New  Directions  in South America

“Amalia  named her  garden La Pasionaria,  for the Passion flower,  a plant native to the area,  and passion is an appropriate word  for her depth of feeling for this landscape,  its history, culture, and its botanical heritage.  With her work, Amalia is breaking new ground in South  America, where there has been little interest in naturalistic gardening using  native plants. Most public gardens, and many private ones, are still heavily influenced  by the 19th century Beaux Arts public gardens and traditions inherited from Europe with, of  course, some major exceptions; Roberto Burle Marx in Brazil, for example. That passion extends  far beyond just her garden. Amalia is working with others throughout the academic and nursery community  in Uruguay as well as other South American countries to identify native plants with potential for garden use,  to trial promising cultivars, and to help move them into commercial production. In Uruguay there is no tradition  of using native plants in gardens, in fact, no established recognition of native plants as having value in a garden. This  is a landscape garden. It uses space, openness to the surrounding environment, lack of boundaries, undulating topography, easily  differentiated landscape features (areas of trees and shrubs, meadows, water) to suggest a narrative of a idealized farm anchored  in a particular place and a particular cultureand to suggest a journey, one that pulls you inward to increasing levels of detail.

by  James  Golden,  Blog: View  From Federal  Twist, USA.

http://federaltwist.blogspot.com/2011/03/amalia-robredo-new-directions-in-south.html