Perhaps, like me, you fantasize about spending a year traveling the world visiting every garden, park and landscape you long to experience. Giverny? Sissinghurst? Katsura Imperial Villa? Please, send me there. And should you need inspiration for your journey, The History of Landscape Design in 100 Gardens by Linda Chisholm will get you started. Written for those who love gardens, gardening, history, literature and art, it profiles one hundred of the world’s great gardens.
Kykuit, Pocantico Hills, N.Y. Photo by Michael D. Garber, courtesy of Timber Press
Chisholm, who teaches the history of landscape design at the New York Botanical Garden, curates the gardens profiled to illustrate the history and principles that underlie the evolution of landscape design. Using a personal filter, her goal is to reveal why a style became dominant at a specific time and place in history.
Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC
Focusing on developments from around the world that most impacted North America and the United Kingdom, The History of Landscape Design in 100 Gardens, ambitiously examines how plants, horticulture and garden design changed the world. Its approach, which illustrates important evolutionary and revolutionary moments in the history of garden and landscape design, implores the reader to consider the ideas, beliefs and hopes expressed in the designs we choose for our gardens, be they humble or grand.
San Pietro Abbey, Perugia, Italy. Photo by Michael D. Garber, courtesy of Timber Press
Chisholm views landscape design as an art form, intimately tied to the unique biography of its creator. These visionaries and experimenters were a diverse lot with differing motives. Fortunately for the reader their stories intrigue and inspire, brought to life through Chisholm’s comprehensive research and engaging prose.
Kew Pagoda, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, photo by Michael D. Garber, courtesy of Timber Press
Seventeen chronological thematic chapters are presented. Within each a series of gardens is explored.
Mark di Suvero, Mother Peace, 1970; Collection Storm Art Center, Mountainville, New York, Gift of Ralph E. Ogden Foundation, Inc., photographed by Michael D. Garber
A chapter is devoted to the impact of sea voyages on horticulture, science and botanical gardens during the age of discovery. Titled a “A World of Wonders,” it profiles L’Orto Botanico in Padua, Hortus Botanicus in Leiden, Chelsea Physic Garden in London and Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia.
Chelsea Physic Garden, London, England
“The Poppies Grow,” profiles garden creators that found solace in opposing the industry that led to war. Included are Lawrence Johnson (Hidcote), Vita-Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson (Sissinghurst), Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss (Dumbarton Oaks), Harvey LaDew (LaDew Topiary Garden) and Christopher Lloyd (Great Dixter). In contrast to war’s devastation, each viewed the garden as a source of comfort, renewal and resurrection to ameliorate the ravages of industrialization and destruction.
LaDew Topiary Gardens, Monkton, Maryland, photo by Michael D. Garber, courtesy of Timber Press.
The History of Landscape Design in 100 Gardens is beautifully designed. Evocative, color photographs by Michael D. Garber adorn almost every page, complement the text and artfully convey a sense of place for each garden. An index, compiled as a toolkit, includes concepts, principles, design techniques and garden features. There are extensive source notes and a bibliography for each chapter.
Bartram’s Garden, Philadelphia, PA
This is an ambitious book about a complex and multi-dimensional topic, which I very much enjoyed. I do wish, however, that instead of The History of Landscape Design in 100 Gardens it had been titled A Selective History of Landscape Design in 100 Gardens as there is so much more on the subject to reveal and the book’s focus on influences on North America and the United Kingdom is, in itself, a limitation.
Naumkeag, Stockbridge, MA
And as for garden travel, Chisholm reveals that while she has read about the great gardens and used a variety of sources for each period of history she has visited most, but not all, of the gardens included. This led me to want to know more about the criteria for the 100 gardens selected while providing a renewed impetus for my own explorations. Let the journey begin.
This review appeared in Leaflet: A Massachusetts Horticultural Society Publication, March 2019.
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