French Garden
French Garden
Information
When an individual speaks of the French style in
garden design, the person
is generally talking about the formal
gardens that were so admired in European
communities centuries ago.
Formally arranged gardens began in 16th century Italy but it
was French gardeners who created the style and
popularized it all over Europe. The best examples of symmetrical and geometrically laid out
trees, hedges, lawns and shrubs can be
discovered at grand houses with a French
garden. The garden designer, Claude Mollet
promoted the concept of parterre, a formal garden
with flowerbeds. This sort of French garden
remained popular during
the 18th century. An important book on garden
architecture was edited in 1709. Written by
Dezallier d'Argenville, it translated as The Theory of the Practical
Garden. English and German editions came out
and it became the blueprint of the Frenchgarden
style of formal garden for some time to come. >p>
French Garden Advice
A lot of persons agree that the
best formally arranged frenchgarden
is founf at the Palace of Versailles in France. It is a
series of gardens, designed by Andre Le
Notre and is one of the most ambitious
landscaped gardens ever created. It incorporates
flora, statues,
several water fountains, gravel, stone and parterres.
The jewel in this crown is
the central Grand Canal.
The grand magnificence of such gardens
is of course, prohibitively expensive for most
organizations and they went out of
style anyway as new ideas gained favor. Nevertheless, there was a
new interest at the start of the
20th century. The landscape architect Beatrice Farrand
designed formal terrace gardens for the grounds at
Dunbarton Oaks, an historically important 19th century
mansion in Washington DC. The work was
created between 1922-1947 and the ten acres of
garden, which are open to the public, has
been praised across
the globe.
Another example is the Conservatory Garden
in Central Park in New York City. The landscaping, which
extend on six acres is the only
formal garden in the park. The garden attracts
many visitors and marriages have been performed there. This
section of the park opened to the public in
1937 and it was designed in three different parts,
each one in a distinct style. The divide is
between French, Italian and English style layout. The French garden
section has a focal point at the
center of a sculpture and fountain called Three Dancing Maidens. A
parterre bed surrounds the fountain where tulips bloom in
May and chrysanthemums come out in
September.
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