Explore the Gardens
The West Pavilion Gardens
 Pavilion Garden I
Pavilion Garden I has a symmetrical serpentine walk and small oval flower
beds. In the center of the garden is an example of Jefferson's
attempt to use carved capitals for the Rotunda from Virginia
stone. The stone proved too difficult to sculpt and was not
used. Shrubs and trees, including azaleas, a sweetgum tree,
and purple leaf plums, border the walk.
The simple geometric design of the Hotel Garden is typical of
Jefferson's period, with border rows of fruit trees and rectilinear
beds once used for vegetables and herbs.
 Pavilion Garden III
Because no additions have been made to the back of this pavilion, this
is one of the largest remaining gardens. Two Biltmore ashes
shade the meandering walk and oval beds, similar to garden beds
Jefferson saw at Blenheim in England. He noted the favorable
effect of "small thickets of shrubs in oval raised beds,...
[with] flowers among the shrubs" and used it at Monticello.
Garden seats are placed throughout for enjoyment and viewing.
The plantings in this garden include neviusia, a great silverbell
tree, and a goldenrain tree.
 Pavilion Garden V
Two "Albemarle Pippin" apple trees, bearing one of Jefferson's favorite apples, thrive in the center
of each square of the Hotel Garden. Illustrations of similar formal fruit
gardens with turf parterres and gravel walks are found in The Theory and
Practice of Gardening, published in 1724 and listed in Jefferson's collection.
The upper garden, entered through the middle gate, is conceived as an elegant
boxwood garden. The purple flowering hostas and pink crepe myrtles provide
radiant color in summer, while the green boxwood invites contemplation.
It is an appropriate garden for meetings of students and teachers.
 Pavilion Garden VII
Garden VII is one of the smaller gardens due to many additions that have been made onto the back
of the pavilion. Used by the University's faculty club, this garden provides
lawn and trees for large gatherings, as well as intimate gardens for discussion
and reflection. The secluded benches are connected by serpentine walks bordered
by various roses and bulbs which add a romantic touch, especially popular
in Jefferson's day.
Outside the garden stands a cast iron capital that once ornamented the annex
to the Rotunda. The annex and the Rotunda burned to the ground in 1895.
The Rotunda was restored in 1900.
 Pavilion Garden IX
An arbor of "Cox Orange" and "Pippin" apple trees cast
a cool shadow as one enters through the lower gate to the hotel garden.
Pomegranate shrubs border the walls, with a large fig in the corner.
The pavilion garden includes Persian lilacs, peonies, and viburnums. The
large lawn was initially designed around the McGuffey ash, which succumbed
to disease in 1989, more than one hundred and fifty years after it was planted.
The shrub borders include amelanchier, cranberry viburnum, and clethra.
The East Pavilion Gardens
 Pavilion Garden II
Many of the trees in
this garden, including the umbrella magnolia and the large pecan tree, were
planted by the late Dean Ivy F. Lewis, professor of biology from 1915 to
1953. On the middle terrace, blueberries and grape vines serve as a reminder
of the utilitarian nature of these gardens. In the hotel garden, four heirloom
varieties of plum grow, while crabapple trees blossom along the walls. Daylilies
cascade down the lower bank.
 Pavilion Garden IV
Maxmilian Schele de Vere,
professor of modern languages, lived in Pavilion IV from 1845 to 1897. His
boxwood garden was initially restored by the Albemarle Garden Club in 1916.
Part of this design was retained in the later restoration. Tree peonies
and roses blossom in the perennial flower beds. Southern magnolias shade
the lawn.
The flat middle terrace reflects the geometric simplicity of utilitarian
gardens while the lower garden is an informal flower garden. The shrub-like
French marigolds were grown by Jefferson. As with this parent of today's
marigolds, eighteenth-century plants were often larger plants with smaller
flowers than our modern hybrids.
 Pavilion Garden VI
The lower garden is one
of the best known because of the presence of the Merton Spire in the center,
carved for Oxford's Merton College Chapel in 1451. In 1928 it was given
to the University to honor Jefferson's educational ideals. The wilderness
of the native trees and shrubs is reminiscent of the groves at Monticello,
and includes sweetbay, rhododendron and mountain laurel.
The Pavilion Garden exhibits an orchard in the middle terrace and an open lawn edged in boxwoods at the top.
 Pavilion Garden VIII
Near the upper entrance, intimate flower gardens can be discovered behind the large boxwood. At the
end of each garden are setting stones, similar to those at Monticello, which
Jefferson described as "benches or seats of rock or turf."
The main garden blooms primarily during the summer months, and includes
crepe myrtle, rose of sharon, and chaste trees. The "hourglass"
walk is bordered by shrub beds of oakleaf hydrangea and roses.
Above the lower bank, goldenrain trees form an aerial hedge similar to one
Jefferson saw in England. The formal orchard includes apples, plums, and
walnuts set in "old" style turf parterres.
 Pavilion Garden X
One of the largest gardens,
Pavilion Garden X is one hundred and fifty feet wide. The design of the
oval lawn with "elephant ears" was based on the gardens in another
Jefferson-era book, as well as on Jefferson's ideas for Monticello. The
large hollies remain from an earlier garden.
The Hotel Garden is a collection of tree boxwoods established long before the restorations. Iron benches are placed around the Kentucky coffee trees
in a romantic setting popular in eighteenth-century gardens. |
434.924.0311 / 
