Charles J. Stick and His Gardens

A fascinating biographical monograph of Charles J. Stick, the Virginia-based landscape architect renowned for his historically and culturally based gardens filled with luxuriant blooms

Charles Stick lives and works in the Piedmont region of Virginia, a land of rolling hills and dramatic vistas filled with echoes of the early history of America. Stick draws on all of this in his designs, which refer back to the classical designs of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello and the University of Virginia.

Stick focuses on residential gardens, drawing on the principles of Palladio, Charles A. Platt, and Russell Page to connect the architecture to the land and develop enticing pathways between the formal planting and the landscape beyond.

This new book is the first to explore and bring together four major estates--Crab Tree Farm on the North Shore of Chicago, Illinois; Mount Sharon near Charlottesville, Virginia; Sleepy Cat Farm in Greenwich, Connecticut; and Waverley, a previously unpublished farm in Central Virginia--offering new insights into the design process and the intimacy of his client relationships. Ten featured smaller gardens also demonstrate the breadth of Stick’s creative response to topography and climate.

The book’s glamorous package includes lush garden imagery from noted photographers, including Roger Foley and T.S. Elliott, together with Stick’s elegant pencil renderings and plans. Featuring gardens in prominent communities across the United States, including Isleboro, Greenwich, Southampton, Jupiter Island, Winnetka, and Dallas, as well as Stick’s home base in Virginia, and first-person commentary from Stick giving a unique personal dimension to the work, this volume is perfect for all garden enthusiasts and horticulturalists.

Jeff Poole is a writer, photographer, and editor based in Virginia.

Sam Abell is an internationally recognized documentary photographer, working principally
for the National Geographic. He is the author of Stay this Moment, a monograph published in conjunction with an exhibition of his photographs at the International Center of Photography in New York, Spring Gardens, and the highly acclaimed The Photographic Life.