Gardens of New Orleans: Exquisite Excess [Hardcover]

Lake Douglas (Author), Jeannette Hardy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2001

New Orleans is a gardener's paradise. Fragrant ginger and night-blooming jessamine scent the air. Nary a crack in the cement or divot in the wall is free from rogue ferns, mosses, or draping greenery. For generations, residents from wildly varied cultures and sensibilities have been at work creating magnificent gardens throughout the city. New Orleans Gardens explores this rich history and tours public gardens, as well as opens the doors to lovingly tended private balcony, patio, and mansion grounds. Interviews discuss the environmental and cultural forces that shaped the gardens. In photography as sumptuous as his acclaimed New Orleans: Elegance and Decadence, Richard Sexton vividly illustrates the many traditions interwoven in this bewitching city's landscape heritage.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Fragrant. Lush. Seductive. Can these words describe any city other than New Orleans? With new plant life bursting from every cranny and ancient cypress trees, the gardens here present many unusual combinations of freshness and decay. Gardens of New Orleans has captured this magnificence in full glory, with page after page of beautifully green photographs.

Authors Lake Douglas and Jeannette Hardy include historical sketches, maps, and photographs that provide an informative introduction to the city. The outdoor French Market photographs show piles of fruit you can almost taste, even if the picture is in sepia tones. The section on public spaces follows, bringing glossy color photos of charming statuary and enormous live oaks that are memorable both for their size and grace. The final chapter is filled with close-up shots of many private gardens in the city, and show off the best New Orleans has to offer: peaceful balconies, bright flowers, antique ornaments, and artfully trimmed hedges. The lovely Ursiline convent is included in this section, with its glowing white statues and peaceful paths for meditation.

In every case, photographer Richard Sexton has captured the remarkable light as it filters through the trees. His close-ups clearly show the vines and sprouts popping up between bricks and under older plants, while his landscapes showcase both the heavy greenery and the well-known cast-iron decorations on houses, fences, and furniture. Whether you're a New Orleans native or simply love impossibly green gardens, this lovely book will bring the rich flavor of this charming city to your living room. --Jill Lightner

About the Author

Lake Douglas a garden historian living in New Orleans and writes for numerous architecture and garden publications.

Jeannette Hardy is the Garden writer at the Times-Picayune. She lives and gardens in New Orleans.

Richard Sexton is a New Orleans-based photographer, writer, and lecturer. He also teaches photography at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Southern Accents, Garden Design, and Smithsonian. His m

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; 1St Edition edition (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811824217
• ISBN-13: 978-0811824217
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 10.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,131,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Going beyond the touristed New Orleans, April 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Gardens of New Orleans: Exquisite Excess (Hardcover)

Here is that unusual New Orleans book, beautifully written by Jeannette Hardy and Lake Douglas, and sumptuously photographed by Richard Sexton, that journeys outside the heavily touristed French Quarter and into the neighborhoods that truly infuse the city with its unique spirit. French Quarter gardens are not neglected, of course, but the book is easily the best of its kind at revealing the entire far-flung city, its people and their lovely and sometimes idiosyncratic gardens.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can't wait to start on my own "New Orleans" garden, July 27, 2001

By 

Miss Priss "non-fiction lover" (Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gardens of New Orleans: Exquisite Excess (Hardcover)

I bought this book hoping to get some ideas on how to make my backyard into a New Orleans garden oasis and this book delivered. Not only is it a helpful resource for gardeners (it has a chart of commonly used plants in New Orleans gardens), but it also is nice to just leaf through and look at the pictures. My only gripe is that there weren't enough gardens featured.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For lovers of gardening- it captures the heart & imagination, March 16, 2004

By 

Darcy Gallouedec (Plymouth Meeting, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gardens of New Orleans: Exquisite Excess (Hardcover)

I was fortunate enough to find this book in a wonderful little garden shop tucked away inside the French Quarter of New Orleans. If you've never visited and seen their charming style and beauty first hand, this book is filled with superb photographs that come to life, with a wealth of great information about the homes and gardens you really will feel like you're there. For any lover of gardening, New Orleans simply transcends conventional time and space, capturing all of the senses and inspiring the heart and the imagination like no place else in the world. . .from the petite cottages to the elaborate plantations, there is garden for every home and every occassion! Tres-magnifique!!!