Victorian Gardenesque
Exuberant, colorful civic and private lawns and gardens, featuring a multiplicity of “carpet bedding” patterns, often taken from pattern books, and frequently enhanced by ornately curved cast iron garden furniture, ornaments, and fountains. In grand private gardens and public landscapes conservatories or “glass houses” were fashionable, making possible the incorporation of exotic plants such as palms, so popular in the period. In the landscape, herbaceous plantings were used to create pattern: the convention of “bedding out” entailed the planting of multiple individual curvilinear tapestry-like areas of annual plants, often enhanced by fountains, sundials and specimen plants. Trees typically were allowed to grow into their natural forms (as this era coincided with the latter stage of the “Picturesque” era); they also might be pruned into arches or other fanciful shapes. Victorian is often conflated with John Claudius Loudon’s term “Gardenesque” in which specific interventions are made to ensure that a designer’s intervention is not mistakable for a creation of nature. This style flourished from the 1850s to the end of the 19th century.
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Elizabeth Park Rose Garden
West Hartford, CT -
Benton Park
St. Louis, MO -
Carl Wilhelm August Groos House
San Antonio, TX -
The Alamo
San Antonio, TX -
Villa Finale
San Antonio, TX -
Military Plaza
San Antonio, TX -
Alice Austen House and Garden
Staten Island, NY -
Old Ursuline Convent
New Orleans, LA -
Margaret Place Park
New Orleans, LA -
New Orleans Garden District
New Orleans, LA -
Lincoln Park Conservatory
Chicago, IL -
Belfield
Lexington, VA -
St. James Park
Toronto, ON -
Spadina Museum
Toronto, ON -
Casa Loma
Toronto, ON -
Allan Gardens
Toronto, ON