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cath41

Favorite Gardens?

cath41
9 years ago

Lately I have been enchanted by pictures of Eyrignac which looks like it was dropped to earth from a fairy tale. It is a formal garden (my first thought was the incredible number of man hours it must take to maintain) with 7 natural springs and so ponds and fountains. It also has a rose garden but this, although beautiful, is not its most alluring. Usually formal gardens are a bit boring, totally predictable. This is not and so I have begun analyzing its appeal and the lessons to be learned for possible application to my own garden. The main garden lying perpendicular to the front facade of the house slopes to the house and uses terracing to partially modify the slope. It also subtly uses forced perspective and powerfully vertical trees that narrow the view leading the eye outward and upward. These counter the overly enclosed feeling that such a slope could create. My garden slopes but in the opposite direction, away from the house. So I am not sure yet what I can use, probably vertical elements to narrow the view and simlpifying the basic design with more elaboration of the details.

What are some of your favorite gardens? Why do they appeal and what lessons have you learned from them?

Cath

Comments (20)

  • ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
    9 years ago

    Iford Manor, of which I've only seen pictures, but every view I've seen is romantic, with classical elements, steep stairs and paving offering a beautiful counterpart to the plantings and views of hills in the background.

    UC Berkeley Botanical Garden because of where it's situated, on hills overlooking the Pacific, and its old roses, and many plants that you otherwise don't see; it's aesthetics and a learning experience combined, my favorite combination.

    Ingrid

  • luxrosa
    9 years ago

    where is Erynac? I'd like to visit it if it's in California.

    My favorite rose garden is in Oakland, California, Morcam Park because it has a couple acres of trees in a wild appearing space with gigantic specimens, ( I counted 11 plants last time I was there) of R. brunonii, everymore there seems to be more seedlings scattered around by birds.
    There are also 3 formal rose gardens: the wedding site, the modern rose garden with a large reflecting pool, and The Old Rose Garden;The Florentine, with Old Garden Teas, Hybrid Perpetuals, Bourbons, and R. moschata by the Noisettes. There is also a couple dozen cultivars of Pernetianas and Hybrid Teas from 1867- 1980's. The garden is hard to find unless you descend from the staircase at the corner of Olive street and Oakland Avenue.

    It's a beautiful rose park.
    I love nearly equally these two: The San Jose Heritage Rose Garden and Sacramento Cemetary.
    Luxrosa

  • cath41
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Lux,

    Eyrignac is in southwest France, in the Dordogne. It was built around a manor that was constructed in the 17th century on the ruins of a medieval castle, castle is what I think we would call it in English. Besides the pools and the plantings the architecture of the stone buildings add to the enchantment.

    Cath

  • mariannese
    9 years ago

    I have seen many wonderful gardens but I take care not to be too inspired. All the best have a pond or a pool, or several, and I don't want water in the garden as I don't want more mosquitoes than I have already. I grew up in a garden with a natural brook so if I could have moving water it would be different.

    I prefer to enjoy a garden as a picture or an environment to be immersed in without wanting to imitate it. There are so many features that I can't have or that would look ridiculous if I should attempt to introduce them in my half acre.

    My greatest garden experience in later years was Isola Bella in Lago Maggiore but there is nothing in that garden that I could adopt. A good garden on a less grand scale is the Karl Foerster garden in Potsdam, a small family garden. It is famous for its sunken garden and pond but there is much else to see and I have been inspired by some of the plantings. Foerster's style is easier to adopt than Gertrude Jekyll's with its informal mix of ornamental grasses (not many) and easy perennials, many of Foerster's own breeding.

  • ArbutusOmnedo 10/24
    9 years ago

    I haven't been gardening all that long so I haven't been to many large scale gardens, but I love going to the Huntington in San Marino, CA and the SF Botanical Garden.

    I only passed through the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden once about 7 years ago -while I was a student there no less!- when I was far less engaged in roses, plants, and horticulture. It is lovely and I mean to go back, Ingrid.

    I hope to visit the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, Sacramento Cemetery Rose Garden, Filoli, and more in the state of California next year. I also got a membership to the Huntington recently so I should be going back frequently.

    Jay

  • mendocino_rose
    9 years ago

    My favorite garden is the rose garden at Mottisfont Abbey. When the old roses are in full bloom it is like walking into Heaven. The enclosure of the high brick wall makes me feel like I am in a world apart. The very first time I saw it was at absolute peak bloom. I had the wondrous fortune to open the entrance door and walk in completely alone. I burst into tears.

