Comments on: The world’s top ten gardens

By: antigonum cajan

antigonum cajan — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 23:08:14 +0000

There are other good gardens in a much smaller scale, but better thought,
and planned considering the urban flora and fauna.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7741396/5_gardening_blogs_you_should_read.html?cat=32

http://www.guiaverde.com/blog/destacadas/jardin-tropical-en-puerto-rico

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Sat, 28 May 2011 16:58:36 +0000

13 ‘The Soft Gardens Award’?

By: Lawrence

Lawrence — Sat, 28 May 2011 09:45:47 +0000

“The Real Gardens Award”?

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Fri, 27 May 2011 19:18:20 +0000

We have Green Flag Awards for public parks and Blue Flag awards for beaches. Though it would be a pity to use the name, it would be good to have a Rousham Award for a soft, generous, gentle and trusting garden management. What should it be called? The Short Poppy Award?

By: Lawrence

Lawrence — Fri, 27 May 2011 10:54:30 +0000

I suppose this is a question of what we expect from our gardens. I have not been to Rousham for a long time now, but the feeling of genteel decay was always one of its biggest attractions for me, as you say, Stephen, melancholic charm. Foerster’s garden benefits from its nearness to Sans Souci, in that it receives funding spun off from the World Heritage Site status of the gardens and surrounding area, allowing the garden to be maintained in its original conception by the Foerster family, and to charge no admittance. Wikipedia says of Rousham that its “gardens and buildings are superbly maintained but not manicured.” I don’t know how this is paid for, whether there are public funds that the Cottrell-Dormer family can draw on. There certainly should be.

By: stephen Harmer

stephen Harmer — Fri, 27 May 2011 09:35:27 +0000

Can gardens today survive without tearooms and giftshops? Does the condition of some of the features at Rousham not testify to this?

By: stephen Harmer

stephen Harmer — Fri, 27 May 2011 09:26:52 +0000

Having visited a selection of French gardens again this week, including Vaux and Versailles and with the fountains all playing at Versailles accompained by music, and the candlelight and fireworks at Vaux these gardens take some beating, Vaux would have to be in my top 10.
The garden though that most of the students enjoyed the most and one at which I only allowed a few hours, was Parc Sceaux. This is a delightful garden and a delighful surprise, and the cascade by le Notre is stunning.
The other surprise for me was Marly, I found it a sad even melancholy place, a shadow of its former self, but now it is under the control of Versaille again since 2009 a restoration programe is in place. I am glad of this but feel the melancholy is part of its charm, and although I will be keen to watch the restoration over the coming years/decades I feel part of this garden will be lost in the crowds that will doubtless appear.

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Wed, 25 May 2011 14:52:51 +0000

My grandad, presumably in the 1930s, used to chat with Vita Sackville West at Sissinghurst. Visitors numbers would have made this hard for her in the 2010s

By: Lawrence

Lawrence — Wed, 25 May 2011 05:43:29 +0000

I know only one other garden with a claim to historical importance that follows the Rousham approach to visitors: Karl Foerster’s garden in Potsdam [ http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden/karl-foerster_garten ]. I was greeted there warmly as the only visitor by Frau Foerster herself one warm, summer evening and she dug up some seedlings for me to take away. Perhaps there should be an alternative top ten list of gardens like this, where one can imagine oneself back to how the original creator might have seen his own work.

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Sun, 22 May 2011 19:43:53 +0000

I wish more garden managers would adopt the Rousham approach to dealing with visitors.