Asheville Biltmore Estate Garden#

Asheville Biltmore Estate Garden
Asheville Biltmore Estate Garden, June 2013, © Ewald Judt, under CC BY 4.0

Vanderbilt envisioned a park-like setting for his home and employed landscape artist Frederick Law Olmsted to design the grounds. Olmsted advised for a park surrounding the house, farms along the river and replanting the rest as a commercial timber forest. Olmstead made sure to incorporate 75 acres (30 ha) of formal gardens that had been requested by Vanderbilt for the grounds directly surrounding the house. He constructed an Italian formal garden, a walled garden, a shrub and rose garden, fountains, and a conservatory with individual rooms for palms and orchids. There was also a bowling green, outdoor tea room, pools and a tree-lined esplanade to incorporate the European statuary that Vanderbilt had brought back from his travels.