![]() Farrand followed the natural lines of the topography-a natural bowl formed by a former pond-to produce an asymmetrical triangular configuration of approximately one and a quarter acres, surrounded by iron lattice fencing. Up until that time, her commissions had included several residential rose gardens, but nothing on the scale envisioned by the botanical garden. In 1915, Farrand was asked to assist in designing a large rose garden for public enjoyment at The New York Botanical Garden. Garland Farm, 2003, prior to Terrace garden restoration. The restored garden is now part of the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites. Farrand’s basic theme of an enclosed formal flower garden surrounded by an informal Robinsonian wild garden recurs in her later work on a grander scale, notably at Dumbarton Oaks. In 1912, Thomas and Sarah Newbold asked their cousin to design a simple, old-fashioned garden to complement the colonial-era house. The bones of the garden, including the stone walls, edging stones, and remnants of the long hemlock hedges were still in place, but the original plants and planting plans had long since disappeared. The Newbold garden had fallen into disrepair after the property was donated to the National Park Service in 1976, and it was not until nearly twenty years later that a volunteer group reclaimed it. ![]() It is that collection of material that has enabled the continuing study of her career and inspired the restoration of several of her gardens.Īmong Beatrix Farrand’s few surviving gardens from her early period, two important designs-a small country garden for her Newbold cousins’ retreat in Hyde Park, New York, and a magnificent public display garden in New York City-have recently been renovated and replanted. Farrand’s gift of her professional papers and collections to the University of California, Berkeley, in 1955 set a precedent among other landscape architects to similarly value their work. In addition to work for private clients, Farrand also established a landscape study center at Reef Point, Maine, where students benefited from demonstration gardens, a herbarium, and an extensive reference library that she had assembled over many years. Her landscapes always showed restraint, and many lasted as long as they did because of her vigilance about maintenance.ĭuring her fifty-year career, Farrand received more than two hundred commissions, mostly from Old Guard families from New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. In her university work, she championed the concept of vertical gardening, pinning shrubs and climbers to walls to save space, and the selection of plants that would provide interest during the school term. She was famous for her complex flower borders as well as her advocacy of native landscapes and plants, which she wove into a classical design framework. She was influenced in particular by André Le Nôtre, whose grand parterres inspired many of her designs William Robinson, who popularized naturalistic gardening Gertrude Jekyll, who revolutionized the art of planting and Charles Sprague Sargent, who first opened her eyes to horticulture and design. Lynden Miller’s experience as New York City’s most prominent public garden designer is woven into a wide-ranging biography of Farrand’s life and times.įollowing the film, both producer and contributor to the film will facilitate Q&A discussion.Variously hailed as “the Gertrude Jekyll of America” and “the doyenne of the profession,” Farrand owed her success to her unerring eye for design, profound knowledge of horticulture, and deep commitment to her profession that inspired others to follow in her footsteps. Through the documentary, Miller journeys to iconic Farrand gardens, engaging designers, scholars and horticulturists in a spirited dialogue about the meaning and importance of this ground-breaking early 20th-century woman. ![]() Morgan, and President Woodrow Wilson, she also was an early advocate for the value of public gardens and believed strongly in the power of the natural world to make people’s lives better. Although she created gardens for the rich and powerful, including John D. Farrand was responsible for some of the most celebrated gardens in the United States and helped create a distinctive American voice in landscape architecture. Miller as she sets off to explore the remarkable life and career of America’s first female landscape architect-Beatrix Farrand. Speaker: Anne Symmes - Producer, Garden Educatorīeatrix Farrand’s American Landscapes follows award-winning public garden designer Lynden B.
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