Here are important gardens to visit. Some of them are historical and some of them have great designs. We have selected all of the most prestigious ones.
If you have visited a garden that is worthwhile seeing, please do not hesitate to contact us @ gardensources@LandscapeAcademy.com and the garden source committee will review your selection and will be happy to post it upon approval. Private gardens are welcome to join in our Garden Sources listing.
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United States

Allenton Gardens
South Coast tropical Botanical Research Station Kauai This garden is a stunning example of what unlimited money can accomplish given the time, the inclination, and a magnificent setting. Bromeliads are used as bedding plants and the koi come to a handclap.

Arnold Arboretum
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA

Callaway Gardens
U.S. Highway 27
Pine Mountain, GA
(800) 282-8181
An extraordinary collection of native rhododendrons and azaleas as well as thousands of hybrids, many developed here by Fred Galle, about 2,500 acres worth.

Descanso Gardens
Flintridge/ La Canada, CA
A major camellia collection amid century-old oaks.

Dumbarton Oaks
31st and R Streets
Washington, DC
The best Beatrix Farrand garden in America, and arguably the finest garden on the continent. An Italian Renaissance garden by the only female founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Filoli
Canada Road
Woodside, CA
(415) 366-4640
Sixteen acres of formal display gardens with a series of 'garden rooms', including the Chartres window garden and a sunken garden, among others. Formerly a private estate, Filoli is now open to the public.

Foster Botanic Garden
Honolulu, Hawaii
Tropical trees and lots of bromeliads and orchids.

Longwood Gardens
Route One South
Kennett Square, PA
(215) 388-6741
Over 1,000 acres of display gardens, 30 miles outside Philadelphia, reflecting the influence of both the French formal tradition and the English parkland tradition.

Middletown Place
Charleston, SC
A magnificently romantic American garden begun in 1741. Off the Ashley River Road on the Ashley River a half-hour from Charleston's Historic District.

Strybing Arboretum
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, CA
(415) 661-1316
Excellent Mediterranean-climate collection and California native plant collection. Golden Gate Park also has a very good Japanese tea garden across the street from the arboretum, and a lovely conservatory.

The United States National Arboretum
3501 New York Avenue N.E.
Washington, DC
(202) 475-4859
A vast collection of trees and shrubs on 444 acres; in the spring 60000 azaleas bloom. Superb bonsai collection with a number of specimens more than a century old.

Canada

Allen Gardens
Toronto, Ontario
Greenhouses in the heart of town are featuring cacti and succulents, orchids, and aquatic plants.

Bagatelle
1635 Chemin St. Louis
Sillery, Quebec
A charming small estate garden just outside the city limits of Quebec City.

Bois de Coulogne
Quebec City, Quebec
Large collection of exotic plants.

Devonian Gardens
Calgary, Alberta
An indoor/ outdoor garden in an urban is setting complete with multi-story office buildings.

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden
578 Carrall Street
Vancouver, BC.
(604) 662-3207
A Chinese garden located in Vancouver's Chinatown.

Halifax Public Garden
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Jardin Van Den Hend
St. Foy, Quebec
(418) 656-3410
Botanical garden with plants grouped according to their botanical classification, a sort of botanic family affair.

Minter Gardens
52892 Bunker Road
Rosedale, BC.
(604) 794-7191

Montreal Botanical Garden
Montreal, Quebec
(514) 872-2429
The largest botanical garden on the North American continent, third largest in the world after Berlin in Germany and Kew in England.

Muttart Conservatory
Edmonton, Alberta
Pyramidal glasshouses each were representing a particular climate zone.

Nitobe Memorial Garden
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC.
(604) 228-4208
An especially fine Japanese garden with pretty little lakes and streams, maples, azaleas, and Japanese iris.

The Bloedel Conservatory
Queen Elizabeth Park
Vancouver, BC.

Van Dusen Botanical Garden
37th Avenue and Oak Street
Vancouver, BC.
(604) 266-7194.

England

Blenheim Palace
Oxfordshire, England
The vast English park in all its glory. Some people think Lancelot "Capability" Brown ruined Blenheim when he turned the parterres into lawns and flooded Vanbrugh's bridge to well above its knees.

Hidcote Manor
Gloucestershire, England
A simply lovely place.

Leeds Castle
Kent, England
Another piece of pure loveliness.


Magdalene College
Oxford University
Oxfordshire, England
Humphrey Repton laid out this garden in 1801. As long as you're at Oxford, don't miss the university botanical garden along the Thames.

Sheffield Park
Sussex, England
Lancelot "Capability" Brown (in 1776) and Humphrey Repton (in 1789) both left their mark on this garden, which was partially relandscaped by Arthur G. Soames in 1920. Superb shrubs.

Syon House
Middlesex, England
Another garden by "Capability" Brown.

