Frank Cabot; The moonbridge at Les Quatres Vents. Photos by Richard W. Brown
The garden community lost a generous friend and visionary horticulturist when Frank Cabot passed away on November 19, 2011. His legacy lives on in the beautiful Stonecrop, the 12-acre garden he created with his wife Anne in Cold Spring, NY, which is open to the public from April to October, and Les Quatre Vents, in La Malbie, Canada, often considered to be one of horticultural masterpieces of the 20th century. He writes in great detail about the development of Les Quatres Vents in A Greater Perfection, deemed to be “one of the best books ever written about the making of a garden by its creator” by The Oxford Companion to the Garden.
He also narrates a DVD about the garden, Quatres Vents.
Perhaps most notable among his many accomplishments was the creation of the Garden Conservancy, the national organization dedicated to saving and preserving America’s exceptional gardens for the education and enjoyment of the public. Since its founding in 1989, the organization has helped more than 90 gardens throughout the country survive and prosper.
“Emotions and sensuality are what a garden is all about,” wrote Frank Cabot in A Greater Perfection. “We should be transported from our regular preoccupations. With an open heart and soul we can be receptive to the images, scents, sounds, spaces, and views that surround us, as well as to the touch of the wind and the rain, to the peace everlasting of the “genius of the place.” Thanks to the gardens he created and the organization he founded, we have been and will continue to be transported. Thank you, Frank. We salute you.
His obituary in the New York Times can be found here.
1 The flower garden at Stonecrop, courtesy of Stonecrop Gardens
2 The conservatory at Stonecrop, photo courtesy of Stonecrop Gardens
3 The entrance to the woodland at Stonecrop, photo courtesy of Stonecrop Gardens
4 The pigeonnier at Les Quatre Vents, photo by Richard W. Brown
5 A field of lupines at Les Quatres Vents, photo by Richard W. Brown
6 The Rope Bridge at Les Quatres Vent, photo by Richard W. Brown
7 The Tea House at Les Quatres Vents, photo by Richard W. Brown
8 Frank Cabot with Ruth Bancroft in her Walnut Creek, CA garden. Frank created the Garden Conservancy in 1989 after visiting her garden. Photo by Fred Mertz/NYT Pictures
From: ann | 12/5/11 at 11:36 am
A GOOD MAN GONE. I do think he learned to love gardening from ann.
From: ANNE PETERSON | 2/17/12 at 10:25 pm
A WONDERFUL MAN THAT I FEEL BLESSED TO HAVE MET. HIS SENSITIVITY TO HIS SURROUNDINGS AND NATURE ALONG WITH A WICKED SENSE OF HUMOR HELPED CREATE EVERLASTING LANDSCAPES.