Overview

"""A celebration of once-endangered landscapes and gardens across the United States that have been rescued and preserved as living, flourishing pleasure grounds for historians, botanists, horticulturalists, and garden lovers all over the world."" ""The rich tradition of landscape design in the United States encompasses both simple eighteenth and early nineteenth century gardens and the lavish estates of the Gilded Age. Over time, and especially in the mid-twentieth-century, much of America s garden heritage was destroyed by creeping development and suburbanization. Thanks to the Garden Conservancy and other garden trusts and associations, this trend has been reversed and today many of these once-threatened treasures have been restored. Thirty gardens are presented, selected for the drama of their original creation and rescue and for their historical and horticultural importance. The gardens range from wonderful to woebegone, from grand estates to suburban plots, Each has its own character, and each has been brought back from the brink through a combination of imagination and tenacity."""

Full Product Details

9781580934084

Table of Contents

Reviews

If ever there was a sign of how gardens can offer hope, it must be the dazzling array of blooming borders developed in the 1930s at the notorious Alcatraz prison in San Francisco, where an inmate wrote that tilling and planting the hillside became his refuge and release . But like many of the gardens photographed so enthrallingly by Curtice Taylor in this book, its glories quickly turned to weeds when it closed in 1963.Curtice writes movingly of how his career was launched when Russell Page asked him to document a deeply loved private garden that was subsequently razed. Haunted by the loss, he became intrigued by other gardens that had been saved. Caroline Seebohm s narratives, involving the creation, loss and rediscovery of 30 gardens, are peopled with painters, poets, opera singers, civil rights activistsand heroic widows, making for an irresistible mix. And what encouragement for designers to find out how ingeniously and passionately people fought to preserve these landscapes, many of which reflect English tradition. Even the flora of Alcatraz has now been replanted. Where gardens are concerned, the act of rescue is usually reciprocal. Garden Design Journal Arranged chronologically, from Colonial days and the Gilded Age to the best of contemporary gardens, Rescuing Eden features the famous historic examples, such as Middleton Place, as well as newer ones that are not so well known outside this country. Hortus Lacking a substantial conservation organization, such as England s National Trust, many of America s greatest gardens are threatened in various ways: the death of owners, encroaching developers, etc. This beautiful book by design historian Caroline Seebohm profiles 30 gardens that are being preserved, either by local citizens groups or through generous donations. Lavishly illustrated with images by garden photographer Curtice Taylor, this beautifully produced book will appeal to gardeners and preservationists. Library Journal

If ever there was a sign of how gardens can offer hope, it must be the 'dazzling array of blooming borders' developed in the 1930s at the notorious Alcatraz prison in San Francisco, where an inmate wrote that tilling and planting the hillside became his 'refuge' and 'release'. But like many of the gardens photographed so enthrallingly by Curtice Taylor in this book, its glories quickly turned to weeds when it closed in 1963. Curtice writes movingly of how his career was launched when Russell Page asked him to document a deeply loved private garden that was subsequently razed. Haunted by the loss, he became intrigued by other gardens that had been saved. Caroline Seebohm's narratives, involving the creation, loss and rediscovery of 30 gardens, are peopled with painters, poets, opera singers, civil rights activists and heroic widows, making for an irresistible mix. And what encouragement for designers to find out how ingeniously and passionately people fought to preserve these landscapes, many of which reflect English tradition. Even the flora of Alcatraz has now been replanted. Where gardens are concerned, the act of rescue is usually reciprocal. - Garden Design Journal Arranged chronologically, from Colonial days and the Gilded Age to the best of contemporary gardens, Rescuing Eden features the famous historic examples, such as Middleton Place, as well as newer ones that are not so well known outside this country. - Hortus Lacking a substantial conservation organization, such as England's National Trust, many of America's greatest gardens are threatened in various ways: the death of owners, encroaching developers, etc. This beautiful book by design historian Caroline Seebohm profiles 30 gardens that are being preserved, either by local citizens groups or through generous donations. Lavishly illustrated with images by garden photographer Curtice Taylor, this beautifully produced book will appeal to gardeners and preservationists. - Library Journal

Lacking a substantial conservation organization, such as England s National Trust, many of America s greatest gardens are threatened in various ways: the death of owners, encroaching developers, etc. This beautiful book by design historian Caroline Seebohm profiles 30 gardens that are being preserved, either by local citizens groups or through generous donations. Lavishly illustrated with images by garden photographer Curtice Taylor, this beautifully produced book will appeal to gardeners and preservationists. Library Journal

If ever there was a sign of how gardens can offer hope, it must be the dazzling array of blooming borders developed in the 1930s at the notorious Alcatraz prison in San Francisco, where an inmate wrote that tilling and planting the hillside became his refuge and release . But like many of the gardens photographed so enthrallingly by Curtice Taylor in this book, its glories quickly turned to weeds when it closed in 1963.Curtice writes movingly of how his career was launched when Russell Page asked him to document a deeply loved private garden that was subsequently razed. Haunted by the loss, he became intrigued by other gardens that had been saved. Caroline Seebohm s narratives, involving the creation, loss and rediscovery of 30 gardens, are peopled with painters, poets, opera singers, civil rights activistsand heroic widows, making for an irresistible mix. And what encouragement for designers to find out how ingeniously and passionately people fought to preserve these landscapes, many of which reflect English tradition. Even the flora of Alcatraz has now been replanted. Where gardens are concerned, the act of rescue is usually reciprocal. Garden Design Journal Arranged chronologically, from Colonial days and the Gilded Age to the best of contemporary gardens, Rescuing Eden features the famous historic examples, such as Middleton Place, as well as newer ones that are not so well known outside this country. Hortus Lacking a substantial conservation organization, such as England s National Trust, many of America s greatest gardens are threatened in various ways: the death of owners, encroaching developers, etc. This beautiful book by design historian Caroline Seebohm profiles 30 gardens that are being preserved, either by local citizens groups or through generous donations. Lavishly illustrated with images by garden photographer Curtice Taylor, this beautifully produced book will appeal to gardeners and preservationists. Library Journal Lacking a substantial conservation organization, such as England s National Trust, many of America s greatest gardens are threatened in various ways: the death of owners, encroaching developers, etc. This beautiful book by design historian Caroline Seebohm profiles 30 gardens that are being preserved, either by local citizens groups or through generous donations. Lavishly illustrated with images by garden photographer Curtice Taylor, this beautifully produced book will appeal to gardeners and preservationists. Library Journal

Author Information

"""Caroline Seebohm is a design historian and biographer. A prolific author (24 titles on Good Reads) her books include Boca Rococo, a biography of Palm Beach architect Addison Mizner, At Home with Books, and Cottages and Mansions of the Jersey Shore, as well as biographies of Marietta Tree, Conde Nast, and tennis legend Pancho Segura. Curtice Tayor is a well-known landscape and garden photographer whose work is widely published. He teaches photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York."""

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