Thursday, December 1, 2011

DESIGNER TREES

Architectural pruning--plumb perpendicular
To accentuate landscape compositions and to control volumes, the French have resorted to the taille architecturée of ornamental trees for centuries. Above is an example of the very regular and controlled  taille à rideau in an allée in the park of the Château de Versailles. This laborious pruning technique, so typical of classic French gardens, today is done with large motorized circular blades mounted on mechanical lifts. Lines of rectangular trees like these are thus seen more and more in urban landscapes where trees are fitted in to coexist with traffic and utilities. So much for the practical side of the tree.

Vocabulary
une taille architecturée:  an architectural pruning
un rideau:  a curtain
tailler: to cut; to prune
un arbre d'ornement:  an ornamental tree

©2011 P.B. Lecron

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