Role of representative woody plants in the spatial composition of dendrological gardens

Abstract

A more thorough exploration and deeper knowledge of the overseas colonies brought along the
discovery and import to the European continent of several new plant species. Planting exotic species
in the Hungarian parks became a wave of fashion in the last third of the 19th century. Landscape
architecture also calls these landscape gardens of special plant collections dendrological gardens.
Apart from the value of the individual specimens, these woody plants also had a great role in the
spatial composition of the entire garden. These plants of diverse appearance endowed a part or
the whole of the garden with a unique character, as the outcome of preliminary planning. Below
I highlight different planning methods developed on the basis of using different representative,
mostly exotic woody plants. Traces of these methods can still be discerned today even in badly
neglected gardens. Knowledge of the criteria of planning and the typical use of plants can provide
indispensable clues to the reconstruction of gardens.