  • Marlorena
    9 years ago

    I'm almost ashamed to say I've not been to Iford Manor, nor Eyrignac, but when visiting a garden I like to seek out any view that I can capture on my camera...
    ...like through an archway, or a porthole in a hedge, or this, where an overhanging branch of a Prunus tree encircles the little path by a stream, leading from a lake.... this is from the Cambridge University Botanic Garden... the tree is Prunus serrulata albo-plena...

    ..it's not a great view but it did make me seek out that little path... I hope you like it...

  • Tessiess, SoCal Inland, 9b, 1272' elev
    9 years ago

    My favorite is Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, CA. It is the biggest botanic garden devoted to California native plants, including lots of species roses. I am lucky enough to be within walking distance. Love the simple charm of the species roses as well as their easy care and benefits to wild creatures. RSABG teaches growing in plant communities--placing together plants that help each other.

    Here is a photo from an experimental area of RSABG showing the rose Schoener's Nutkana growing on an arch. SN is a cross between the lovely CA native R. nutkana and the hybrid perpetual Paul Neyron (a disease magnet--RUST--around here). R. nutkana gave wonderful disease resistance and Paul Neyron contributed repeat bloom and color to SN. Neighboring plants in this photo are monkey flowers, California poppies, desert willows, and ceanothus.

    RSABG also grows many plants of my favorite species, the very old and primitive Rosa minutifolia.

    Melissa

    Here is a link that might be useful: Photos of Rosa minutifolia

  • Tessiess, SoCal Inland, 9b, 1272' elev
    9 years ago

    A desert willow bloom up close from a tree near Schoener's Nutkana.

    Melissa

  • mendocino_rose
    9 years ago

    Gosh Melissa it sounds wonderful. Maybe I'll get to go sometime.

  • ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
    9 years ago

    Pam, I've always thought of Mottisfont as a garden with a collection of old roses, and the pictures I've seen have probably not done it justice. Your experience has made me change my mind.

    Ingrid

  • rosefolly
    9 years ago

    While Mottisfont is probably my favorite public garden, I have been blessed with friends whose gardens are amazing. I really love Mendocino Rose's stunning hillside labyrinth of roses overlooking misty green hills that stretch to the ocean. It feels like an enchanted world, perhaps something out of Middle Earth. I also really love Jon in Wessex's wonderful garden with its walls of roses and layered beauty.

    Rosefolly

    This post was edited by rosefolly on Sat, Dec 6, 14 at 1:49

  • mendocino_rose
    9 years ago

    Thank you Paula. I really love Jon's garden too. I don't think I have his skill but we certainly agree about what is beautiful in a garden.

  • mendocino_rose
    9 years ago

    Ingrid Mottisfont is much more than a collection. Here is a lovely video.It's not quite like being there but I think you will like it.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Mottisfont

  • jon_in_wessex
    9 years ago

    Here's Pamela in my garden. Her presence makes any garden beautiful . . .
    {{gwi:2122247}}

  • cath41
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I have been away and so unable to follow up until today. Thank you one and all for introducing me to your favorite gardens, Iford, Mottisfont, Filoli and the many botanical gardens as well as that of John in Wexford. Mendocino Rose, I look forward to many happy hours following your link to the BBC garden programs. Again, thank you all.

    Cath

  • ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
    9 years ago

    How could I have forgotten Jon's garden? I still have pictures of it in my files and, as you can see in his photo, it is magical. There is another picture, with what I believe is Felicia trained over an arch, that to me captures all the magic of a true English rose garden.

    Ingrid

  • Embothrium
    9 years ago

    The Morcom video on the Friends site doesn't show any large musk roses, out of control or otherwise. There are empty spaces around the trees near the main plantings and water features that look recently created, with no shrubs and just a veneer of weeds - might somebody have gone through and cleared the musk roses out? Or are they all in a completely separate area, that never comes into view during the video?

    Your depiction of the musk rose component made this a must see destination for me; although the water features are somewhat special nothing about the plantings visible in the video makes me think I need to go there.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Friends of the Morcom Rose Garden

  • mendocino_rose
    9 years ago

    I just have to say I love you Jon and your garden dream.

  • ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
    9 years ago

    Pam's link to Mottisfont lead me on to other beautiful English gardens. I've never been a huge fan of Vita Sackville-West's famed White Garden but there were many other views of the Sissinghurst gardens that I really admire.

    Marianne is right though; so many of these beautiful gardens don't translate well into one's own more modest plots, lacking as we do mellow stone wall hundreds of years old, stately homes as background, beautiful statuary, huge ancient trees, rare and beautiful plants that need large amounts of English rain, and an army of gardeners to take care of the whole thing. But for dreaming there's nothing like it.

    Ingrid