Gardens of Obsession: Eccentric and Extravagant Visions

by Gordon Taylor, Guy Cooper

"A fertility sculpture garden in Bangkok and a topiary cemetery in Ecuador are just two of the astonishing stops on this garden-world romp."--Condé Nast Garden. Magical, mysterious, witty, and these 150 gardens from countries as diverse as Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Canada, Belgium, Italy, Mexico, and Australia are true originals. Some take their inspiration from myths and allegories from the ancient world; others grew out of a passion for a single type of plant. Still more reflect high culture, while a number take a joyfully folksy or kitsch approach. A creator's dreams and visions have taken on a new life as a formal Renaissance garden in France, giant wooden hands rising from a small hillside garden in California, and a garden of 1500 roses in Somerset planted in date order of their introduction into western Europe. This collection of gardens--each with its own magic--is a treat for the eye and living proof that fantasies can come true.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1999

Reviews

[Kay]

Once, while driving in Cape Breton, I happened upon the most delightful roadside display -- dozens of scarecrow people, each with a distinct "personality," many with masks for faces. In one corner the leaders of the free world (George Bush, Tony Blair, etc) conferred from their poles, while in another an entire wedding party of scarecrow people had been assembled.

This, of course, wasn't really a garden, but it was an example of the sort of whimsical obsession that the gardeners in this volume share. Many of the gardens are the brainchildren of artists or others of singular vision. Of course, those with the means to indulge themselves (i.e., the wealthy) are disproportionately represented. Everything from topiary and sculpture gardens to collections of giant vegetables is featured, all with wonderful color photos.

One garden, for example, houses a collection of enormous wooden phalluses, while another has seventeen full-sized reproductions of Michaelangelo's David arrayed like columns. My favorites, though, are in the chapter entitled "Gardens of Surrealism" - some mind-blowing concepts there. I've been to a couple of the places featured in this book, and I have to say that I was quite envious of this project. What fun it must have been to research and photograph all these places!

[Nicole]

How some gardeners set their sight on a single thing. How a personal bias expands in the garden to control the entire place, defining every element. This may be clipped topiary, a complete collection representing an entire genera, to breeding the biggest or best of a species. Sculpture ranges from the classic to the surreal and around to the capricious. Snapshot views cover the formal parterre vegetable garden of Chateau de Villandry and the informal American roadside attractions like Emil Gehrke's windmills that amuse Seattlites at the local substation as well as his home site in Eastern Washington.
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