Biltmore Blooms: Frederick Law Olmsted’s Botanical Legacy in Western North Carolina
Frederick law Olmsted sculpture at the NC Arboretum
Happy Birthday FLO! Today, April 26th, 2022 is Frederick Law Olmsted’s 200th birthday! There are celebrations happening all around the country to honor this legendary man and his incredible contributions. So, in honor of FLO’s special day, I would like to celebrate with a few interesting, but forgotten stories that I think speak to his genius and to his legacy here in NC.
Olmsted’s Biltmore
Many people recognize FLO as the designer of Central Park, but here in Western North Carolina, we know him as the genius behind the Biltmore Estate. FLO was commissioned by George Vanderbilt to help him create the extraordinary “park and pleasure ground” we know today as the estate. Unfortunately, the Biltmore project would be FLO’s last–his swan song–but oh, what a song it was–and still is! Nevertheless, FLO’s legacy goes well beyond even the amazing landscapes he created on the estate! In fact, there are several important, but forgotten, stories that I would like to share here, for the record, on this his 200th birthday.
For example, did you know that Olmsted’s most ardent dream for the estate was never realized? Did you know that there was once a Biltmore Nursery that supplied the plants for Olmsted’s projects but also supplied plants for projects around the country? Well, there’s more. Warning: These stories don’t all have happy endings, but I still believe they are worth the tell. So if you are feeling adventurous, read on to find out more…
Spring Tulips at the Biltmore
Olmsted’s First Impression
The story begins back In 1888, when George Vanderbilt began amassing the 125,000 acres that would eventually become the Biltmore Estate. Vanderbilt had dreams of creating a sprawling pastoral estate like the ones he had seen in Europe and Great Britain, and there was no question about who he should consult on the matter. Frederick Law Olmsted was the most famous landscape architect of the time. Unfortunately, when FLO came to see what Vanderbilt had purchased, he was not impressed. Not in the least. He had these choice words for George:
“My first visit greatly disappointed. Its apparent barrenness and the miserable character of the woods.”
All that said, FLO was apparently undeterred. He subsequently accepted the commission and threw himself into the project with abandon. Here is a list of just a few of the features Olmsted created on the property: the Approach Road, the Italian Garden, the Shrub Garden, the Spring Garden, the Rose Garden, the Bass Pond & Boat House, the Azalea Garden, the Woodland Trail, the Meadow Trail, & the Creekside Trail. I am sure there are more, but I think you get the idea….
Needless to say, creating such spectacles, like the Approach Road and accommodating George and Frederick’s herculean vision not only required quantities of cash, it also required an inordinate amount of plant matter.
So where did all the plants come from? Well, here is where those ‘forgotten stories’ come into play. It's the story of a nursery, an herbarium and a would-be arboretum.
Azalea Garden at the Biltmore Estate
Olmsted’s Vision for the Biltmore
I think it’s important to explain that when he started with the Biltmore project, FLO was most interested in transforming the vast majority of the estate’s acreage into a “systematically managed forest” and a “museum of living trees”. Of course, there would be gardens of all shapes and sizes, but they were not his primary concern. Ever the social reformer, FLO believed a forest museum was a “much-needed model for the country”. In other words, Olmsted wanted to create an arboretum, complete with a botanical library and an herbarium where botanists, dendrologists, and gardeners alike could go and learn.
Given the condition of the grounds, Olmsted would need a tremendous amount of plant material to create the various landscape features, the gardens, and the arboretum.
Note: Part of the genius of Olmsted’s places and spaces is that they look so incredibly natural, and that makes it easy to forget that his landscapes were completely and totally engineered. In other words, the plants and trees you see growing so naturally along say the Approach Road or in Central Park, were not there when he started. Today his bucolic parks with their idyllic long-views have come to fruition and now we can literally see and experience the incredible genius of this man’s vision. Of course, Olmsted was well aware that he would never see his projects in their full glory during his lifetime. Talk about a long-view…
A Long View at the NC Arboretum
There were no commercial nurseries of scale nearby to accommodate the number of plants needed for the job, and importing plants and trees would be cost-prohibitive, so Olmsted advised Vanderbilt to create a large-scale nursery for propagating and supplying the vast numbers of plants and trees needed. Vanderbilt had always wanted the Biltmore to be a ‘working estate’ like ones in Europe, so the idea of a large and profitable nursery operation was probably appealing to him in this respect, and in 1890, the Biltmore Nursery was created.
The Biltmore Nursery
From the beginning, it was a large-scale operation and in its heyday, the Biltmore Nursery grew over 4,200 different varieties of plants and had an output of 2 million plants a year! Of course, the bulk of the stock was meant for the grounds, but the sheer quantities produced on the estate gave Olmsted access to plants he could use in other projects, like Cherokee Park in Louisville, KY among others.
