Grown with Care
Up on the sixth floor of Wythe Hotel, landscape designer Ariana Fields is perched on the ledge of the 125-year-old building, digging into a hedge of totem grass. As she’s pruning, she tells us she hopes this plant will eventually grow tall enough to offer privacy to this corner of Bar Blondeau’s patio overlooking the streets below.
For the past six years, she has carefully shaped all the greenery throughout Wythe with the goal of creating a place of respite amid the bustle of the city. With her pruning shears in hand, she meticulously maintains every flower and shrub to ensure the property looks its best for weddings, celebrations, and every day in between.
“I don’t like creating waste,” she says, placing sustainability at the forefront of every decision she makes. Ariana tends mostly to a set of perennials such as azaleas, amsonia, jacob's ladder, and smoke bush, all of which are native to North America and planted deep into the soil so they can develop stronger root systems and retain more water.
"It’s a gift to be able to come to work and learn more about these systems I’m interested in. The relationships between plants, insects, and birds fascinates me. It’s meditative because it keeps me present and mindful and pulls me out of any sort of rumination."
"I've heard people say, 'roses like to be pruned.' IM LIKE 'Do they?' or are they just resilient?"
Walking to the center of the patio, she pulls down a scaling vine she’s planted to show us. As we inspect it, she says she envisions it climbing higher on the metal trellises and eventually framing the doorway of the bar. Year after year, the perennials she plants return—sometimes bigger than before—each marking the passing of time, growing with the space.
“It’s a gift to be able to come to work and learn more about these systems I’m interested in,” says Ariana. “The relationships between plants, insects and birds fascinates me. It’s meditative because it keeps me present and mindful and pulls me out of any sort of rumination.”
Outside of Wythe, Ariana is a printmaker and illustrator, publishing a children's book titled What Do You Know in 2021 with her sister and poet Aracelis Girmay. The book, filled with dreamlike illustrations, follows love as it calls upon different living beings, and explores the diversity of life on Earth.
This deep understanding and respect for organic networks make Ariana's work on the Garden Terrace, Bar Blondeau patio, and Brooklyn Terrace hotel rooms feel beautiful and balanced. She says the reward is knowing that her work will become the backdrop to important memories, a place for life to take place.
