The Greater Perfection, now with a new foreword by Francis H. Cabot’s daughter, tells the story behind the creation of Les Quatre Vents, one of the world’s most breathtaking gardens.
 
Featured in the 2018 film The Gardener, Les Quatre Vents in Charlevoix County, Quebec, has been acclaimed as the most aesthetically satisfying and horticulturally exciting landscape experience in North America. This twenty-acre garden seamlessly combines traditional and novel elements into a splendid composition, adorned with unexpected touches and perfectly compatible with its natural surroundings.
 
The Greater Perfection, first published in 2001, illustrates the delights, diversions, and surprises that await the garden’s visitors. Francis H. Cabot’s account of the challenges he faced in developing Les Quatre Vents reveals the fascinating process behind the creation of a world-class garden that has become a mecca for horticultural enthusiasts around the globe. Winner of the 2003 Annual Literature Award of the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries and featuring stunning full-color images by five leading garden photographers, The Greater Perfection is one of the most beautiful books on gardens to appear in years. This new printing includes a foreword by Marianne Cabot Welch, Cabot’s daughter, that further contextualizes the gardens and explores how a place rooted in the past can confront the future.

Francis H. Cabot (1925–2011) was an American financier, gardener, and horticulturist. He founded the nonprofit Garden Conservancy in 1989 and served as chairman for the New York Botanical Garden.

Forewords
I A Bridge to the Soul – Marianne Cabot Welch
II A Garden Rooted in the Landscape – Laurie Olin
III A Vision of Perfection – Penelope Hobhouse
Introduction

I A Sense of the Place
II The House in Its Setting
III Alpine Plants and Rockwork
IV Refurbishing the Older Gardens
V Borrowing the Landscape
VI The Stream Garden
VII An Indirect Approach
VIII The Pigeonnier Gardens
IX A Japanese Interlude
X Deep Shade and Sunnier Borders
XI The Woodland Garden
XII Potager, Prairie, and Piscine

Afterword
Notes
Acknowledgments
Photography Credits
Index