British horticultural writer Beverley Nichols once opined, “To dig in one’s own
earth, with one’s own spade, does life hold anything better?” For those with
verdant thumbs and a penchant for taming nature, the answer to Nichols’ question
is an unequivocal “No.” But instead of asking if there is anything better
in life, the more pertinent question to ask of a garden aficionado is “What kind
of garden is best for you?” From the beginning of human civilization, the desire
to beautify one’s surroundings has been of paramount importance, and gardens
have played a large role in such efforts. From the austere Zen masterpieces of
Japan to the opulent spreads of 18th-century France, lovers of beauty have
always sought out ways to inch closer to nature. Here is a look at four of the
most popular landscaping styles today, and the masters who keep the forms alive
and blooming.
Almost diametrically opposed to the traditional, European formal
garde, the romantic American garden substitutes flow for formality and
Bohemianism for balance. Romantic gardens break the rigid structure and
mathematical precision of formal gardens by letting nature dictate–to a large
extent–which plants will go where. According to Robert E. Truskowski, a Laguna
Beach, Calif., landscape architect, romantic gardens of today can be traced back
to the plants and flowers in early English meadows, and more recently, to
domestic designs like Frederick Law Olmstead’s revolutionary vision for New
York’s Central Park.
Lush landscaping by Oehme, van
Sweden. Photographs by Richard Felber. (Click images to enlarge)
Romantic gardens let the imagination run wild and allow for a more reflective
approach. Truskowski says that while many of his clients prefer their house
gardens to be somewhat formal, as the gardens extend away from the main building
they tend to blend into the natural environment, becoming softer and more
informal as they radiate out. To create that soft feel, Truskowski uses native
grasses that create a billowy lushness. The rest of the plant material depends
largely on the architecture of the property. “It’s really a textural issue. You
use a softer, gentler kind of material, not material that is crisp and
hard-edged,” Truskowski says.
One of the true innovators of this romantic style is James van Sweden of the
Washington, D.C., landscape architecture firm Oehme, van Sweden. His new
American garden style serves as a metaphor for the American meadow. “It is the
antithesis of a formal garden. It represents spontaneity,” he says. He likens
romantic gardens to tapestries that feature perennials and ornamental grasses in
a free-form setting.
Van Sweden believes romantic gardens are true American creations, though they
can trace their roots to earlier European perennial gardens. However, romantic
gardens in America reflect American scale. The planting areas are bigger in the
United States as is the plant palette. Van Sweden says that while the material
selection is vast, he prefers to work with native plants whenever possible.
Fountain grass, switch grass and calamagrostis all play prominent roles in van
Sweden’s designs. But as in true American meadows, anything goes.
ROMANTIC SOURCES:
Nancy Goslee Power, Santa Monica,
Calif., 310.264.0266
Jay Griffith, Venice, Calif., 310.392.5558,
www.jaygriffith.comDeborah
Nevins & Assoc., New York, 212.925.1125
Mario Nievera Design, Palm Beach, Fla., 561.659.2820,
www.marionieveradesign.comOehme,
van Sweden Assoc., Washington, D.C., 202.546.7575,
www.ovsla.comRobert E. Truskowski, Laguna Beach, Calif., 949.494.6650,
www.truskowski.comEdwina von Gal &
Co., East Hampton, N.Y., 631.907.9040
Before innovative landscape designers like John Greenlee and
Sydney Baumgartner came along, most people thought desert gardening was a
contradiction in terms. Gardens need water, and desiccation is one of the
hallmarks of any desert–so the two seemed destined to be at odds forever.
However, understanding the botany of deserts is the key to creating a
breathtaking desertscape. It may not be a perennial garden, but it will be
reflective of the history and topography of the desert.
People have
to understand the desert before they can garden there, says Greenlee, a designer
in Pomona, Calif. “If people get to see really good desert, it can be very
stunning,” he says. “But so few people have seen good desert because there is so
little good desert left.” Greenlee describes a land that has been changed by
natural and human forces, from urban developments like Las Vegas to high desert
grassland that cattle and sheep grazing cleared out in the early pioneer days.
In Greenlee’s work, drought-tolerant grasses like salt grass, mosquito grass
and blue grama grass are featured prominently. He also uses non-native grasses
like vetiver, an Indian grass commonly used as a perfume base, to bolster his
designs. Plant material that is heat- and drought-resistant and non-threatening
to other botanical species makes up the foundation of an ecologically sound and
aesthetically pleasing desert design.
The main attractions of the desert are the sweeping changes of light and
shadow that occur in the blink of an eye. Sydney Baumgartner, a designer in
Santa Barbara, Calif., chooses plants that will heighten the extremes of these
changes. Whether using spiny cactus with other succulent back-up material to
play up the shadows, or integrating crushed granite or gravel flooring to
showcase the negative space, Baumgartner believes the changing light should
always be considered. “The light and sunsets are so dramatic,” Baumgartner says.
