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In researching the world behind the Ottoline Collection, we found ourselves deep in the correspondence of Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell — notes passed between studios, dinner invitations scrawled on Gordon Square letterhead, a hurried sign-off before the ballet. This is the table they were always setting.

For lemons, linen, and low-stakes escapism, the PORTA Summer Tote in crisp canvas.

Time to rescue the hydrangeas from the heat and ferry them into every room of the summer house.

“There is a symphony of verdant life rising from this city.”
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For our latest Table Notes, florist Alex Crowder () set the table with petunias, heuchera, and salpiglossis sinuata — then took us into her studio library. Her favorites aren’t floristry books, but out-of-print field guides on wildflowers, especially 19th century nature writing. “People taken with plants so intensely that they need to write about it often have excellent observations and entertaining anecdotes about life,” she told us. “They’re the kind of people I’d want to invite to a dinner party.”
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Read the full conversation and shop the edit, online now at porta-nyc.com

Villa Ventorum, an extraordinarily detailed, full-scale reconstruction of a 4th-century Romano-British villa.