IMPROVEMENTS CONSTITUTING NEW DEPARTURES AND SUBSTANTIALLY INDEPENDENT
OF PARTS IV AND V
1. _Rhododendron Glade._ One of the most beautiful, striking and
completely self-contained and independent new features which could be
added to the Botanical Garden is that which has been for some time
under favorable consideration by the Director-in-Chief in the so-called
“Lake Valley”--a great naturalistic exhibition of rhododendrons
(including azaleas) and of plants suitable for association therewith,
in such a manner as to make a notably impressive landscape unit, a
valley of rich foliage and brilliant bloom enclosed by wooded rocky
hills. The natural enframement of this valley is almost perfect except
on the southeast, where the frame must be completed by adequate grading
and massive border planting. As a scenic and topographic unit the
valley begins in a rocky wooded defile just east of the Lorillard
Mansion, whence it descends, widening slightly but still almost
overarched by trees, to the point where the earth-fill of the road now
under construction traverses and blocks the valley. South of this it
widens out into a broader sunlit valley flanked by pleasantly wooded
hills, the site of a former artificial lake abandoned because of the
intercepting of much of its natural water supply.
The embankment of the new road is in itself an ugly interruption of the
valley, but it can and should be pierced by an ample archway through
which the narrow sylvan portion of the valley and a pathway traversing
it would debouch at the head of the broader glade, the embankment of
the roadway being heavily embowered in trees. Such an arrangement
would afford sweeping views of the open part of the valley from the
road without letting the automobiles spoil the charm of the valley
as enjoyed from the foot-paths within it or seriously impairing the
intimacy of its connection with the narrow sylvan upper portion. The
situation lends itself admirably to providing both the scenic and the
cultural variety of conditions desirable for such an exhibition of
rhododendrons and related plants.
An unfortunate obtrusion at present into this valley are the stables of
the Park Department. It is of vital importance that these be removed
from the scene, preferably to the undeveloped park lands just across
Pelham Parkway. A portion, at least, of the site of these buildings
would be included in the scheme, in order to reclaim the complete form
of the valley and to complete the essential enclosing plantations.
In Appendix B we have developed somewhat more in detail, in a tentative
way, the ideas which have occurred to us for the treatment of this
Rhododendron Glade; and we believe it would be the best large new
feature on which to concentrate first, after assuring increased funds
for general maintenance and for the detailed improvement of existing
features.
It must of course be borne in mind that the proper maintenance of such
a Rhododendron Glade will cost much more per acre than the old lake
with its borders of unsophisticated woodland, or than a simple meadow;
and that such an improvement, however desirable from every point of
view, ought not to be undertaken without seeing the way perfectly
clear to obtaining the necessary _additional_ maintenance funds. The
principle, of course, is the same as that which has very properly led
various institutions to refuse gifts of very much desired new buildings
in the absence of endowment for their operation and maintenance.
2. A group or series of desirable new undertakings is that referred to
in your report of April, 1923, under the heading “Model Gardens.” Some
of the most valuable of these from the point of view of the general
public, such as city back-yard gardens and typical good treatments for
small suburban homes, present peculiar difficulties in that they would
be rather lacking in realism and effectiveness unless associated with
buildings which would be in themselves inharmonious with the general
informal park-like landscape of the tract as a whole, and that most of
them would need almost complete isolation from each other and from the
general landscape.
There are along the Pelham Parkway frontage some rather isolated areas
of moderate width, as yet undeveloped and cut off by rocky hills from
the rest of the Botanical Garden which can be devoted in whole or in
part to small detached Model Gardens.
