
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 28, 1993                   TAG: 9308280055
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B10   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: review by Peggy Davis
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ALMOST LIKE BEING THERE

Earlier this year I traveled 3,000-plus miles for seven hours in a crowded airplane to spend four weeks touring English gardens and manor houses in a crescent to the south, west and north of London. The flowers - especially the roses - were spectacular. But truth be told, I could have driven for a few hours northeast, east, southeast, south or slightly southwest to see spectacular flowers - especially roses - in our own South and Chesapeake region in America.

Laura Martin's preface explains the basis she used to select gardens to include in her "Southern Gardens." She based her selections on two criteria: gardens that illustrate a different period of the history of the South and ones that are still closely associated with their founders.

The contents start with the year 1587 and continue through 18th-century town gardens, plantation gardens, inland gardens, into the 19th-century antebellum gardens and on to the 20th-century great estates and gardens for people. The book closes with modern gardens.

There's tour information, a travel guide, gardening notes and a brief glossary of familiar plants and animals. The photographs are a joy. My favorite is an early black-and-white photo of ladies of the Palm Beach Garden Club at the Society of the Four Arts. There's an impressive and detailed chapter on Monticello and other Virginia locations, as well as many familiar North Carolina attractions, such as Tryon Palace and Biltmore.

In "Chesapeake" the photographs dominate the book just as the bay dominates the region. The Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia is a world unto itself. Unless one is familiar with the area, it would be hard to find these grand and lavish houses with a contemporary design tucked away here and there. It's amazing to think that until 1952, the Eastern Shore was accessible only by ferry or by going north through Wilmington, Del. This book will take you to places that the casual tourist would never see.

by CNB