Exotic nights: this garden sets the stage for parties with lighting and artful details

Sunset, July, 2003 by Lauren Bonar Swezey

At dusk, Richard Holden and Sandra Moll switch on the lights in their San Jose backyard, instantly transforming the tranquil garden into paradise. Chinese lanterns stuffed with sparkling white lights dangle from arbors. A large dining patio radiates a warm glow from the back of the garden. And a dramatic fiery orange light bathes an ancient-looking wall relief.

But the lights are only part of what gives this landscape--inspired by designer and contractor Cevan Forristt's global travels--its dazzle and mystery. Each area of the garden is filled with interesting details that invite lingering looks.

To accommodate the 50 to 100 people who attend Holden and Moll's frequent fundraising events, the garden is divided into "rooms." Guests can circulate freely from the spacious patio, with its raised pond and portable firepit, to the lattice-sheltered buffet table and through the keyhole opening back to the pond. "Every element has a double or triple function," says Forristt. The concrete table seats 12, for example, but without chairs it makes a perfect buffet table.

DESIGN: Cevan Forristt, SanJose (408/297-8538).

RELATED ARTICLE: Details you can adapt

Hang portable lighting fixtures. White lights are instant magic, strung overhead or threaded into baskets. Holden and Moll also put floating candles in their pond, lanterns on seat walls, and tiki torches among tropical foliage.

Chill drinks in unexpected containers. Holden and Mall use the 39-inch-long soaking tubs pictured below left. When the party's over, the vessels revert to soaking tubs (supplied by hot- and cold-water spigots nearby). You could also use smaller glazed ceramic bowls from the nursery as coolers.

Fill a pond with water lilies. Choose from tropical kinds, whose large blooms (5 or more inches wide) typically stand well above the water, or hardy kinds, which usually lie at the water's surface. A mail-order source is Lilypons Water Gardens (www.lilypons.com or 800/999-5459.).

Embellish plain surfaces with insets of broken pottery. Save ceramic pieces to dress up birdbaths or other stone surfaces; for greatest effect, use pottery bits sparingly and in limited colors. Here, they make striking accents around the edges of Holden and Moll's 16-foot-long concrete table and the nearby pillars.

Grow bougainvillea in a pot. Its brilliant blooms act as an all-summer flower arrangement. Best varieties for pots include 'Brilliant Variegated' (brick red bracts); 'Crimson Jewel' (crimson bracts); 'Hawaii' (also sold as 'Raspberry Ice'; red bracts, variegated foliage); and 'Singapore White' (white bracts).