THOUGHTS ON ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM: Selection of beautiful gardens

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

In Japan the nighttime viewing of cherry blossoms in spring, like these at Kyoto’s Hirano Shrine, is a special event. “The cherries’ only fault: the crowds that gather when they bloom,” wrote Saigyo, a 12th-century poet. National Geographic

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

Jade spires of bamboo flank a path curving up to Kodai-ji Temple in Kyoto. The murmur of wind filtering through a bamboo grove is one of a hundred sounds the Japanese want preserved. National Geographic

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

An Islamic garden, it is said, is a palace without a roof. Enthralled with the art of Islam, heiress Doris Duke created Shangri La, her estate in Honolulu. The central courtyard, with its antique Persian tiles, separates public and private space.

With permission of Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. National Geographic

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

When a freak freeze killed the orchid collection on his Mexican estate, English eccentric Edward James created Las Pozas, a garden with surreal follies like the concrete Bamboo Palace—durable and immune to the vagaries of weather. National Geographic