When I was first approached about becoming involved with Throughout The Gardener’s Garden, more than 250 examples illustrate The Gardener’s Garden – a global survey of gardens – I was impressed, the vast wealth of human expression when it comes to the creation and if not a little daunted, by the ambition of the project. It took months for an definition of what makes a garden. Covering the continents from Oceania international team of leading garden writers, designers and horticultural and Asia to Europe, Africa and North and South America, the range experts to formulate an expanded and near-exhaustive list of favourite is impressive and vastly varied. Historical gardens figure, such as Villa gardens from across the globe, from the world-famous to the unknown, Lante, the jewel-like Renaissance garden in Viterbo, Italy, or André the public to the private, the grand to the intimate, the historic to the Le Nôtre’s world-renowned creation for Louis XIV at Versailles in France contemporary; climate zones from deserts to steamy rainforests; and – both gardens that influenced and inspired garden-makers well into garden styles from Baroque formality to naturalistic wilderness. our own time. Personally this colossal task allowed me to look back to those particular Poetic gardens, such as Shalimar Bagh, the Mughal masterpiece on gardens that evoked for me unique sensations of spirituality, tranquillity the sloped shores of Lake Dal in Kashmir, India, have equally stimulated and individual character – those special gardens that were created with and impacted garden designers throughout the ages. So, too, have the passion. I can recall with precise vividness thirty-five years later the damp, great plant collectors such as Jacques Majorelle, with his unequalled fresh wetness of the terraced gardens after a spring rain at Villa Noailles in Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech, Morocco, and quirky gardens such as Grasse, France; or nearly two and a half decades ago the sultry dense heat Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, Kent, created in the late 20th century of August afternoons spent in the deep shade of the modest village garden by the filmmaker Derek Jarman, whose tiny shingle plot transformed created by the late English artist Teddy Millington-Drake on the remote contemporary definitions of what a garden can be and demonstrated island of Patmos, Greece, and now greatly expanded by John Stefanidis, the possibility of finding beauty even within the shadows of one of the the English interior designer. world’s largest nuclear power stations. For centuries humans have been captivated by the plant kingdom, Some gardens included in The Gardener’s Garden are examples collecting, cataloguing, trading and transporting across the globe plant of the great influential designers of the past, such as Capability Brown, specimens that even today in the twenty-first century continue to entrance André Le Nôtre, Thomas Jefferson, Gertrude Jekyll or Russell Page; others us. That primal fascination has spurred the creation of gardens worldwide, display the talents of more contemporary designers, such as Beth Chatto, and it explains why we remain spellbound by gardens in all their forms Piet Oudolf or Dan Pearson. But just as fascinating to discover is the vast and what they represent to us. range of relatively unknown gardens from across Asia and South America, The act of creating a garden, for the amateur and the professional and new plant introductions from Oceania, which represent a wealth of alike, remains very often the same. Although it can be intimidating at times, information for the garden designer and the garden lover alike. both faced with a blank slate or working within an existing framework, In today’s world, in which the rapidly changing natural environment is making a garden can also be the start of an endless but satisfying quest. at well-documented risk, the importance of gardens and their role has never The beginning is always the same. In the wise words of the great late been greater. The role of both amateur and professional gardeners is vital English garden designer Russell Page, any new garden adventure should to understanding the delicate balance that is needed for humans to sustain begin with observation, observation – and more observation. It is only by ourselves in a global state of transformation. While a source of inspiration looking, chronicling and absorbing the many variables – weather patterns, for some and a practical guide for many, The Gardener’s Garden is also orientation, climatic conditions, soil composition, nearby vegetation – a testament to centuries of human passion for the garden. Passion is the that the garden designer can comprehend the parameters that compose key factor – and it is passion that has created all the examples the reader a future site or project. Once these fundamentals are well understood will discover within The Gardener’s Garden. and absorbed, the excitement commences – and the passion begins! Madison Cox Oceania 9 Japan The Bressingham