Well, what makes a garden really special to me is a combination of all those things you mentioned. Here are my personal preferences:

Beautiful setting
healthy plants
many different sorts of plants in an informal design
artwork and nice pots here and there
some water
rocks
I like stick furniture and arbors but also metal and painted ones
Some quiet
Surprises
Being a haven to animals

But though all that is nice, and all together can be magical and outstanding, I think it is very important to appreciate the humble...as in a garden with one rose. It is like the difference between a symphony and the sound of a lone flutist. One can be more magnificent, but sometimes less is very evocative and lovely also.

Sometimes a garden in a bad setting can be a triumph over ugliness and deserves a special appreciation, though it may also be lacking. Sometimes a person with a serious illness achieves something serene and joyous, and that is also magic.
Linda

The seven elements of a glamorous garden:

1) A stunning scenic location on vast acreage (or at least adjacent to vast undeveloped acreage).

2) Lots of time (i.e. the opportunity to devote your efforts full time to the garden).

3) Lots of $$$ to purchase plants, build arbors, put in ponds, buy statuary, etc.

4) Horticultural knowledge and skill.

5) Artistic talent to create mood and flow within the "composition".

6) Creative vision.

7) A good back.

If you possess all of the above then a garden like RED ROSE RIDGE is possible.

LINDA, that is a beautiful analysis of what makes a garden
extraordinary. Thank you for that.

PATRICK, love the thought of a glamorous garden. You are so
practical, in what it takes, for that extra special garden.
Thank you for posting.

I think it has to be said, that it's not about how much money,
or stuff put into the garden. I've been to estates that have nice
gardens yes, but lack that intangible something. I really look
forward to everyone's continued thoughts on creating garden
magic.

I think it's easy to recognize a garden that comes right out of someone's heart. These are always magic places. It doesn't necessarily take money, acres of land or alot of time. Once I created a garden on the porch of a slum apartment. I used cuttings from friends and spent a little money on plants and Morning Glory seeds. It was a beautiful little spot and it saved me from despair. I find that it is important to be brave and to trust yourself. Copying someone else's idea never works. You are the one that makes the magic.

I think those are wise words, Pam. I very much like the fact that great oaks grow from little acorns, also. Gardens evolve, and take patience and time, making mistakes and doing what comes next.

Some other things that are magical to me are the age of the garden..they get a patina, and mystique in time. Also I like levels and contours of the land...not all flatness. But I think The Secret Garden in the story may have been flat and wonderful all the same. I like levels.
I really like steps also.

I have thought about going to the local ceramic studio and making myself a little garden goddess but I'd glaze her green as in jealous. She'd be my little spirit of envy, but her hands would be open to the sky...ready to receive the same sun that shines on something ideal.
Linda

Pam--You are truly a poet---I would love to read your life story---From the little glimpses I've read you had many difficulties to overcome-----
If you would care to share I think your story would be an inspiration to many
I think my daughter could use a story like yours right now.

Florence

There are glamorous gardens, and there are magical ones. I don't think that the two are necessarily the same, although Red Rose Ridge is both.

Magical gardens have a sense of enclosure and wonder. You have to discover them a piece at a time. They have surprises, in plants, pathways, artwork, or structures. Often, you are totally enclosed by plants, like Pam's rose-covered pergolas. They can be mysterious, or whimsical, or just plain gorgeous - or all of those things. The best also have a sense of rapture. That's why I love the statue of Flora, surrounded by Iceberg - her rapturous expression captures the feeling that one gets in Pam and Michael's magical garden.

Magical gardens reflect the personality of the gardener. They have a feeling of richness and generosity. I believe that a little garden can be magical, just as a balcony can be.

Maybe a glamorous garden needs an exquisite setting, or expenditure of lots of money and time. I don't think that magical ones do, although as they say, "It doesn't hurt."

I think that magical gardens often have some water features, and plants that make you feel like Alice in Wonderland, either because they are so exquisite and tiny, or so amazingly large.

We have a couple of magical public gardens in Sacramento - the WPA Rock Garden in Land Park, and the city cemetery. Both of them are planted in raised beds, so the huge plants tower overhead. Pathways lead to surprises and beautiful vistas.

Recent visitors to the cemetery rose garden talked about the feeling of love that they felt there. That's magical, indeed.

Thanks for starting this thread, Devon.
Anita

Red Rose Ridge is on a completely different level than anything I could ever hope to achieve with my limited $, skills & zone.

For me, having an over all design plan is key. When I started gardening I had no plan other than I wanted roses. I'm learning to slow down, work on the design first and then go rose shopping. I've found it's actually kind of fun designing the bed/border shape and placement, amending the soil in advance of the planting, thinking about what types of companion plants to use, edging possibilities, etc, etc.

PAM, you are right about not trying to make a copy of
another's garden and about the gardener adding the magic.

ANITA, thank you for the great explanation between types
of gardens, like magical ones and glamorous ones. I gained
some good insight there. You seem like a soulful rosarian.

KRISTIN, you can still create a wondrous garden by adding
elements of gardens you love. You can create the magic in
your garden and it need not be expensive. Like Linda said,
when she posted, it can become a dream garden, over time.

