PART III

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.