Extracted from a text by Paolo Pejrone

Rethinking a garden does not necessarily involve turning it upside down: centuries of gardening and landscaping knowledge have in fact shaped the area of the Royal Gardens with foresight and intelligence and, despite some crumbling accretions and the deterioration that had occurred, that arrangement was still clearly perceptible. 

The soundness of the conservative intuition emerged as soon as a bunker, which had cut the garden in two, was demolished: suddenly the views opened up and the site regained all its original harmony. After that, structural work was required: from realigning the perimeters of some of the parterres and rebuilding the water channelling system and underground utilities, to removing inappropriate artefacts that as time passed had allowed themselves to interfere with the site’s original structure. 

It was instead immediately obvious that the plant repertoire of the old gardens was in need of far more substantial rethinking. The run-down condition of the site – many gaps existed or were clearly imminent – demanded decisive intervention and did not make continuity an option except in a few limited, albeit fundamental, areas: the compact masses of laurels, pittosporums, euonymuses and oleasters, healthy and well-formed, which created a kind of vegetal dune against the winds and saltiness of the lagoon; the old specimens of pittosporums growing isolated in the flowerbeds; some trees still in good vegetative state, such as a large hackberry tree (Celtis australis), and Japanese pagoda trees (Sophora japonica), which then inspired the decision to include tall trees in the project. Older, clearly weathered tree specimens, such as the Judas tree (Cercis siliquastrum) that stands sentinel at the entrance, or the locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) that now stands among the bamboos, were retained as a tribute to the history of the site. Everything that could be saved was respected and protected, even when this meant that the rigour of the design had to be sacrificed. 

The large pergola, which constitutes the central element of the composition and is a typical presence in Hapsburg-style gardens, has been covered with numerous varieties of Wisteria sinensis and Wisteria floribunda and, at the intersection of the pergola with the perpendicular pathway leading to the drawbridge, and at its ends, with thick tufts of Bignonia ricasoliana “Contessa Sara” whose pink flowers bloom in late-summer and autumn.

Large patches of Agapanthus umbellatus and imposing Agapanthus “Queen Mum”, Farfugium japonicum and irises from Dalmatia (Iris dalmatica) and Florence (Iris florentina), all of which have evergreen foliage, have been planted in the four central parterres, those bordering the entrance drive, which enclose at their centre a small grove of Tetrapanax papyrifer, with its huge, velvety grey-green leaves, and some rose bushes.

All around, the remaining eight flowerbeds pick up on the underlying theme of the border of agapanthus and farfugium, which gives way, as the first shadows of the Japanese pagoda trees appear, to groups of myrtles (Myrtus communis) and Hydrangea paniculata. Clusters of Hydrangea arborescens “Annabelle” have been placed around the long pergola, lightly filtering the shady path from the rest of the garden, making the space more intimate and evocative. At the foot, filling in the edges of the walkway, Liriope muscari and Ruscus racemosus create a soft, cool evergreen carpet.

At the centre of these parterres we planted Sophora japonica, a deciduous tree which reaches a noteworthy height, whose soft, spreading foliage made it ideal for our objectives. The choice was a logical one as very old trees of this species were already in the Gardens. It was thus possible to obtain a homogeneous arboreal component of great impact: with their soft, light-colored foliage, brilliant autumn coloring, and plentiful summer production of white flowers, the trees are perfectly integrated in their context and its history, witnesses of the garden’s rich botanical past and its openness to the Orient. Completing the composition, in the outermost lateral flower beds there are other specimens of Clerodendrum trichotomum.

Tall trees have been used in other places in the garden. While work was being done on the site, as new spaces emerged in their definitive form, two camphor trees (Cinnamomum camphora) and two Pterocarya fraxinifolia were added to the original project.

To emphasize the idea of a green boundary surrounding a green area, thereby protecting and unifying it, large terracotta vases planted with pomegranate, fig, jujube, shiny viburnum, feijoa (Acca sellowiana) and bitter orange trees have been placed along the balcony overlooking Rio dei Giardini, symbolic witnesses of the potted citrus trees that in the nineteenth century were grown in Stra and sent by boat to the Royal Gardens each summer.

Today, the Royal Gardens of Venice have the merit of being among the first to have combined traditional forms with hitherto unseen contents, of having reflected on the classic model of the parterre, confirming it, but at the same time modernising it and making it current, attempting to overcome the age-old dichotomy between formal and informal gardens, balancing a sense of geometry with the exuberance of herbaceous plants and shrubs that are unusual, irregular and above all, given the rusticity and robustness of the varieties chosen, sustainable.