Rebecca Cole is not only one of New York’s top landscape designers, she’s also THE most fun (and funny) friend.

• Her company Rebecca Cole Grows has created hundreds of gardens, green roofs, terraces and outdoor “living rooms” for a star-studded clientele as well as for NYC hotels like the Soho Grand and The James. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Lincoln Center are clients and she’s designed weddings for international super stars and dinner parties for moguls.
• Rebecca does it all: events, gardens, floral arrangements, furniture and home interiors. Her television and radio credits include hosting Discovery Channel’s “Surprise by Design,” and appearances on The Today Show, Oprah, The View, CNN, and BBC World News. She’s the author of three books including Potted Gardens, which won the Quill and Trowel Award for best new gardening book.

Thrilled to have Rebecca participate in the Q+A series.

Read on below for one of my all time favorite Q+A’s.

 

What inspired you to start Rebecca Cole Grows?

• I came to New York with a different dream and it wasn’t panning out. I grew up rural but have been in big cities since 18…. first Chicago, then NYC….so I craved/longed for the outdoors and made outdoor space my priority in apartment living.
• And I would make funky outdoor “living rooms” wherever I lived. I had no real money so I would scavenge flooring, furniture, odd vessels, even plants to make my urban gardens.  My homes were the gathering places for all my friends who craved a bit of outdoor green.
• One day, New York Magazine did a story on my garden….and overnight my new career was born. Every wealthy Upper East Sider with a terrace called me. That was 25 years ago and the phone hasn’t stopped ringing!

What has been the biggest lesson you’ve learned from having the business?

• Stay true to yourself and evolve, not with what’s “expected” but with what inspires you. Figure out and let the world know what sets you apart, even just a wee bit, from all the other folks who do what you do. 

What are some of the events in your life that made you who you are?

• Driving my brother 8 hours to his first day of college when I was only 16…and then driving home alone. My mother had this belief that you should arrive at college with a peer, not your parents, to start your new life.
• Leaving a tiny town in Pennsylvania to go to college in a BIG city….totally unprepared.
• Moving home in my 20’s to take care of my Mom when she was dying. And being there when she died.
• Leaving my first love, the theater, to have more creative control over a creative life.
• Visiting Cambodia and staying longer than I anticipated because it felt like a place that was in the midst of remaking itself…and it was exciting.
• September 11th….My office, my home and my clients were in downtown Manhattan when the planes hit…and that morning everything changed.  All my employees left the city to never return. I got a TV show (Surprise by Design) two months later that lasted 5 years. It kept me and my business afloat. 

What is something your friends would consider “so you”?

• The color Citron. Good lighting. And bringing my dog EVERYWHERE.
• Lately, my friends have  been using the Danish term Hygge to describe me. I do like a lot of comfort and coziness about me….but I am also pretty ballsy. Opinionated and not afraid to express it. Independent, self reliant.  

What are some of your personal “rules” that you never break?

• NEVER BREAK??!!…I’m afraid there are none.
• ONES I WISH I would never break…truth saying, never lying, always leaving a good tip. 
  

What do you regret not doing or starting when you were younger?

• Creating art for me…not for a living. Oh, and a retirement saving plan.

What’s the first career you dreamed of having as a kid? 

•  Actress

What takes up too much of your time?

• Worrying

What do you wish you knew more about?

• The world. French… I wish I could speak it.  I wish I lived in a different country for 5 years or more.

What could you give a 20-minute presentation on with absolutely no preparation?

•  Anything…I really can talk about anything.  Even things I don’t know about… I’m a bit of a talker!  
• But things I really know: urban greening, modern comfort, the 80’s in NYC, running your own business, Practical Feminism. 

What are people most curious about when they hear what you do?

• That I garden in NYC….They don’t know where someone would garden in the city. 

What’s one thing about you that surprises people?

• That I can be a real recluse.

If you had to choose only 3 adjectives to describe yourself, which would you choose?

• Creative, messy (in spirit and opinion), Opinionated

Who are your role models or mentors?

•  Emma Goldman, Bette Midler, my brothers

What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives?

•  Live in a different country