But one of the assets of these sites is the fact that they _do_ front
on the Pelham Parkway and can be seen by the large numbers of motorists
who use that route without ordinarily entering the Botanical Garden
enclosure. So far as practicable, therefore, it would seem advantageous
to use these sites for exhibits somewhat of the nature of “show-window
displays”--bold, striking, adequate to arrest the attention and
pleasantly arouse the interest of people going by at the rate of twenty
miles an hour or more, despite the interposition of the enclosing fence
and the trees of the Parkway itself. There seems no sufficient reason
why this part of the grounds should not be thus thrown visually open
to the outside, because the logical line of scenic enclosure for the
main body of the ground lies for the most part on the height of land
just north of this bordering strip. We are not prepared as yet to offer
definite and well-considered suggestions for the kinds of Model Gardens
most suitable to these sites, but it would seem that they might well
include some of the more bold and striking types of display offering
a succession of colorful effects through each season. On the other
hand, it would be a pity to put only such exhibits in these “show
windows.” Some other equally striking but perhaps more refined and
quasi-naturalistic exhibits should be provided for, such, perhaps, as a
show of lilacs and one of Crataegus and crab-apples and other so-called
“flowering” trees.
For small special domestic gardens of urban and suburban types, places
might be found, preferably in direct connection with small houses
occupied by Garden employees or adapted to necessary uses other
than residential which are capable of fitting into a dwelling-house
structure, in accessible locations near the entrance closest to rapid
transit stations but completely isolated from the general landscape by
screen planting.
3. _Iris Garden Region._ What seems on preliminary inspection like an
opportunity for an essentially new feature of much beauty and interest,
if dealt with boldly and skilfully in a large way, is presented in the
vicinity of the present Iris Garden and Horticultural Garden. Here is
an open hillside sloping irregularly to the eastward from a bench at
about elevation 90 near the Southern Boulevard, to a hollow at about
elevation 60 near the interior road, and flanked on either side by bold
well-wooded hills. Its landscape unit, however, is disturbed by the
bulge of the rounding ridge occupied by the Horticultural Garden and
by the fact that the open space, once quiet meadow or lawn, is cut up
and spotted with paths and flower beds which are yet not sufficiently
continuous to produce a unified texture of a richer sort.
Directly opposite to the east is the one important gap in the rocky
ridges which border the Bronx River on the west for three quarters
of a mile, and in and beyond this gap the natural woods are thin or
altogether lacking, giving opportunity, at the sacrifice of a few
trees, for a very lovely natural-seeming transverse vista extending to
the ridge just west of the Rose Garden.
The vista is well worth getting in itself, because one of the defects
of the Botanical Garden today is its deficiency in landscape reaches
and views of sufficient length to give the sense of spaciousness and
the mystery of distance. Moreover there is an unpleasantly complete
landscape separation of all the land to the east of the river from that
to the west.
But the special opportunity which the situation of the Iris and
Horticultural Gardens seems to present lies, in connection with opening
the vista, in the bold regrading of portions of the non-conforming
hillside above mentioned, and the extension of the mainly herbaceous
planting of these gardens so as to produce a continuous and unified,
though rich and varied, texture throughout the space within the framing
trees and hills.
Within the limits of this general conception the garden might
successfully be given any one of an infinitude of local expressions,
from that of a naturalistic hillside rich in flowers, like some alpine
glades, to that of an intricately terraced hillside where the flower
beds and paths would be made flatter in cross-section for the practical
convenience of intensive use and be supported by low walls. Such a
terraced treatment might, on the one hand, be highly architectural
in its general structure, or, on the other hand, it might be rather
casual and unobtrusively irregular and picturesque like many of the
hillsides so pleasantly and richly terraced into vineyards and gardens
by the peasants of Italy, of Switzerland, of the Rhine and of Japan.
Considering the practical necessities of exhibiting many kinds of
plants of horticultural interest, of making them closely accessible to
large numbers of people, of cultivating the beds and of avoiding the
waste of rain water on steeply sloping cultivated ground, we should be
inclined to favor the latter type, frankly man-handled in its general
scheme but rather free and picturesque in its detail, its terraces
supported in the main by uncemented walls suitable for treatment as
wall gardens. The lower slopes and terraced benches could well be used
in large part for a great collection of the upland irises, perhaps
in conjunction with peonies; the hollow at the base might be devoted
largely to the moisture-loving Japanese irises; while the outer and
upper portions could be used for other horticultural exhibits of the
type represented by the now isolated and unrelated beds of beautiful
chrysanthemums, of narcissus, and (this spring) of tulips.
