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The Greater Perfection: The Story of the Gardens at Les Quatre Vents

The Greater Perfection: The Story of the Gardens at Les Quatre Vents

List Price: $75.00
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A wonderful book
Review: I read LOTS of garden books, a this is one of the best
in a long time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What a pleasure!
Review: Join Mr. Cabot in a personal tour of his garden, as he brings the reader from place to place, stopping to admire his favorite things in each of his gardens. If you listen, he'll share some advice on how he solved some of his gardening problems, and introduce you to some friends that stop by. The book is quite pricey (I'll admit, I borrowed it), but the photos are so outstanding, and the writing so entertaining, it is definately worth the money. By the end, you'll feel as if you've made a new friend.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gorgeous book, gorgeous garden
Review: The joy of this book is that Francis Cabot writes marvelously about a landscape he has loved from childhood -- and, although his garden is rarified, he remains at heart a hands-on dirt gardener, spending hours dividing and transplanting perennials, weeding, replanting, mulling over how a planting could be improved, and all the other tasks that keep gardeners occupied through the growing season and beyond.

It seems to me that people who make great gardens rarely do it just for themselves, but because they can't help but share their passion with other garden lovers. Francis Cabot has created and nurtured a brilliant garden, and now in this very personal book, he lets us in on its joys and its challenges.

The photography is exquisite. A great gift for your favorite gardener.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Great Story of a Great Garden.
Review: This extraordinary book chronicles in great detail the development of Les Quatre Vents, an enchanting series of gardens within a garden--formal and informal, sunny and shady, subtle and overwhelming--on the St. Lawrence River in Charlevoix County, Quebec. Beautifully presented with hundreds of truly spectacular color photos and botanically accurate, yet highly personal and witty prose by the garden's creator, this is my favorite book on garden design since Marina Schinz's VISIONS OF PARADISE was published in 1985. The gardens are a multitude of horticultural delights including--
-Tiny alpines growing in the rocks.
-Glorious perennial borders with delphiniums that reach up to nine feet in a good year. It's no wonder the author states, "There is no such thing as too many delphinium."
-Not just lupines, but a lupine prairie that is just amazing from late June to early July.
-A white garden, of course!
-A woodland garden with seven species of meconopsis, a "plethora of primroses" of over 100 species and varieties, and "just about every woodland perennial we can lay our hands upon".
-A plentiful potager where eremurus, delphinium, and hollyhocks tower among the geometric plantings of vegetables.
-And even a rose garden.
There are also numerous water elements, both formal and informal, and an amazingly constructed waterfall, the construction of which is carefully documented.
There are several inspired architectural elements including the Pigeonnier with its reflecting pool--reminiscent of the Pin Mill at Bodnant--and a pair of fifteenth-century-style Japanese contemplation pavilions.
And of course, many sculptures, both classical and whimsical, are found throughout the gardens.
To call THE GREATER PERFECTION, which is as meticulously crafted as the garden it presents, a tour de force would truly be an understatement. Frank Cabot may modestly write that due to the cool evenings and foggy mornings of its maritime climate, "In my opinion there is no easier place to garden in eastern North America than Charlevoix County," but this spellbinding garden and chronicle are the result of an extraordinary vision and steadfastness which have been merely aided by a desirable climate!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Even More Amazing than the Huntington Gardens
Review: This is a man's true odyssey, making Ulysses look short on imagination. Mr. Cabot along with some of the most talented and imaginative landscapers around turned his place into a true dream of beautiful garden after garden. But his personality and what he loves really comes through. Lots of imagination went into different alles and infinite dream-like entries and exits. He worked with all the best people. Hobhouse is one of my favorites not to mention a few others. I could be very jealous but I am simply thrilled to be able to read it. It is long and full of superb photos and good writing. Makes other books that I love seem not quite as fabulous. Some of Cabot's friends look as though they would be a lot of fun at a cocktail party. Makes me want to buy a lot more land and keep going with determination to create a real series of outdoor Valhalas from France, Italy and England. Bravo, Mr. Cabot and all who helped!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great accomplishment
Review: This is one of the most beautiful and inspiring books about the creation and restoration a garden that I have ever seen. The Greater Perfection shows what someone with great taste, imagination, skill and yes, resources can accomplish. What is especially impressive for me as a gardening professional is that all this has been accomplished in a zone 3/4 garden in the Canadian Maritimes. A great book for browsing and reading. Absolutely stunning - the garden we wish we all had.


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