Parterre, a flat, level, open piece of land on which several lines have been traced out and which is usually either planted with box in imitation of embroidery or divided into several turf compartments.

There are five different types of parterre: embroidered parterres, compartmented parterres or ‘parterres de compartiment’, parterres à l’anglaise, cut-work parterres ox parterres de pièces coupées, and water parterres.

Embroidered parterres take their name from the way in which the lines of box with which they are planted imitate embroidery.

Compartmented parterres are so named because the design is repeated symmetrically on several sides. The parterres are mixed with pieces of broderie and turf forming the compartments.

Parterres à l’anglaise are simpler, being generally filled only with large greenswards which are usually surrounded with flower borders. This fashion was imported from England, which is why they are called English-style parterres. [1]

Cut-work parterres differ from other parterres in that the flower borders of which they are composed are divided symmetrically with no turf or broderie and the paths which border them are used for walking among the flower borders without damaging them.

Water parterres are composed of several basins of different shapes ornamented with fountain-jets and bubbling fountains, which makes them visually pleasing. However, they are not very fashionable at present.

Embroidered parterres and parterres de compartiment ornament the areas adjoining a building. Parterres à l’anglaise may accompany them or be worked into the centre of a salle de verdure in either an ornamental grove or an orangery, in which case they are called ‘orangery parterres’ ox parterres d’orangerie.

Cut-work parterres or parterres de pièces coupées are also used for growing flowers, in which case they are called ‘florist parterres’ or parterres fleuristes.

Parterres are composed of different motifs, such as foliated scrolls, fleurons, becs de corbin, tendrils, knots, naissances, feuilles de refend, compartments, volutes, chapelets, agrafes, ornamental seeds, palmettes, culs-de-lampe, dents-de-loup, attaches, guilloches, rouleaux, rosettes, trefoils, feathers, wells, grass borders, scallops, cartouches, flower beds, and paths.

The broderie of a parterre should be neither too heavy nor too light: good taste and experience should determine its correct proportions.

The parterre illustrated in plate IV conforms to a new design and taste. [2] It is a single tableau filled with turf in keeping with the prevailing taste. [3] The broderie is very light and links up with the pieces of turf, which are cut into rouleaux, borders, and the large end piece ornamented with a statue placed at the enfilade of the allées leading to the upper wood. Wide borders accompany the wings of this parterre, and elms and vases on stands are situated in the indentations worked into the length of the borders, making them rich and extremely original.

Notes

1. In England, this type of parterre was called a ‘plat’. It became popular in France at the beginning of the eighteenth century, being easier to maintain than the embroidered parterre. Another type of parterre à l’anglaise was composed of gazon coupé, that is, shapes cut from turf and filled with coloured sand or gravel (article ‘Parterre’, Woodbridge and Goode, in Jellicoe et al., 1991, p. 423).

2. Agriculture and Rustic Economy, Gardening, plate IV: Additional parterres formed of a mixture of broderie and turf (fig 2: in the garden of the Infanta), above, pp. 126-7.

3. Embroidered parterres became less fashionable in France after 1750, and were increasingly replaced by the geometric flower and turf parterres described here by Dezallier d’Argenville (article ‘Parterre’, Woodbridge and Goode, in Jellicoe et al., 1991, p. 424).