Gardens of the Gilded Age -- The influence of style and dilemma of taste -- Verdant frames: Landscape elements and their artful arrangement -- Art out-of-doors: The embellishment of the grounds -- Flower gardens: Great effects by small means -- Maintaining the image -- Photographic portraits of five New York state gardens: Renwick-Yates Castle, Syracuse, N.Y. -- "Lorenzo," Casenovia, N.Y. -- "Box Hill," St James, Long Island -- "Cottage Lawn," Oneida, N.Y. -- "Sonnenberg," Canandaigua, N.Y.

The Gilded Age was a time of rapid change in the United States' history. In contrast to the extensive literature regarding wilderness and the founding of environmental organizations during the period, relatively little has been written about the gardens of private residences and the impact these gardens have had on today's environment. These gardens, and the individuals who designed and provided for them, were at the forefront of the introduction of many new and exotic plants to the American landscape. This thesis explores two built environments, North Carolina's Biltmore Estate and the Barker Mansion in Indiana, and how these environments and human innovation interacted in domestic spaces, as well as how that interaction went on to shape broader landscapes for decades to come.

From simple 18th- and early 19th-century gardens to the lavish estates of the Gilded Age, the gardens started by 1930s inmates at Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay to the centuries-old camellias at Middleton Place near Charleston, South Carolina—Rescuing Eden celebrates the history of garden design in the United States, with 28 examples that have been saved by ardent conservationists and generous private owners, and opened to the public. The United States has a rich tradition of landscape design, with gardens on a scale that rivaled the great gardens of Europe, but in the absence of specific institutions dedicated to their preservation, many of these “ephemeral collaborations between man and nature” were lost—during the wars, economic depressions, and social upheavals that swept the country in the mid-20th-century, or to creeping development and urban sprawl. The surviving gardens presented here were selected for the drama of their original creation and rescue and for their historical and horticultural importance. Ranging from wonderful to woebegone, each has its own character, and each has been brought back from the brink through a combination of imagination and tenacity. Discover The Kampong in Miami, Florida, planted with hundreds of tropical rarities from Southeast Asia by legendary plant explorer Dr. David Fairchild; Barnsley Gardens in Georgia, one of the few antebellum gardens surviving in the South, planted with 200 varieties of roses; the Lynchburg, Virginia garden created by Harlem Renaissance poet and civil rights activist Anne Spencer; the eccentric Ladew Topiary Gardens, with 15 garden rooms and a topiary foxhunt; the Belle Epoque grandeur of the Untermyer Garden in Yonkers, New York; and many others across the country, in Kentucky, Texas, Michigan, Maine, Rhode Island, and California. Each garden has been specially photographed by noted landscape and garden photographer Curtice Taylor, and introduced with authoritative and engaging text from design historian Caroline Seebohm, encouraging readers to appreciate the landscapes that serve not only as windows on American history, but living, flourishing pleasure grounds for botanists, horticulturalists, and nature lovers throughout the United States.

A compelling story about the decline and rebirth of a 100 year old garden.

Landscape architect Cothran recounts the history of small-space gardening in Charleston, South Carolina since colonial times; outlines the enduring principles of integrating house and garden, the maximum use of limited space, enclosure by walls, and ornamental plants; and explains some of the common