“The greatest impact of the desert garden is in the night and the morning when
the shadow patterns create almost a second dimension.” Like her mentor,
Elizabeth Kellam deForest, Baumgartner reminds clients that it is important to
mix succulents with grasses, drought-tolerant ground cover and inorganic
material as a way to address the lack of water. Instead of trying to conquer the
desert, the best gardens are those that work in harmony with it.
DESERT SOURCES:
Sydney Baumgartner, Santa Barbara, Calif.,
805.687.2555
Isabelle Greene, Santa Barbara, Calif., 805.569.4045
John
Greenlee, Greenlee Nursery, Pomona, Calif., 909.629.9045,
www.greenleenursery.comMarcello
Villano, Rancho Mirage, Calif., 760.401.0452
The Japanese have long been considered the true masters of a pure
garden aesthetic, one that lacks pretension and subtext and simply exists. But
within the Japanese garden tradition lies a number of different styles, from the
stark Zen gardens that date to the early Buddhist monasteries, to the strolling
or imperial gardens that feature lush plant material. Regardless of the style,
Japanese gardens differ from their Western counterparts because of their focus
on creating places that invoke inner peace and tranquility.
Peter White, a landscape architect with the Sudbury, Mass., firm ZEN
Associates, believes that one of the main principles of Japanese garden design
(excluding the dry rock Zen gardens) is a naturalistic style that inspires a
sense of calm in those who experience it. These gardens are balanced and are not
contained by artificial boxes or grids. There is strict attention paid to an
artistic foreground, middle ground and background, and to layering plants to fit
the form.
Scenes from two gardens, as created by Sudbury,
Mass.-based landscape firm ZEN Associates, which specializes in Japanese
design. (Click images to enlarge)
Rather than designing for color and flower variety, the overall view is
paramount in a Japanese garden; color is used sparingly. “That doesn’t mean the
design isn’t striking or bold,” White says. “It’s just one flower’s chance to be
a leading lady.” White prefers to use traditional Asian plant material in his
designs, including moss, dogwood, azaleas, black pine and bamboo. He notes that
while the style itself remains the same, it can be composed of whatever plant
material is indigenous to the garden area. “It’s easy to transport [this type of
garden] to other cultures and climates. You could do a Japanese garden in
Alaska, Florida, Maine or Sweden,” White says.
Junji Miki, a Seattle landscape designer, has been designing Japanese gardens
in both the United States and Japan for more than 25 years. In that time, he has
learned to meld the traditional Japanese style with a more contemporary, Western
feel. While few clients want austere Zen gardens–with the traditional rocks and
gravel symbolizing the mountains and oceans–many want to incorporate a Zen
feeling into the more contemporary Japanese garden’s greenery. Miki uses a
number of trees and shrubs in his designs, including mountain maple, weeping
Japanese maple, cherry trees, camellias and hydrangeas. “Most people love
Japanese gardens,” Miki says, “because they feel calm and quiet and they are not
as active as some Western gardens.”
JAPANESE SOURCES:
Kurisu International, Portland, Ore., and Delray Beach,
Fla., 888.441.5137,
www.kurisu.comJunji Miki, Zen Japanese
Landscape Design, Lynwood, Wash., 425.402.4639,
www.zenjapaneselandscape.comThomas
Schoos Design, West Hollywood, Calif., 310.854.1141,
www.schoos.comPeter White, ZEN Associates, Sudbury, Mass., 800.834.6654,
www.zenassociates.comAnyone who has visited Hampton Court Palace outside of London or
Louis XIV’s Versailles can appreciate the exacting mathematics that go into
creating a formal garden. In the extravagant days of European royalty (in
particular the French and English), formal gardens, with their pure geometric
forms and precise symmetry, symbolized wealth and influence. They required
dozens of workers to maintain the parterres, or patterns, created by the flora.
Today, at least in the United States, garden designers have moved away from such
formality and lean toward a more natural, free-form design. But for those who
still practice the form, nothing can take the place of its original mandates for
balance and precision.
Many homeowners want low-maintenance gardens these days, says Troy, Va.,
landscape designer Susan Schlenger. The rewards from cultivating a
labor-intensive formal garden, however, are abundant. And “formal” does not
always negate “contemporary”–the two coexist quite comfortably in many an
estate.
Schlenger regularly uses formal edges of boxwood in her designs, but says
that hedges can be made from many different types of plant material, including
burning bushes, rhododendrons and inkberry holly. Creating a formal display is
not so much about the specific plant material, she notes, but in how it is used.
The origins of formal gardens are rooted in Western European political
history. High French parterres, with fleur-de-lis flourishes and artistic
topiary, exemplify the indulgence of the Sun King. Victorian English display
gardens were more staid, yet just as exacting. As society became less formal, so
too did its gardens, Schlenger says.
Formal gardens are still alive and well in the United States, says designer
Emily Fronckowiak, whose company, Historical Courtyards & Gardens of
Berkley, Mich., specializes in European-style display gardens. “Americans just
don’t understand formal gardens. It takes a special mind-set,” Fronckowiak says.