As word of the nursery spread, interest in and demand for “Biltmore plants” grew, and eventually the decision was made to transform the nursery into a full-scale commercial operation and supplier. Chauncy Beadle, chief horticulturalist for the estate eventually published a catalog and also offered advice on planting, horticultural questions and planting plans. Requests for plants and catalogs poured in from all over the country. Two notable requests were Booker T. Washington who ordered 75 rose plants and 3 sequoia trees, and George Washington Carver who wrote in to request a catalog. Soon, plants from the Biltmore Estate began to grace the grounds of parks and gardens throughout the US.
The Biltmore Herbarium & Botanical Library
At the very start of the Biltmore project, Olmsted advised a series of “Scientific Collections” for the estate to record the estate’s natural resources before the grading and construction permanently altered or destroyed any evidence. These collections included geology, mineralogy, archaeology, botany, dendrology, Entomology and Zoology.
Olmsted was particularly interested in creating an herbarium and an accompanying botanical library to enhance the educational value of his arboretum. A directive from Olmsted himself stated that the herbarium should be
“a complete and in every way excellent, Herbarium…that the Herbarium may be of the highest scientific value several specimens of each plant should be collected.”
So, botanists were hired to collect specimens for this most excellent herbarium, and as a result, many new species were discovered and cataloged–the most famous of which was the Biltmtia vaseyi (later renamed, Rhododendron vaseyi), also known as the Pink Shell Rhododendron first found near Mt. Pisgah.
the Biltmore Azalea: Rhododendron vaseyi
The Biltmore herbarium soon became one or the largest herbariums in the country, and certainly the most extensive herbarium of Eastern plants available at the time. The collection contained over 100,000 specimens and, as was the custom, samples from this herbarium were sent to other collections all over the world.
The accompanying library was equally impressive. Vanderbilt, who Olmstead described as “a delicate, refined and bookish man,” and he spared no expense in outfitting the library with all the latest, best, and even rare books on all things botanical.
Biltmore Herbarium Sample at the Smithsonian
Tragedy Strikes
Unfortunately, there were two major events that put an end to FLO’s important botanical side projects on the estate. First, the unexpected & untimely death of George Vanderbilt in 1914, forced his widow, Edith to downsize projects and sell off tracts of the estate.
As a result, FLO and George’s dream of an arboretum on the estate was essentially over. Nevertheless, there is some consolation, because Edith did eventually negotiate the sale of a large tract of land which became Pisgah National Forest, our first national forest in 1916. Pisgah Forest is considered the “Cradle of Forestry” since that was where Carl Schenck, who Vanderbilt had brought over from Germany (at FLO’s suggestion, of course), established the first US school of forestry. So, FLO’s dream of a managed, model forest did become a reality of sorts in this regard.
Then, to make matters worse, the catastrophic flood of 1918 completely destroyed the nursery facility, the botanical library and three quarters of the herbarium. Edith donated what was left of the herbarium (some 25,000 specimens) to the Smithsonian where it is still housed today.
John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Frederick Law Olmsted
A Happy Ending: The NC Arboretum Realizes Olmsted’s Dream
Olmsted’s dream of a “museum of trees” in its truest form was finally realized in the 1980s when 434 acres of land within the Pisgah National Forest was set aside to create the North Carolina Arboretum (land that was once owned by Vanderbilt). In homage to the ‘Genius of Place’, all aspects of the arboretum were created with Olmsted’s design principles in mind. The NC Arboretum is taking part in Olmsted’s birthday celebration with an exhibit called, Thanks FLO! In addition to a wonderful display, visitors can experience Olmsted’s design principles in action at eight different stations throughout the arboretum. The exhibit will be on through May 8th, 2022. It’s so nice to see Olmsted’s genius realized in this way. The arboretum is a truly magical place and is a worthy tribute to FLO's noble vision and the botanical legacy he left here in Western NC.
So I hope you enjoyed this account of FLO’s botanical legacy on the Biltmore estate. I find it amazing that the Biltmore once had a nursery of such scale, and that traces of it still exist in parks and gardens all over the country. And the same goes for the herbarium—I love the idea that although the bulk of this special collection was destroyed, bits and pieces of it still exist all over the world as well.
Please be sure to let me know what you think about this article or anything else Olmsted-related in the comments below. I would love to hear from you!
Recommendations: Two Books, a Movie & a Website!
Books: If you are interested in learning more about these stories, be sure to have a look at Biltmore Estate historian Bill Alexander’s book, The Biltmore Nursery. He has done an excellent job at collecting all sorts of interesting information there.
I also highly recommend Justin Martin’s biography of FLO called, “Genius of Place: the Life of Frederick law Olmsted” I just can’t say enough about this book. I learned so much about Olmsted and am so grateful for the knowledge.
Movie: If you are more of a watcher than a reader, here is an incredible hour-long documentary about Frederick Law Olmsted called the Olmsted Film that I recommend as well.
Website: And, of course, be sure to check out the Olmsted 200 website to learn more about what bicentennial celebrations are happening near you!
Frederick Law Olmsted