4. If and when the Park Department greenhouses and work yards can be
removed from the old Lorillard Mansion gardens, as they certainly ought
to be for the proper development of the Botanical Garden (preferably,
as in the case of the Park stables, to the undeveloped park lands just
across Pelham Parkway) a peculiarly valuable area in the very heart of
the Garden’s most precious landscape will be freed and will offer a
very notable opportunity for a new feature.
To begin with, the opportunity here exists to create a long north and
south view, wholly self-contained, beautifully enclosed, and nicely
fitted to as interesting a piece of topography as is to be found
anywhere within the limits of the Botanical Garden. And, as already
stated, there is a serious deficiency in such long inviting views.
In the second place, within the land thus freed from obstructive
utilitarian structures, and without impairing the long views thus
obtained but enhancing their charm and interest, there could be
developed, under the most favorable conditions, an admirable example
of a sort of thing of which there certainly ought to be a first-rate
example somewhere on the tract. The sort of thing we mean is a type
of what is sometimes called a landscape garden, the heart of which is
a beautifully modelled lawn, enframed by beautifully composed trees
irregularly disposed, under which the lawn here and there loses itself
in shadowy mystery, while elsewhere its irregular margin is formed by
masses of flowering shrubs and flowering herbaceous plants, providing,
as an incident of the landscape, an informal or naturalistic herbaceous
garden designed predominantly or almost exclusively for esthetic
effect.
The suggestion in your report of April, 1923, at first appealed to
us strongly, namely, that this area, if and when freed from the
Park Department greenhouses, work yards, etc., be used for a really
first-rate Formal Garden in connection with the reconstruction of
the Lorillard Mansion, which you proposed should serve as a place
for exhibitions, for the meetings of garden clubs and for kindred
activities. Unquestionably it is a very desirable thing to provide, in
the most perfect possible way, somewhere in the Botanical Garden area,
for the grouping of such functions in a beautiful building, domestic
in scale but considerable in size, intimately related to a beautiful
garden of a suitable kind. The most suitable kind of garden for such a
purpose would be, in an agreeable sense of the word, “formal;” that is
to say emphatically not “naturalistic.”
This is not the place to attempt a thorough clearing up of the
confusions of meaning which have caused for many years so much
misunderstanding over this word “formal” as applied to gardens and
gardening. Most of the misunderstanding is due to unexpressed mental
reservations as to what is meant by the word, or to differences of
emphasis on various phases of formality. To some the word suggests
mainly certain kinds of formality which are unattractive or even
distressing to them; associated with stiffness, rigidity, bald
precision of detail, or such complete dominance of architectural
elements as to make the term “garden” almost a misnomer. To others
the word suggests merely a pleasantly obvious orderliness in the
general disposition of the major parts of a garden, frankly expressing
deliberate human design and control; as by symmetry of certain forms
about a straight axis, or the disposition of paths and masses of
vegetation in such a way as to suggest to the eye easily recognized
simple shapes of agreeable proportions, rectangular and otherwise;
all of which is consistent with great exuberance and freedom and
spontaneity of detail, especially in the growth of plants and in the
composition of plants within the orderly and formal framework of the
general plan. If so conceived, “formal” is applicable alike to a garden
made up wholly of flower beds and turf and to one largely characterized
by paved walks and steps and walls and fountains and sculptural and
architectural elements, provided the latter be enriched by sufficient
vegetation to entitle it to the name of garden at all.
