In the late 1800s George W. Vanderbilt sought the advice of Olmsted, the country�s preeminent landscape designer, to help him with his latest project. Vanderbilt needed an appropriate design to complement the French Renaissance-style ch�teau he was building in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The resulting masterpiece is still enjoyed by nearly one million visitors to Biltmore Estate each year. And today�s staff is dedicated to preserving and maintaining that design for future generations.

�It has always been a priority for us to not only preserve Olmsted�s landscape, but to continue developing it, to make sure that it grows into the organic masterpiece he intended,� said Biltmore Estate Director of Horticulture Parker Andes. �Olmsted was not a sentimental man who would have kept plants in the landscape that were not thriving. Many of the tulip poplars framing the fa�ade of Biltmore House have already died and some of those remaining are in poor condition. I feel confident Olmsted would approve of our plan to replace them with young, strong tulip poplars that will restore his design.�

The use of an avenue of trees leading to Biltmore House is in the classic formal French style. The 1895 planting included 13 trees in four rows (two on each side of Biltmore House�s fa�ade) for a total of 52 trees. Olmsted intended the rows to frame Biltmore House and draw the eye to its French Renaissance style. Today, just 38 trees remain, 14 having been lost to disease and weather. Of the remaining trees, many are showing signs of deterioration and require frequent maintenance from the estate�s arborist crew to keep dead limbs trimmed away.

Estate landscape staff weighed several options in handling the project including replacing individual trees as they come down or replacing them in sections. The option that best preserves the landscape design, however, is to remove all remaining trees and replace them all at once with the same kind of tree. Diversified Trees, Inc., of Pine Mountain, Ga., has been growing the replacement tulip poplars, which will stand a minimum of 16-feet tall and will have a spread of at least six feet�larger than the trees originally planted in 1895. Any salvageable lumber obtained from the original trees will be reserved for future use.

Biltmore Estate Landscape Historian Bill Alexander has spent years studying Olmsted�s landscape designs not only at Biltmore, but also in New York�s Central Park, in the Boston area and elsewhere. He is confident that the plan to restore the avenue of trees at Biltmore House is exactly what Olmsted would have done himself.

�I think the most important thing to understand is that while we can preserve a landscape, we cannot preserve and keep alive every individual tree and shrub in it forever,� said Alexander. �Trees are living things and just as annuals last for a season, perennials last several seasons and trees are for many seasons, the time comes when you cannot expect them to live and be healthy for that much longer and you replace them. Olmsted knew that his last great landscape would require management and manipulation through time. I think it will be exciting to see the alle� looking once again much as it did when Olmsted last saw it.�

For further information about Biltmore Estate, contact The Biltmore Company at 828-225-1333 or 800-323-6822, or visit Biltmore Estate�s Web site at www.biltmore.com.

(Images provided by Biltmore Estate)

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