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Artistic Vision Guides Garden's Rise from Ruins

The Italian village of Ninfa was so lovely it was named for the nymphs that the residents believed inhabited the area. Destroyed as an act of revenge in a dispute between members of the Caetani family, the village lay in ruins for nearly six centuries. When Ada Wilbraham married into the family, in 1920, she became enamoured with the village and set about to create a garden from its ruins.

An artist, Ada painted her visions of the garden and gave them to gardeners, who began to lay out her designs. Her second son, Prince Roffredo, and his wife, Maurgerite Chapin continued to add to the garden. Their daughter, Lelia brought the garden to its present splendour and set up two foundations to manage the garden before she passed away.

In the words of the gardens curator, Lauro Marchetti, who was chosen for the job at age seven by Lelia, “Ninfa is a coincidence of history, botany, and art.” The collective vision of three generations of the Caetani family has produced a garden where art is emphasized over botany. Plants grow in a natural fashion among the ruins. Roses are allowed to climb into the trees for support, something rarely seen in botanical gardens. (The David C. Lam Asian Garden at UBC Botanical Garden is among the few botanical gardens that allow lianas to climb into trees.)

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 4:41 PM on July 26, 2005

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