Formal gardens serve our need to organize, as each is built on a mathematical
grid. André le Nôtre, architect of the gardens at Versailles, understood this
human need for order, as did acclaimed British designer Capability Brown. And as
a testament to the formal garden’s charm, many have stood the test of time and
exist today in their original form.
FORMAL SOURCES:
Julian and Isabel Bannerman, Bristol, England, www.bannermandesign.com
Madison Cox
Garden Design, New York, 212.242.4631
Emily Fronckowiak, Historical Courtyards & Gardens, Berkley, Mich., 248.544.1218, www.historicalcourtyards.com
Penelope
Hobhouse & Assoc., www.penelopehobhouse.com
Susan
Schlenger, Troy, Va., 434.996.1609, www.susanschlenger.com
Tom
Stuart-Smith, London, +44.20.7253.2100, www.tomstuartsmith.co.uk
If you find yourself in need of horticultural inspiration, make
plans to attend one of these world-renowned garden events.
Charleston Garden Festival, South Carolina
This three-day festival,
located within Charleston’s historic Middleton Place gardens, was launched last
October, and organizers are hoping to turn it into an annual event. The 65 acres
of formal gardens–once belonging to Arthur Middleton, who signed the Declaration
of Independence–were the setting for an opening night party, lectures by
preeminent horticulturalists from around the country, artisan vendors,
horticulture tours, exhibit gardens, a formal tea and the livelier “Grooving in
the Garden” soirée.
October, annually. 843.723.9293, www.charlestongardenfestival.com
Chaumont-sur-Loire Garden Show, France
Perhaps the most thrilling of all
garden shows, the Chaumont event began in 1992 as a showcase for radical garden
design, and continues to push the boundaries of artistic landscaping. (Many of
the designers work in other fields, such as architecture, so sculptural
creations are common.) The show is held on the grounds of a château in the Loire
Valley. Thirty show gardens are created around an annual theme; the 2003 theme
was “Weeds,” and one designer created a garden that featured hundreds of spoons
set in the ground. October, annually. +33.2.54.20.99.22, www.chaumont-jardin.com
Chelsea Flower Show, London
Billed as “The World’s Greatest Flower Show,”
this annual five-day event has been held at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea since
1913. Close to 600 exhibitors turn out each year to blanket the 11-acre property
with botanical beauty; more than 100 floral exhibitors were present in 2005,
many of whom (such as McBean’s Orchids) have shown at the festival for decades.
Exhibits are judged by panels comprised of members of the Royal Horticultural
Society, organizers of the festival. Roughly 150,000 guests attend the show each
year. May 23—27. +44.870.906.3781, www.rhs.org.uk/chelsea
Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, London
If roses are your passion, this
six-day event, also hosted by England’s Royal Horticultural Society, will feel
like utopia. The largest annual horticultural show in the world, the Hampton
Court Palace event features one of the most impressive collections of roses in
full bloom. Also on display are vignettes from more than 150 specialist
nurseries. Last year, guests were treated to an entire gardening year under one
roof: four show gardens constructed in the indoor Daily Mail Pavilion recreated
spring, summer, autumn and winter, consecutively. July 4—9.
+44.870.906.3781, www.rhs.org.uk/hamptoncourt
Northwest Flower & Garden Show, Seattle
This annual five-day show,
held at the Washington State Convention Center, boasts more demonstrations and
seminars than most: 115 presentations (many held on an open demonstration stage)
are scheduled for this year’s extravaganza. Among the pragmatic seminar topics
planned are “Pruning Fruit Trees” and “Designing Container Gardens.” Dozens of
display gardens will also be constructed, and speakers will include garden
writers Noel Kingsbury and Wayne Winterrowd, author and co-creator of the famed
North Hill garden. February 8—12. 206.789.5333, www.gardenshow.com
Philadelphia Flower Show
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society hosts this
annual flower show at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The event lures
speakers from around the globe and features 10 acres of vendors and full-size
and vignette gardens. This year’s theme, “Celebrate Enchanted Spring . . . A
Tribute to Mother Nature,” will encompass a host of whimsical exhibits,
including Natura, the largest plant sculpture in the world (27 feet tall) and a
Water, Wind and Fire display that features moving fountains and
flowers.
March 5—12. 215.988.8899, www.theflowershow.com
San Francisco Flower & Garden Show
California’s biggest and best
flower and garden show, now in its 21st year, runs for five days every year at
the Cow Palace and attracts tens of thousands of garden lovers and professional
horticulturists. The tag line for the event, “Where Gardens Meet Art,”
underlines its intentions: to showcase the artistry of the state’s top landscape
designers. Over 20 full-size gardens anchor the show, augmented with vignette
gardens and vendors selling tools, books and accessories. Dozens of seminars and
workshops are also scheduled. March 15—19. 415.771.6909, www.gardenshow.com