Obviously a botanic garden is hardly a legitimate place to devote much
space or money to the creation, for its own sake, of any formal design
so predominantly architectural or sculptural in its interest that the
vegetation plays a wholly secondary rôle--such a thing as might be
more properly called a court-yard or a plaza than a garden. But it is
equally obvious that it is legitimate and desirable to provide, for
the benefit of that great part of the public which is interested in
plants mainly for their usefulness in pleasure gardens, one or more
excellent examples of a sort of garden which countless generations
of mankind have delighted to have in association with dwellings--a
frankly man-made thing, expressing man’s skillful artistry and the
completeness of his command over his surroundings: formal in the sense
that the dominant form of the thing as a whole and the form of the more
conspicuous relationships between its several parts are not merely
beautiful but unmistakably intentional and deliberate.
We do not question that such a formal garden could be done beautifully
in the locality now in question.
On further study, however, two considerations have led us to believe
that this is not the best place for such a thing. One is that a center
for meetings and exhibitions, both indoor and outdoor, other things
being approximately equal, ought to be more conveniently and quickly
accessible from rapid transit stations than is the neighborhood of the
Lorillard Mansion, and also should have space in its vicinity for small
special exhibition gardens and preferably also for special exhibitions
under glass, which could be introduced near the Lorillard Mansion only
by sacrifice of existing and potential values of another sort of great
importance to the Botanical Garden.
The most notable natural feature of the Botanical Garden, perhaps as a
matter of botany and certainly as a matter of landscape, is the gorge
of the Bronx River with its wild growth of hemlocks and associated
plants, its picturesque precipitous slopes and ledges, its sense
of remoteness and seclusion from the city and most of the works of
man. The Lorillard Mansion and its appendages conspicuously intrude
upon this landscape unit in a manner contradictory to its essential
character. From the point of view of botanical consistency no less than
landscape value these contradictory elements ought to be removed and
the entire landscape unit of the gorge, on both sides of the river,
gradually restored as nearly to the conditions characteristic of such a
gorge in a state of nature as is consistent with making it accessible
to and enjoyable by large numbers of people. No artificial structures
except such as are necessary to that end should be maintained here and
these should be made as inconspicuous as is consistent with efficiency
in operation and maintenance. The precise limits of this gorge unit we
are not prepared to define positively as yet; but plainly they should
include the site of the Mansion itself, the slopes to the north of it
(where the small stone stable occurs) up to the height of land on the
east, and in the region further south at least far enough eastward from
the river to include the whole of the narrow ridge that lies between
the river and the Park Department greenhouses.
We believe this consideration alone precludes the rebuilding of any
garden house or other such structure on the site of the Lorillard
Mansion, whether the matter is looked at from the point of view of a
Botanical Garden or that of a public park.
The land which lies to the south of a line drawn through the existing
foot-bridge across the gorge and to the east of the service road
that hugs the west side of the greenhouse is not quite so intimately
associated with the gorge; and, if the natural forest border on the
low intervening ridge were restored and widened and made more dense,
the outlying area beyond the limits above defined might perhaps have
a landscape character quite dissimilar to that of the gorge without
impairing the perfection of the latter. But to introduce even in this
area a highly elaborate and sophisticated formal development with a
garden house of considerable size, would bring two contrasting kinds
of things in such close juxtaposition as to make the plan questionably
wise.
The second consideration, closely related to the point just made,
is that we have found no place on the whole Botanical Garden lands
nearly as well adapted as this swale (where the greenhouses are)
for the development of such a naturalistic Landscape Garden as we
have attempted to describe above; for the development of a landscape
characterized by a long stretch of beautifully modelled lawn in
association with free-growing trees, flowering shrubs and herbaceous
flowering plants; or indeed for the development of an equally long,
restful, completely unified and self-contained view of any sort. These
also are elements of which there should be at least one admirable
example within the Botanical Garden.
Therefore we have sought for other possible sites for a first-rate
formal garden in conjunction with a building for exhibitions, meetings
and social activities and with other features desirable to associate
with such a center. We believe that these things can be provided for
in another locality, which upon the whole would be more advantageous
for such purposes, and we will discuss it in Part V. For this reason we
do not hesitate to recommend the assignment of the Lorillard Mansion
area and the area embracing the Park Department greenhouses and the
swale south of them nearly to the picnic grove for the purposes of the
Landscape Garden above outlined.