BOOK LOOK

MInalo 1641,cheld

Kate l.arton

Lionel de

1200tschild
by Arldrvi

Photographs

reen has always been a
dominant color for the
Rothschild family.
While their banking skills
enabled them to make a huge
impact on Western social and politi-
cal history, one of the world's pre-
mier Jewish families at the same
time invested a tremendous amount
of time, energy and material
resources cultivating the landscape.
One member of the large family,
Nathan Mayer Rothschild, referred
to gardening as "a necessity as much
as bread."
Members of the Rothschild fami-
ly have created magnificent park-
lands and gardens throughout
England, Europe, Israel and else-
where. Always fond of showing bed-
ding displays and elaborate topiary,
they also enjoyed producing fruits
and vegetables.
In The Rothschild Gardens: A
Family's Tribute to Nature (Abbeville,
$29.95), authors Miriam Rothschild
(a granddaughter of the first Lord
Rothschild as well as a renowned
naturalist, one of the world's fore-
most authorities on fleas and an
ardent conservationist and adviser
on gardens to Prince Charles, the
Prince of Wales), horticulturist
Lionel de Rothschild (overseer of
Exbury, the English estate created
by his like-named grandfather) and
Kate Garton (a gardener and writer
who has worked with Miriam
Rothschild for many years) explore
the Rothschild family gardens from
their beginnings in a Jewish ghetto
in Germany to the lush parklands
of today.

Gioriops
ardening

G

Left: This Japanese bridge,

at Exbury, was inspired by

Monet's garden at Giverny.

Below: Wildflowers flourish on land adjacent

to the Memorial Garden at Ramat Hanadiv.

Providing the photographs that
accompany the text is photographer
Andrew Lawson, one of England's
foremost gardening photographers.
The book includes an abbreviat-
ed family tree of the Rothschild gar-
deners and a detailed history of the
family's gardens, plantings and
greenhouses. Archival pictures
accompany contemporary photo-
graphs in what is a tour not only of
the gardens, but also the personali-
ties whose competitive nature and
drive for perfection resulted in the
gardens' magnificence.
A chapter is devoted to Ramat
Hanadiv (the Heights of the
Benefactor), a seven-acre memorial
garden set around the tomb of
Baron Edmond de Rothschild and
his wife, Adelheid. Situated at the
foot of Israel's Mt. Carmel near
Zichron Ya'acov, it welcomes
250,000 visitors a year.

❑

— Gail Zimmerman,
creative editor

JNPLATINUM • NI AY

2005

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