Lush; a Walk through the Gardens of the World.

For this month’s theme, a pleasure for the eyes made in green is going to be treated. There are places where the time seems to stop and where the peace of nature mixes with the creative human hand. While reading this article your mind will fly and will make you want to travel for real to those places. Let’s have a walk through the majesty of the gardens of the world.

GIARDINO DEGLI ARANCI – ROME (ITALY)

One of the hidden treasures of Rome. The Giardino degli Aranci is located in the Aventino hill, a very elegant and peaceful neighborhood of Rome, full of colourful buildings and villas immersed in green gardens. Romans and tourists go there for its charm and beauty, but also for the fact that there is an amazing view of Rome. When you enter, you can start feeling the strong smell of orange, if it is season. Inebriated by the smell you go on and then you turn left where you are overwhelmed by the huge cupola of Saint Peter. You move on, getting closer to the terrace, and you notice an intriguing optical trick: the cupola becomes smaller than bigger. You try to think how it is possible, but then you are so immersed in the view of Rome that your mind just gives up, abandoning itself to the stunning view and the lush of the orange trees.

ISOLA BELLA – LAGO MAGGIORE (ITALY)

The belvedere in the baroque garden on Isola Bella, Lake Maggiore, Stresa, Italy.
© Báthory Péter
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“For however fanciful and fantastic the Isola Bella may be, and is, it is still beautiful.”
(C. Dickens, 1844)

An outstanding place where art treasures and flourishing vegetation get intertwined. A microcosm of lush architecture and plants. From rocky island to a floating green ship on the blue water of Lake Maggiore in Piedmont region in Northern Italy, Isola Bella looks like an Eden where the taste of Baroque mixes with the green architecture of the garden. Walking around the gardens of this island is like wandering in a paradise in which statues, staircases and terraces create the perfect marriage between art and nature. It is an other-worldly experience that starts from the gate, leading through the garden with elegant peacocks and culminating at the top terrace from which the gardens themselves and the lake in its immensity can be seen.

ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS – LONDON (UK)

Far from the chaos of the center, London has a big green lung: The Royal Botanic Gardens. This beautiful park makes you think of the city traffic and the skyscrapers as far memories. There you are immersed in the green and you experience different types of plants and botanic from all over the world. The viewer can pass through all the best of the botanic, whether in the humid and stuffy Palm House with tropical plants, or in the Waterlily house, or in the Princes of Wales with desert plants, and so on and so forth. Everything accompanied with nice bars where you can relax and have a refreshing drink, or with a nice lake where you can sit on a bench and admire the beauty of swans.

VILLA D’ESTE – TIVOLI (ITALY)

There is a place where the majesty of the Renaissance, the charming flowing of water and green lush vegetation mix together, creating a stunning spectacle to our eyes. It is Villa d’Este in Tivoli, a villa made in 1500 that will be the model for European prototype of palace with garden. Enormous gushing fountains and water games frame the environment of a big villa immersed in the green. Every step is a new discovery, a new breath-taking view where the hand of man and the perfection of nature show a majestic union. Villa d’Este is one of the most out-standing examples of the Renaissance, together with the triumph of water engineering and botanic cure. However, this is not the only attraction that Tivoli offers. Once there, why not immerging yourself in the waterfalls of Villa Gregoriana or in the heart of the striking Roman Villa Adriana?

CHATEAU DE VILLANDRY (FRANCE)

The gardens of the Chateau de Villandry are an amazing example of topiary art. Elegant and geometric green forms seem to create complex labyrinths. The effect is disorientating and pleasing at the same time. It is a garden that transmits the fine hand of man that manages to change and mould even nature itself, making plants and bushes works of art. All of this in the frame of the French countryside along with the beautiful castle. But there is more. The garden drawings represent the different types of love: tender, passionate, capricious and tragic. Why not getting lost in this intriguing garden?

SUAN NONG NOOCH (THAILANDIA)

Suan Nong Nooch botanical gardens offer a wide range of ornamental plants and flowers, but also a lot of attractions. The gardens are divided into the following parts: French Garden, European Garden, Stonehenge Garden, Cactus & Succulent Garden, Variegated Plants, Ant Tower, Butterfly Hill, Orchid & Bromeliad Display Garden and Flower valley. Moreover the gardens are provided with Thai style houses, cottages, villas, seminar halls, banquet halls, swimming pool, restaurants as well as other facilities constructed for tourist’s convenience. The perfect elements for a nice holiday immersed in the green.

KAWACHI FUJI GARDENS (JAPAN)

Kawachi Fuji Garden
© Wickerparadise
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Gardens are like hidden treasures that are waiting to be discovered. And in case you discover them, often the prize is really worth it. Kawachi Fuji Gardens welcomes the visitor with an outstanding waterfall of Wisteria flowering plants. There are 20 different species of Wisteria (white, blue, purple, violet-blue and pink). The effect is a colourful and graceful tunnel where nature shows off all the beauty that can make. It seems a dreamlike vision where feel like transported into a celestial and peaceful eden. Who wouldn’t have a walk in these gardens?

KIRSTENBOSCH – CAPE TOWN (SOUTH AFRICA)

Kirstenbosch is probably the most beautiful garden in Africa one of the greatest botanic gardens of the world. The setting is even more majestic in the frame of the eastern slopes of Cape Town’s Table Mountain. Founded in 1913 was meant to promote and keep the extraordinarily rich and diverse flora of southern Africa. The park has especially Cape Flora, called fynbos, including sugarbushes (Protea spp.), pincushions (Leucospermum spp.) and heaths (Erica spp.). but also plants from all the diverse regions and biomes of southern Africa, including a near-complete collection of cycads (Encephalartosspp). However, there are also exhibitions, restaurants and shops. Let yourself be overwhelmed by the South African Flora in a breathtaking setting.

MONTREAL BOTANICAL GARDENS, MONTREAL (CANADA)

The world of the fairy tales is real, and it is in Montreal. The stunning Montreal Botanical Gardens are the dwelling place of gigantic green sculptures that represent animals, fantastic creatures or personifications such as Mother Nature’s personification. It feels like being catapulted into the tales that we used to hear when we were kids, experiencing a magic world for real. The gardens are divided into many parts: Alpine Garden, Chinese Garden, Japanese Garden, Rose Garden, Flowery Brook and First Nations Garden. There are 22,000 species and cultivars of plants from around the world that can be admired. Under the façade of our adultness there is always a child part that emerges when we don’t expect it. This place could be one of the locations where our inner child can be recalled, watching a fantastic park with incredulous eyes.

Don’t know what to wear? Simon Carter has released new shirts that are suitable for green destinations, and there is a new fragrance by Frederic Malle!

The shirts have lush prints: jungle, floral and botanic motifs that will accompany your journey around the gardens of the world with the perfect wearing.

Then Frederic Malle‘s scent is also the perfect choice. Musc Ravageur is an uncompromising Oriental, which runs against current fads. Its explosive departure of bergamot, tangerine and cinnamon is set against a backdrop of vanilla, musk and amber. A sexy, turbulent perfume, in a word: ravageur. The ideal scent to get immersed into the lush vegetations.