Arabella is one of the leading landscape designers working in the UK today and has an unrivalled command of both landscape design and the highest quality plantsmanship. Italian by birth, she has been working in the UK for over 40 years designing over 400 gardens worldwide including 6 Chelsea Flower Show Gold medal gardens, including best of show in 1998.
Her many commissions range from small town gardens to large historical country landscapes, Mediterranean garden to commercial projects including the iconic roof garden at No. 1 Poultry in the City of London included as one of the sights of London in Danny Boyles film celebrating London for the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games and the first large landscape for the Maggie’s Cancer Caring Charity in Dundee. Larger projects include the gardens at Eaton Hall, Cheshire; roof gardens for in Hong Kong, a garden and park in Dallas, gardens in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Mexico, Barbados, Canada and the USA. Currently she is working on large projects in the UK, the US and the Ukraine amongst others.
Arabella is at the forefront of planting design in the UK, with particular emphasis on the uses of trees and shrubs in her gardens. She is a member of the RHS Woody Plant Committee and a patron of the Painshill Trust and also serves as a Trustee for the Chelsea Physic Garden. She is on the Council of the International Dendrology Society and on the Scientific Panel. She is a trustee of The Tree Register T.R.O.B.I and The Yorkshire Arboretum Trust. She has served as a Trustee of Kew Gardens for nine years, was a member of The Historic Parks and Gardens Panel of English Heritage and sat on the Heritage panel for six contemporary Heritage gardens and was a founding member of the Marin McLaren Horticultural Scholarship.
Arabella was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Design (HonDDes) by the University of Greenwich where she is also a member of The Assembly, the RHS Veitch Memorial Medal for her outstanding work in horticulture, the International Prestige Prize Tor San Lorenzo in recognition of her lifelong commitment to innovation in design and the prestigious Premio Firenze Donna prize for her outstanding achievements both as a landscape architect and as a business-woman.
Arabella has written three books, Traditional English Gardens, Private Gardens of London, and in May 2002 published a book on her work, Designing Gardens. She has lectured on her work in the UK, Italy and the USA.
Arabella has spent the last 30 years building her own garden at Gresgarth, near Lancaster where she has not only designed a truly remarkable garden, both in design and planting terms, but is also developing one of the most exciting new arboretums in the country with plants often collected on her many plant hunting trips. She also propagates rare trees and shrubs from her travels for herself and other plant lovers.