A luxury landscape is not a collection of expensive plants. It is the intersection of three disciplines — horticulture (choosing the right plant for this exact microclimate), design (composing light, water, stone, and canopy into rooms you want to live in), and construction (building the invisible skeleton of drainage, irrigation, and lighting that keeps all of it alive through a Florida summer). When any one of those is missing, a six-figure garden starts to thin out within two years.
Travis and I have been building gardens for the neighborhoods east of I-95 — Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, The Sanctuary, Old Floresta, Port Royale, St. Andrews, Mizner, Woodfield — for nearly 25 years. This page is the short version of how we think about luxury design, who it's for, and what working with us looks like.
What we mean by "luxury" — and what we don't
Luxury landscape design is often confused with expensive landscape design. They are not the same.
An expensive landscape shows up as a line item on a quote: specimen palms at $8,000 each, Chicago brick at $18 per square foot, a pondless waterfall pump package at $14,000. Anyone can spend money. What the money buys is highly variable.
A luxury landscape is one where a decade later the owner says the garden is the reason we bought this house. That outcome comes from dozens of small design decisions — where the shade falls at 3 PM, whether the koi pond's overflow runs into the root zone of the Royal Poinciana or away from it, whether the evening lighting emphasizes the canopy or the pavers — that are invisible on an invoice but determine whether the space works.
Our clients are people who have already learned this distinction, usually from a previous house.
The Dreamscape design process
1. Site walk (free, 60–90 minutes)
No slide deck. Jennifer and Travis both come to the property. We walk every edge of the lot and take photos of existing canopy, drainage patterns, shade-cast at the time of day you'll most use the garden, and any mature trees that should be protected. We ask how you use — or want to use — the outdoor space. We leave with a one-page working brief.
2. Concept design (2–3 weeks)
We return with a hand-sketched plan and two or three specimen plant options for each "character" in the garden. At this stage, everything is decisions about intent, not product: a Royal Palm allée or a canopy of Live Oaks? A lagoon-edge pool surround or a geometric rectangular pool with long skinny pavers? A butterfly garden or a white-flowering sanctuary garden? We price three options so you can see how choices scale.
3. Construction documents and installation
Once the concept is approved, we produce the installation drawings (planting plan, irrigation plan, lighting plan) and a firm installation bid. Installation is done by our own crew — not subcontracted. For country-club homes, we handle the vendor-approval paperwork ourselves.
4. First-year stewardship
A luxury garden is more vulnerable in year one than it will ever be again. We check in monthly for the first 12 months to adjust irrigation, prune establishment growth, and replace any material that does not settle in. This is included in every installation.
What we specialize in
We take on the whole garden — we don't split the work. That said, four specialties are where we most often get calls from people who already have a designer and want a second opinion:
- Tropical garden design — composing year-round color from Heliconia, Alpinia, Crinum, and the right under-canopy species for each light condition.
- Pool landscape design — tropical pool surrounds that survive chlorine, salt, and pool equipment heat.
- Pondless waterfalls and water features — engineered by Travis, who has been building water features in South Florida for more than 20 years.
- Estate landscape design — multi-acre properties with masterplans that phase over 2–3 years of installation.
Who we work with
We are not a high-volume firm. We take on 12–15 full installations per year. Most of our clients live in:
- Boca Raton — especially Old Floresta, Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, The Sanctuary, St. Andrews, Mizner, Woodfield, Polo Club, Seasons
- Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens — BallenIsles, Mirasol, Old Palm, Admirals Cove
- Manalapan, Gulf Stream, Hillsboro Beach, Highland Beach, Ocean Ridge — coastal estates with salt-exposure and hurricane-resilience requirements
- Delray Beach and Parkland — increasingly, the newer luxury builds
If you're in one of these communities, we've probably worked within a quarter mile of you. Ask us for references when we meet — we almost always can give you one on your street.
What a typical project looks like in numbers
Every project is custom, but these ranges help set expectations. Prices are 2026, installed, for the Boca Raton service area.
| Scope | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Front-yard refresh (curb appeal, mature plants, lighting) | $45,000 – $90,000 |
| Pool surround with tropical planting and lighting | $80,000 – $180,000 |
| Pondless waterfall feature (designed + engineered + installed) | $35,000 – $120,000 |
| Full estate masterplan + phased installation | $250,000 – $1M+ |
| Monthly garden stewardship (design-level maintenance) | from $2,200/mo |
We are happy to be the second opinion on any quote you've received. Bring us the plan and we'll tell you what we would change, and why.
Why Jennifer and Travis
Most landscape companies in South Florida were started by either a horticulturist or a contractor. We are both. I hold a B.S. in Ornamental Horticulture from Virginia Tech and spent my post-graduate internship at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables — the same garden whose plant collection shaped modern South Florida tropical design. Travis has built water features, irrigation systems, and landscape construction in the same zip codes for more than two decades.
What this means for you: we name every plant on every plan. When something thrives or struggles, we know why. When a master-plan calls for 40 Silver Bismarck Palms, we know which three growers between Homestead and Loxahatchee currently have field stock at the specimen size you want — and which to avoid.
You can read more about our background on our About page, or skip ahead and request a consultation.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a landscape designer and a landscape architect? Do I need one?
A landscape architect is a licensed professional who can stamp drawings for civil-scale projects (public works, developments, grading plans that require engineering approval). A landscape designer is trained in horticulture and design and produces residential plans. For 95% of Boca Raton estate residences, a landscape designer — especially one with a horticulture degree like Jennifer's — is the right fit. We refer out to licensed architects on the rare project that requires stamped civil drawings.
How long does a typical luxury installation take?
A front-yard refresh: 2–3 weeks. A pool surround: 4–8 weeks. A full masterplan is typically phased over 12–24 months so the specimen plants establish before the next phase goes in. We do not rush this — plants installed too close together or too fast will look magnificent in year one and thin out by year three.
Do you handle my HOA or country-club approvals?
Yes. For Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, St. Andrews, Mizner, Woodfield, Polo Club, and every other gated community we regularly work in, we handle the vendor-certification, ACC submittal, and landscape-committee approval paperwork ourselves. We maintain current insurance certificates and background checks on file with the major clubs.
Can you work on a property I haven't bought yet?
We do pre-purchase landscape assessments for buyers considering estate homes where the garden is a material part of the value. We've helped clients negotiate $200k+ off a purchase by identifying failing drainage, root-compromised mature trees, or irrigation systems that needed full replacement.
Do you offer garden design without installation?
In select cases, yes — particularly for clients who have an existing trusted contractor. But we strongly recommend clients let us build what we design. The design details that matter most (plant-spacing, grade, irrigation routing, lighting aim) are almost never executed correctly by a third-party installer.
See our work, then come talk
Our portfolio shows completed gardens organized by neighborhood and by style — tropical, coastal, pool, estate, butterfly. If you see something that looks like the direction you want for your home, mention the project name when you request a consultation and we'll bring more photos of it to the site walk.