Gardens, Bressingham, Norfolk France, Spain and Portugal 235 Central and Eastern Europe 315 Missouri Botanical Garden, St Louis, Missouri Tokachi Millennium Forest, Hokkaido Prefecture East Ruston Old Vicarage Garden, East Ruston, Lurie Garden, Chicago Millennium Park, Australia Katsura Rikyu (Katsura Imperial Villa), Kyoto, Norwich, Norfolk France Switzerland Chicago, Illinois Alice Springs Desert Park, near Alice Springs, Kyoto Prefecture The Laskett Gardens, Much Birch, Herefordshire Château de Brécy, Brécy, Lower Normandy Chalet Garden, Gstaad J Irwin Miller House and Garden, Columbus, Indiana Northern Territory Kenroku-en (Garden of the Six Sublimities), Montpelier Cottage, Brilley, Herefordshire Jardins de Kerdalo, Trédarzec, Brittany Hollister House, Washington, Connecticut Heronswood, Dromana, Victoria Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture Upton Wold, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire Le Vasterival, Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer, Austria Naumkeag, Stockbridge, Massachusetts Cloudehill, Olinda, Victoria Tofuku-ji, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture Old Rectory, Gloucestershire Upper Normandy Schloss Schönbrunn, Vienna Fairsted, Brookline, Massachusetts Lambley, Ascot, Ballarat, Victoria Saiho-ji, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture Hidcote Manor, Hidcote Bartrim, Gloucestershire Giverny, Upper Normandy Cloister Gardens, Fort Tryon Park, New York City Mawallok, Stockyard Hill, Victoria Ryoan-ji, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture Highgrove, Tetbury, Gloucestershire Le Jardin Plume, Auzouville sur Ry, Upper Normandy Poland Wave Hill Gardens, The Bronx, New York City Mawarra, Sherbrooke, Melbourne, Victoria Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion), Kyoto, Sezincote, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire Château de Versailles, Ile-de-France Łazienki Park, Warsaw Battery Park Roof Garden, Manhattan, Olinda, Olinda, Victoria Kyoto Prefecture Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire Villa Savoye, Poissy, Ile-de-France New York City Australian Garden, Royal Botanic Gardens, Ginkaku-ji (Temple of the Silver Pavilion), Kyoto, Rousham House, Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire La Roseraie du Val-de-Marne, L’Haÿ-les-Roses, Czech Republic New York Botanical Garden, The Bronx, Cranbourne, Melbourne, Victoria Kyoto Prefecture Stowe, Stowe, Buckinghamshire Ile-de-France Valdštejnský Palác (Wallenstein Palace), Prague New York City Karkalla, Sorrento, Victoria Awaji Yumebutai, Hyakudanen Botanical Gardens, Turn End, Townside, Haddenham, Buckinghamshire Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, Maincy, Ile-de-France High Line, Manhattan, New York City Stringybark Cottage, Noosa, Sunshine Coast, Awaji City, Hyogo Prefecture Hatfield House, Hatfield, Hertfordshire Oasis d’Aboukir, Paris Russia Donald M Kendall Sculpture Gardens, PepsiCo Queensland Adachi Museum of Art, Yasugi City, Shimane The Barn, Serge Hill, Hertfordshire Promenade Plantée, Paris Peterhof, St Petersburg Headquarters, Purchase, New York Garangula, South Western Slopes, Gotanjyou-ji, Takefu, Hukui Prefecture The Gibberd Garden, Harlow, Essex Garden of Peace, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris Tsarskoye Selo, St Petersburg Madoo Conservancy, Sagaponack, New South Wales The Beth Chatto Gardens, Elmstead Market, Essex Château du Rivau, Lémeré, Indre-et-Loire Long Island, New York Eryldene, Sydney, New South Wales Thailand and Singapore Kensington Roof Gardens, London Jardins du Prieuré d’Orsan, Maisonnais, Centre LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton, The Jim Thompson Garden, Bangkok, Thailand Garden in St John’s Wood, London Château de Villandry, Loire Valley, Centre Africa 329 Long Island, New York New Zealand Howie’s HomeStay, Chiang Mai, Thailand Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, London Festival International des Jardins, Innisfree, Millbrook, New York Ayrlies, Whitford, Auckland, North Island Bang Pa-in, Ayutthaya, Thailand Munstead Wood, Busbridge, Godalming, Surrey Chaumont-sur-Loire, Centre Morocco Bartram’s Garden, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Pukeiti Gardens, New Plymouth, Taranaki, Bay South, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore, Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, Surrey Les Jardins de l’Imaginaire, Terrasson-Lavilledieu, La Mamounia, Marrakech Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania North Island Singapore Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Sissinghurst, Aquitaine El Bahia Palace Garden, Marrakech Chanticleer, Wayne, Pennsylvania Barewood Garden, Awatere Valley, Marlborough, near Cranbrook, Kent Villa Noailles, Hyères, Provence Le Jardin Majorelle, Marrakech Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC South Island Indonesia Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, Kent Jardin de la Noria, Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie, Gard