Gardens and Historic Plants of the Antebellum South.

Gardens and Historic Plants of the Antebellum South. By James R. Cothran. (Columbia and London: University of South Carolina Press, 2003. Pp. xvi, 321. $49.00, ISBN 1-57003-501-6.)

James R. Cothran's Gardens and Historic Plants of the Antebellum South discusses plants, gardens, and garden design in the lower South--primarily South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana--between 1820 and 1860. Many books have dealt with the states of the upper and middle South, so this book corrects an earlier neglect. Though Cothran's discussion of gardens and garden design is generally applicable to the whole South, the plants used differ to some degree because of different growing conditions in different climate zones.

The homes and gardens of planters were the principal means by which they expressed their superior status. Planters in this part of the South generally preferred Greek Revival architecture because of both its reference to the world's first democracy and its tall windows, columned piazzas, and balconies from which gardens could be viewed. Garden design was always in the French parterre tradition, with geometrical edges enclosing areas for planting choice shrubs and flowers. Entrances to plantations were often planted with avenues of trees, creating a sense of grandeur; other choice trees were planted in groves. Homes and gardens were fenced and sometimes hedged, since native hedge plants grew tall and thick in the South and occasionally had decorative berries or flowers. Cothran points out that the same design principles were followed in the gardens planters created around the houses they built in town. City conditions necessarily changed the plans somewhat; the houses in Charleston, for instance, were turned sideways on narrow lots, and entrance into the garden was made through a gate in the fence.

The fact that southerners held to traditional garden design when Andrew Jackson Downing, a New York horticulturist, was advocating the so-called natural garden (a new development from England) is testimony to their natural conservatism. Yet southern gardeners loved planting things that made their gardens different--within the approved framework of tasteful design, of course. They took advantage of especially beautiful native plants, such as live oak, the magnolia, the dogwood, and the Carolina jasmine, but they also took pride in using imported plants (camellia from China, flowering quince from Japan, and oleander from the Mediterranean, for example).

The most valuable and convincing element in Cothran's discussion is his use of comments recorded by knowledgeable visitors and professionals who actually saw the gardens and were familiar with the plants. The wealth of the southern planters made it quite possible for them to obtain garden designers from Europe or from the North. Cothran's discussion of plants in the South is accomplished through the comments of these experts who provided the plants and came to see them. This wonderful presentation of familiar plants includes far more information about their sources, culture, and use within traditional garden design than most interested gardeners could find elsewhere. The list of "Historic Plants of the Antebellum South and Dates of Introduction" is a particularly valuable and interesting reference tool. The appendixes are valuable also, particularly the biographical sketches of the leading "naturalists, botanists, nurserymen, horticulturists, writers, travelers and garden designers" (p. 285.) Readers may find it helpful to read this section before reading about particular gardens, in order to be familiar with the credentials of the relevant speakers.

It would have been interesting if Cothran had taken a longer view of the development of garden design, from the Renaissance villa gardens, to the development of the formal element by the French in the seventeenth century, to the development of the natural garden in England in the eighteenth. Or he might have investigated the history of imported plants as a continuation of the Age of Discovery when doctors accompanied ships of exploration in order to discover plants for the treatment of illnesses. And he also might have noted that early gardens created in Europe by these plant collections were royal gardens or, later, those of wealthy China traders. This might explain to some degree the prestige attached to owning a garden. Finally, he could have looked at the second half of the eighteenth century, when fashionable gardens were filled almost entirely with plants from other countries and native American treasures were completely ignored. However, with the limits he set for himself, Cothran has produced a very valuable book--a treasure house of information about plants and garden design in an area that has received little attention.

Houston, Texas 

SADIE GWIN BLACKBURN