A Romantic Garden's formal face turns effusive in this perennial garden designed and displayed by Tadd Thomas of Thomas Landscaping for the 1996 Southeast Flower Show.

Since that long ago dawn when the first spring flower bloomed in Eden, the garden has been associated with love and romance. In literature, the garden has endured as the ideal location for lovers to meet. For when Juliet leaned over her famous balcony, calling "wherefore art thou, Romeo?", her sweetheart waited in the garden below. A natural barrier like a hedge or a fence can satisfy the "romantic" gardener's need to create an atmosphere of privacy and amour. As color, depth, texture and an enveloping sense of security are key images of garden romance, this English formal garden is designed to engage the mind while delighting the senses.

"Formally Yours" features an urn that appears to be floating in a reflecting pond surrounded by green turf, hedges, perennials, annuals and elaborately shaped topiaries. An open-air dining area with a background of the pavilion serves as a focal point of this unique and mysterious garden. The geometric use of space and sculptural qualities of "Formally Yours" effuses simplicity and elegance, while staying true to its formal English garden form; its delicate container plants and trickling pond remind visitors of a lost romantic era found in a Jane Austen novel.

Past recipient of the John Portman Award for Garden Design, Thomas Landscaping was founded in 1991 by Tadd Thomas who specializes in rare and unusual plants. Thomas' successful concept of semi-formal, perennial plants within a formal pattern has resulted in structured yet peaceful reflection on the romance of by-gone days...