two years at New York Botanical Gardens, inform her natural gift for color, architectural beds, layered & unique designs. Jennifer is certified from N.O.F.A. with organic certification.

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