The Spirit of Place by Bruce Turley Reprinted from The Understory, June-July 2004 I came across this passage (thanks to Marcie Lee) from Frederick Law Olmsted, "the father of landscape architecture." From the book, Frederick Law Olmsted, Designing the American Landscape, by Charles E. Beveridge and Paul Rocheleau: Dame Nature is a gentlewoman. No guide's fee will obtain you her favor, no abrupt demand; hardly will she bear questioning, or direct, curious gazing at her beauty. To illustrate his views, Olmsted compared the effect of a common wildflower in a bank of mossy turf with that of a gaudy hybrid of the same genus. The hybrid was rare and would attract immediate attention, he said, but "the former, while we have passed it by without stopping, and while it has not interrupted our conversation or called for remark, may possibly, with other objects of the same class, have touched us more . . ." This single comparison summed up the difference of intent, design, and effect between the horticulturist and gardener on the one hand and the landscape architect on the other. In Olmsted's judgment, the truth of his design concepts required the rejection of much gardening practice of his time. The mid-nineteenth century saw a revolution in horticulture that introduced hundreds of new flowers and shrubs. At the same time many plants and trees began to be imported from Japan, China, and other distant parts of the world. The result was the development of highly decorative displays of exotic flowers and plants. By the 1890's he complained that "almost everywhere & most in the newest work, the landscape end is confused with & subordinated to other ends--Japanese ends." Olmsted objected to much of the specimen planting and flower-bedding by gardeners of his time because it went against the "spirit of place" and thus against his perception of good taste. His main criterion for tastefulness was that a design element should be "fitting" and proper in its setting, not clashing and incongruous.