By Laura C. Martin
Photography by David Schilling
300 illustrations
250 in full color
256 pages • 9-7/8 x 9-7/8"
Cloth • ISBN 1-55859-323-3
Previously $45.00, Now $19.98
UK previously £34.00, Now £15.00 R WE
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About the Book
Contents
Introduction
Sample Images:
Images from the Book
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Dedicated to the memory of the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, the Elizabethan Gardens were designed in the 1950s in the style of an Elizabethan pleasure garden. Watching over the gardens at the end of an azalea-lined alcove is Virginia Dare, the first white baby born of English-speaking parents in America, sculpted as she might have looked as an adult. The statue was carved in Rome in 1859 by an American sculptor, Maria Louisa Lander. The sculpture has a history all its own, for it spent two years at the bottom of the ocean, the result of a shipwreck. Once retreived, it went to the State Hall of History in Raleigh. Later it belonged to Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Green, who gave it the Elizabethan Gardens in the late 1950s. Local legend says that Virginia Dare grew up among the native Americans and that her spirit still runs free in these woods in the form of a white doe.
Working at the edge of the wilderness, gardeners at Williamsburg endeavored to bring a sense of order and formality to the landscape. The Governor's Palace Garden was planted with pristine precision in a style reminiscent of seventeenth-century England. Today the Governor's Palace grounds only cover approximately ten acres. During the eighteenth-century, however, the total acreage was close to 370. Much of this land was probably used to grow fruit (for both the table and livestock), as pastureland, and to grow trees for firewood. Although the gardens were undoubtedly beautiful, little documentation is now available showing what the original landscape looked like. The best piece of evidence is a copper plate dating from about 1740, which was discovered in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University in 1929. This plate shows the forecourt garden, composed of oval planting beds and paved walkways, and the ballroom garden, laid out in a number of diamond parterres, all of which have been reconstituted for our education and enjoyment.
It may be said that through the years, each owner of Magnolia Gardens has kept pace with the times and did what was necessary to keep the gardens intact. Today only a very small portion of the 1680s formal gardens can be seen, the remainder of the clipped and manicured gardens having been converted into informal, romantic paths through "wilderness" settings such as this swamp. J. Drayton Hastie, the ninth-generation owner of Magnolia Gardens, uses thousands of bedding plants each year to enhance its natural beauty. Even in the swamp garden, however, the visitor is reminded of the long and difficult history of this plantation. Signs and a path lead from the swamp to the plantation cemetery, where dozens of small headstones are haunting reminders of the more than three hundred slaves who labored at Magnolia.
The live oaks leading to Rosedown are nearly 200 years old and give the plantation a studied grace impossible to duplicate. Many of the trees and shrubs date back to the early 1800s, and where possible these have been allowed to attain their full height and maturity without being pruned. The results are sometimes surprising. Several camellias are now well over twenty-five feet tall, and a group of sweet olives is over thirty feet tall. Few gardens in North America hold such a large collection of old plantings. Unlike other historical gardens that were excavated and pieced back together, Rosedown's gardens were still intact, but were practically invisible because they were so overgrown. The diary of Martha Turnbull, the estate's original mistress and an enthusiastic gardener, proved invaluable help in restoring the gardens to their original grandeur.
Water is found everywhere on the grounds at Vizcaya. Pools and fountains provide cool spots in the hot Florida sun, and the unceasing sound of running water creates a soothing influence. The gardens at Vizcaya are not flower gardens; color is used as an accent rather than as the central theme. Italian garden design traditionally included three major elements: greenery, water, and stone. As a glowing example of how these elements can be combined into an unforgettable experience, the formal grounds of Vizcaya include twelve acres of clipped hedges, pebble walks, stone fountains, dark pools, and native and exotic greenery.
Fairchild Tropical Garden features a practical, scientific organization of its plants, with specimens grouped according to botanical family. Broad open spaces of lakes and lawns offset these groupings. William Lyman Phillips developed the garden as a symphony, with "chords" of palms and cycads, "melodies" of flowering plants, and "rests"—essential moments of complete silence—to show off these rich and varied tones. In the rain forest section shown here, bromeliads, orchids, and ferns grow high in the trees, just as they grow in the wild. Because southern Florida does not receive as much rainfall as does a true tropical rainforest, an outdoor sprinkler system sprays water both at ground level and high in the canopy.
Unexpected but beautiful, a waterfall tumbles into a dark pool in southern Florida's Morikami Garden. This Japanese garden skilfully uses tropical plants, water, and rocks to illustrate an Oriental style. The Garden was founded by George Morikami, a Japanese who came to the United States in 1906 as part of the Yamoto community. The members were to establish a farming community to grow silk, tea, tobacco, pineapple, and rice. The original visions of the community never came to fruition, but Morikami remained in Florida and became a successful businessman. Late in life he decided to donate this land to the county that had given him so many opportunities.
Gardens for Peace is an international organization founded in 1984 by Atlanta native Laura Dorsey Rains. Its primary purpose is to promote worldwide peace by recognizing and promoting gardens around the world as symbols of peace. The organization's stated mission is "to identify and link established gardens throughout the world where contemplation and meditation by individuals and communities will foster respect for the environment and a climate for peace among all peoples." This lifesize bronze sculpture from Russia, The Peace Tree, was installed at the Swan Woods Trail in 1989. Laura Rains said of this work, "The Peace Tree represents the future and challenges us as a global community to discover and claim peace as we unite gardens throughout the world."