Tintinhull house
Somerset, England

The Royal Horticultural Society's
Garden at Wisley
Surrey, England
A wonderful garden, but the restaurant serves mediocre food. East first, and wear comfortable walking shoes.

White Lodge
Richmond Park
Surrey, England
This is the tube stop just before Kew coming from London; park signs request that you not pet the deer during rutting season. William Kent is believed to have laid out the gardens at white Lodge between 1731and 1735, and Humphrey Repton worked on it in 1805.

There are 13000 gardens open-to-view in England, not counting those in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. These are but a sampling.

Ireland

Mount Stewart
Northern Ireland

Scotland

The Royal Botanic Garden
Edinburgh, Scotland
A Reginald Farrar rocks garden, extraordinary hedges, and wondrous peonies.

Spain

The Generalife
Grenada, Spain
The ultimate Moorish garden with cabbage rose blooms so big a child's face is completely obscured in bending to smell the roses.

The royal Botanic Garden
Madrid, Spain.

France

Giverny, France
French Impressionist Claude Monet's home and garden now restored to its original glory. The proper name of the house is Le Pressoir, but it is better known by the name of the town where it is located. This is a day trip from Paris, and not to be missed.

La Malmaison
Versailles, France
This is where Napoleon's Josephine planted all those roses painted by Redoute. The palace at Versailles with the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon is nearby with its classic French formal gardens.

Fontainbleau, France
Napoleon's favorite residence, complete with a 42,000-acre forest, fountains, and flowers.

Les Jardins Des Plantes
Paris, France
A centuries-old botanical garden.

Tuileries Gardens
Rue de Rivoli
Paris, France
The true home of all French babies, their perambulators, and their heavily starched nannies. They bloom all year-round.

Luxembourg Gardens
Left Bank (Rive Gauche)
Paris, France.

Italy

Boboli Gardens
Palazzo Pitti
Florence, Tuscany

Villa Medici
Accademia Della Crusca
Castello, Tuscany
Begun in 1538 and much altered in the eighteenth century, the Villa Medici now houses the Accademia Della Crusco, a famous language institute. The garden has an extraordinary orangerie, some 600 terra cotta pots of citrus trees, a system of fountains and watercourses, and a magnificent grotto.

Villa Gamberaia
Tuscany

Japan

Katsura Imperial Villa
Katsura shimizicho
Ukyo-Ku, Kyoto
An outstanding example of a Japanese stroll garden laid out in the seventeenth century. Don't miss it. Apply for a pass at the Kyoto Imperial Household Agency; you will need your passport to pick up the pass the day before you visit. The same agency also handles passes for the gardens of the Sento Palace and Shugakuin Imperial Villa, which are well worth seeing.

Ryoanji Temple
Goryonoshitacho, Ryoanji,
Ukyo-Ku, Kyoto
A fifteenth-century temple garden that features the world's most famous sand garden.

Saihoji
Kamigayacho, Matsuo,
Ukyo-Ku, Kyoto
An extraordinarily beautiful stroll garden covered with moss created in 1339 by the Zen Buddhist priest Muso-Kokushi (1275-1351). Open by appointment only. Send a letter requesting permission at least five days in advance and include a reply card. The letter must state the date you wish to visit, your name, address, age, occupation, and nationality.

Koishikawa Korakuen Garden
Koraku
Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo
A seventeenth-century stroll garden showing some Chinese influence in its design.

Kiyosumi Garden
Kiyosumi
Koto-Ku, Tokyo
A nineteenth-century stroll garden famous for the rocks collected from all over Japan.

Rikugien Garden
Honkomagome
Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo
An eighteenth century stroll garden featuring a small lake with an island and a wooded hill.

Australia

The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide
Veale Garden on South Terrace
Himeji Japanese Garden on South Terrace
The Botanical Garden on North terrace Southern Australia
Sixteen hectares of landscape grounds, including a conservatory, featuring native and exotic plants in the botanical garden; the other gardens are on separate grounds. All are located in the Parklands, a green belt that encircles the city of Adelaide. Wear comfortable walking shoes; this is less a garden stroll than a trek.

The Botanic garden
The Domain
Hobart, Tasmania
Established in 1818, this garden has an interesting collection of both native and exotic plants.

The Royal Botanic Garden
Domain Road next to king's Domain Melbourne
A superb collection of Australian native plants, as well as exotics like azaleas.

Fitzroy Gardens
Spring Street at Wellington Parade Melbourne
Captain Cook's stone cottage was brought from England and re-erected here to honor the first Englishman to lay eyes on what is either the world's largest island or the world's smallest continent. There is a conservatory in addition to the outdoor plantings.

King's Park
Central Perth
West Australia
Blanketed with native wildflowers in September and October; essentially a wile garden on the edge of Perth.

South Africa

Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden
Capetown, South Africa
The world's finest collection of the extraordinary Cape flora as well as an excellent collection of specimens from the Karoo. Not to be missed on any account.