French Garden

French Garden Information

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.