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OCTOBER | PAGE 88 | 2015 proportion, of repetition, of spacing, and all I was doing for the past 14 years as I was designing gardens, was working with the same notions of the square in Siena. On how you got started, literally, in the field. I came to gardens because of growing vegetables. At age 17, I moved with an English girl to the Italian countryside. It was very romantic. And we lived together there, and there was a countryman that was taking care of the vineyard and the olive grove, and he set me up with a vegetable patch. And I became fascinated by the vegetable patch. I loved going to see what was going on, and I realized how easy it was to grow things. I said to Sarah, who was my girlfriend, "I want to do this as a job." And I started to design gardens from that day, creating spaces where food and people could be brought together. And as the spaces became bigger, they stayed the same within the ideas of proportion and spacing and repetition, and how, with all of these elements, the light played within the space, and the effect the spaces had on the viewer. Chelsea Flower Show as game-changer. After 2009, I did three Chelsea Flower Shows. It's part of the royal calendar and part of the Royal Horticultural Society, and I think it's the best flower show in the world. So, I've done it three times, and in the three times I've done it, I was given a gold medal for each one of my gardens, one of which was Best in Show in 2014. What's interesting to me about a flower show is that it brought me closer to flowers. All of my gardens, up until a certain point, did not have flowers. On you and blossoms. I didn't like to use flowers. I love flowers, but to be able to use flowers to the degree of understanding, you need to invest a lot of time into it. It's year after year after year of trying something, then trying something else. And this is just the plants within one environment, but after, there's another environment. This is a lifetime study. It's not something you can improvise from a book … open a book and plant a plant, and do it like that. You may do trees, you may do hedges, but with flowers, it's continuous work. It's constant education for your client once you're done, because a tree is a tree … it may need pruning, but flowers, it's weekly, almost daily. This is the work it needs. On who shouldn't have a garden. I think the beauty of gardens is gardening. A gardener knows about the soil, planting, plant companionship, plant community, spacing, seasons — we're talking about old- fashioned knowledge. There are certain work values and ethics, so that everything you do for this family, the family is also invested in. But if you don't like gardening, I don't think you should have a garden … just go play golf. It's much more relaxing for you. On learning flowers: Great Dixter in your practice. No matter where I am, I always return to Great Dixter [a storied garden in Sussex, England] and spend two days a month there. Life moves so fast that I need a space where things move slow, and things move slow because they are done well. I'm not necessarily learning just about flowers [at Great Dixter]. I'm learning about methods, and the method informs me about the way I want to work, and the way I want to be in my life … I can make things slowly and properly, and then I can tell my client this is the way to do it. On time and nature — and your epiphany over tea. There's a British fashion designer, Paul Smith, that I went to have tea with. I was telling him, "I have all of these things to do, but I need time." And he said, "You know, Luciano, one of the great things about this is that we've got time." Smith told me, "Now is the time. Your work is really great, but now it's time to also do something new. Something that you may use much later in your life, but something that gives you a different understanding." He told me to do things slowly and properly, and with an ethic. On lessons and life at Great Dixter Gardens. Being in fellow gardeners' presence and being close and working together — there's a lot of exchange, of course. They'll tell me everything about a particular plant … When they wake up in the morning, that's what they do everyday. It's a little bit like being a monk. There's that sort of routine that keeps you focused. It's a minimalistic approach to life … to live in one place and work in one space, all the time. Favorite flower. Tulips — Belle Époque, pink peach — which are surprising and flower like a rose. The future chapter: What you're thinking about next. I'm writing a book … one very different from the first book. It's a book that has to do with flowers, but also with my own understanding, and working with the people at Great Dixter. I think, for me, this is a completely new territory. "LUCIANO'S WORK IS RADICAL AND PRECISE. IT'S HAUTE COUTURE FOR A GARDEN." — CAROL ISAAK BARDEN Classic Giubbilei: Addison Crescent, London A greenscape by Giubbilei in Geneva for a corporate client The designer's Gold Medal, Best in Show, Chelsea Flower Show, London, 2014