The Garden History Blog

It was just about the last thing I expected on a short visit to  Montreal last October: a Chinese Garden.    In Europe we’ve been used to Chinoiserie  for over 300 years but while some examples are genuine imitations [if that makes sense]  most are  really just, at best, bastardised forms of Chinese architecture and design, whilst at worst they are comical misuses of the form and details…. and  none of them are  gardens.

I should say at the outset too that I knew nothing about Chinese gardens, and even now I still only know next to nothing. After all, while we have plenty of Japanese gardens in Britain I can’t think of a single Chinese one.

When I was writing this, obviously without access to the British Library,  I turned to Maggie Keswick’s The Chinese Garden which I bought shortly after it came out in 1978 [how to make yourself feel old!] She grew up in China and was a regular visitor as an adult, visiting many historic gardens there, and did huge amounts of research.  The book is full of insights into what for most westerners is an unknown world.

Let me quote from the preface: “Whoever heard anything special about Chinese gardens? Even in the East they are something of a lost art form; in the West the words seldom conjure up any image at all – or if they do it is likely to be one of a Japanese garden with its exquisite arrangements of moss and stone, its manicured pines and dry streams, and above all, its sense of being so perfect in itself … Chinese gardens are not like this.”   How true that is, so be prepared for a surprise or two…

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