I love visiting gardens when I travel, especially ones that are important to the heritage, built environment or artistic /architectural development of a particular society. For example, Versailles, or Sissinghurst (the latter is my favourite garden ever).
What are some of the great gardens you have visited?
Please not, I am also a fan of nature and wilderness, but I am really asking about cultivated gardens here.
Did anyone see Tom Stoppard's play, 'Arcadia' ? It combines main elements of my favourite pursuits, not least of which is the English movement for park-like gardens. The best example of that is Stourhead, another magnificent offering in England.
I guess the concept of humans attempting to conquer nature fascinates me (not necessarily as a laudible goal, mind you). Simon Schama's book 'Landscape and memory' is terific in this area. Anyone read it?
So, who wants to talk about gardens?
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Re: Re: Okay People I'm inspired.
Thursday, 20-May-1999 03:45:21
210.8.232.4 writes:
John - absolutely inspired.
The Revenge Of The Blanks.
In fact there's a thread where Sergio advocates no
handles, arguing it is the ideas that count.
Then you can refer tyo posts as #1 , #5 etc. if
responding to a particular point.
Can also have a side game of 'guess the style - whose
handle?'
Let's give it a go.
Sally
Can your posts be any more boring?
go somewhere not boring to you. Noone forced you in here.
PLAN UNDERWAY FOR SHUTUP MEMBERS TO CLOG UP THE BOARD WITH
SEMI-TRAVEL RELATED POSTS TO DOMINATE PROCEEDINGS.
BEWARE.
MY SOURCE FROM A SHUTUP MEMBER.
Lets start posting inside when the post is quite huge. What
about just your last sentence "So, who wants to talk about
gardens?" and the "inside" quote for instance?
The Biltmore Estate is pretty great. I was very impressed with Royal Botanical Greenhouse in Brussels. I live right down the road from Holden Arboretum, the largest in the country. Love going there for inspiration.
Butchard Gardens outside Victoria, B.C., Canada - beautiful
also at night. Well worth a visit. To find more, search at
www.altavista.com with key words "butchard gardens"
Where is the Biltmore Estate?
Sissinghurst.. and not just the "white" garden, tho it is
really lovely, but the whole architecture of the gardens -
with "rooms" etc - a must see!!
If you get to england get the book that lists the "garden
Opens" for the year - they are year round and all over the
UK - and all private - that are open only 1 or 2 days a year
these are the lines taken from my biology professor's
article on the subjest:
"Parks are works of human hands. Alive monuments od past,
eternal witnesses of human
need to build beautiful and wholesome. Men and parks are
organicly connected. There is no
park that hasn't been built by a human hand . It also seems
that man would perish without
parks. Without man's care, parks grow into wild forests,
bushes that live its own biological
soundness. Parks are charmers that people and cities pride
themselves on ( who has't heard
of Hyde park or Central park?). They have their human past,
theis beginning, life and their end
too - if a man forgets them, leaving them to themselves."
--
DEBILE PRINCIPIVUM MELIOR
FORTUNA SEQVETUR
"Who starts poorly, awaits a better luck." (free
translation)
- This epigraph that stands on the portal of the church
somehow gives the elucidation on
human life as well as to the park itself .
Asheville, North Carolina. You can check out their website. www.biltmore.com They will even tell you what is in bloom and have a pretty good representation of the grounds. If you are ever in that area it is worth the trip!
Gardens is my thing!
Lots in Kyoto: Heian shrine, Katsura (best), that other
imperial villa northeast of town, many others.
Kew Gardens
Stourhead (in Bath, more or less)
Suzhou, China (too many to list)
Du Fu near Chengdu, China
Longwood Gardens (Philadelphia)
In Tivoli (east of Rome): villa d'Este, Hadrian's villa
Gardens are interesting ways to compare cultures. India
appears to be an entirely gardenless culture.
If you're in Bali, there's a great botanical garden at
Bedugul, overlooking a crater lake, and with an amazing
array of species. Of course, away from the tourist hells,
all of Bali is a garden.
-
In Vancouver, University of British Columbia has a nice
little garde with great views that provides a nice outdoor
complement to their excellent Museum of Anthropology. Highly
recommended.
Voyeur....agree about Sissinghurst.
DBT ....love Stourhead and Kew.
Mad potter, Karlo, Euro, greenfish....thanks.
On the west coast of Scotlnd there is a great garden, Inverewe (I think) which has created in itself a microclimate that enables the oudoor growth od eucalypts and sub-tropical plants.
I wasn't into gardens when I was in US, but next time will be sure to check out the N American examples. Gardens must = Old Fartdom. (That's why I'm so boring, I suppose...gardens, reading, travel, theatre, family, ideas....sooooo boring!!!)
Other favourites:
Boboli in Florence
National Botanic, Canberra
Botanic, Melbourne
Sydney Botanic cold climate - Mt Tomah, Blue Mountains
Would LERVE to check out Japanese and Chinese gardens, especially Suzhou.
visit here, Perth Western Australia, try to come in
September/October when you can walk through Kings Park. It
is a national park literally a 10 minute walk from the
centre of the city and it comprises several thousand acres
of native bush and is also has the state's botanic garden.
In spring when the wildflowers are at their peak it is just
a great place through which to walk and there is also an
annual wildflower display second to none. We also have the
Open Garden scheme here in Western Australia and we love
strolling through other gardens for inspiration or just
sheer enjoyment - the wide range of garden styles is
amazing.
I also enjoyed the garden at Powerscourt just south of
Dublin, although that may be because, as a "colonial hick",
it was my first experience of a traditional "great house"
garden of the 19th century.
I also have wonderful memories of the autumn colour in the
gardens of the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne - our
climate here in the west is not normally cold enough to
allow the extensive plantings of deciduous trees so I loved
the glorious colours of the leaves when I travelled through
the Dandenongs in autumn.
I would love to see the Floriad in Canberra next spring and
last night I drooled when there was a news item and footage
of the opening of the annual garden show in Kew Gardens,
London.
You are not alone in being a "boring old fart" Sally! I
also have similar interests to you much to the disgust of
my teenage son who gets dragged around gardens, parks, the
theatre, etc although he didn't object to me picking up the
bill when I took him to Ireland and London last year.
If you ever consider a trip here to the west coast of
Australia, please feel free to contact me at
harvey@crystal.com.au if I can help in any way.