I love little country gardens that are well manicured from some little lady who has lived in her little dogtrot house for years, has swept the yard with a broom she made of sage brush, who lovingly added leftovers to the soil to build it, who crafted a trellis from a dead crape myrtle, who saved scraps of metal and wood to concoct a picket fence along which grows delphinium, hollyhock and poppies that she planted from seeds given to her by friends, neigbors, a garden where a little lady with an apron tends the plants, a little lady wielding a water hose to water the plants and shoosh the cats from digging, she is gathering flowers for her dimly lit kitchen while the cat seems to follows her along but is laying in wait and setting deviant traps for his supper. A now-defunct water well now filled in boasts petunias around its trickle, the smell of raindrops as they pitter patter along the pathway, children playing in the distance, the sun is setting and the day is done.

Your thoughts about gardens has made me ponder the gardens in my life. I had a magical garden once, my first balcony garden. It was a green cave, walls and ceiling completely covered by climbers and windowboxes. I think the complete freedom I had made it so personal compared to my present half-acre garden. I have been hampered by features and plantings put in by previous owners. The woman who first lived in my house in the 50'ies seems to have been special and older neighbours still talk about her garden. I felt too reverent to the memory of this long dead unknown lady for a long time. I nursed her ugly Allotria roses for years. After 14 years I think I have put my own stamp on the garden but I am not quite satisfied yet. It used to be an open plan garden that fused into neighbouring gardens without fences or borders but my husband and I have enclosed it with hedges and walls together with our next door neighbours who had also felt hampered by the domineering first owners of our house. I think privacy is important, a sense of mystique and lushness. One of our granddaughters who lives in a semi-detached house in a lively neighbourhood loves to get lost in our garden and sighs happily that "nobody can see me now".

I use the term "glamorous" in the occult sense: faerie magic, elemental in nature, shimmering, glittering, shining in places but dark and mysterious in others. A glamorous garden is one filled with artistry, ancient power and nature spirits. It is the highest praise that I ever give to a garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: Glamour at Wikipedia

I think many of us have gardens that are pleasing. We grow nice plants on our tiny, flat lots. We are gardeners doing our best within our limitations (as Patrick points out above).

Pam and Mike are more than gardeners. They are artists. They have taken a larger and more interesting setting which is a worthy canvas for their work. Roses and pieces of art have been woven into a landscape to take it to another level.

Could more of us create something beyond our flower beds? Probably. We have ideas, but often our creativity is suppressed. Real artists have the courage and conviction to follow through with their gut feelings.

Me, it takes 20 planning sessions just to move a rock. Then I move it back again because I'm afraid it looks too different.

Go for ti!

What makes a garden magic?

So many things contribute to the whole of the garden that it is impossible to pick out one thing, there is the gardener themselves, for without their vision to create then there is no garden. Certainly location is important but to create a garden suiting to the location and growing the plants that thrive there also create their own magic. Money is nice to have to buy beautiful statuary but again folk art can be magical in the right time and place. Water features are only magical when kept in pristine shape, with sparkling water sprinkling from a little fountain and a basin full of big fat happy fish. Lush rose gardens are my favorite but only if the rose is healthy and growing in it's ideal location, nothing much sadder than a rose languishing in the shade covered in blackspot. One thing that always make a garden special is the path, paths of any material that lead to a small surprise or a special plant always catpure my attention. Wildlife in the garden make is magical, hoover moth, bumbling bumblebees, monarch butterflies. I also love antique watering cans, old pieces from the past joining the future and blending with the surroundings.

I hope to be able to create that magic in my own little corner of the world in this new little garden of mine, one plant, one day at a time.

Valerie

Patricia, I know your described garden or several similar. In all of the old,otherwise seedy, neighborhoods in my small,southern hometown, there are random gardens and gardeners such as you described. Not lush by any means, but very much loved and cherished. These are my favorite gardens. Similar to the small cottage gardens found in European villages, all are filled with favorite plants, many "passed along" from mother, aunts and friends. Don't get me wrong, I love a large elegant garden too! But I can tell if the owner had it "done" professionally, or planned it themselves out of love for the actual culture of plants and planting. My own garden, or yard, as we call it, is very small but I love each plant in it or out it goes! To me, love of gardening results in magic in the garden. This love cannot be manufactured. If love isn't there, there is NO MAGIC! Buff

Florence I once wrote down the story of the slum apartment. I'm not sure where it is but if I find it I'll send it to you. It is a good story for your daughter. It's a story of triumph over circumstances. I found that even in the worst place of my life that happiness was possible. It made me very brave and strong. The greatest creativeness can come soaring out of this place of despair like a weed growing out if a crack in the cement. Last year my daughter went through a terrible time. I was heart broken until I realized that she went through it to become stronger, to have a finer character, and to have in her heart more tolerance and kindness for others. I have finally come to understand why bad things happen. They can be treasures in the jewelry box of life. For every tear that falls another flower will open in your garden.

I agree that the magic in a garden comes from the gardener. I am reminded of the gardens of my grandmothers. My mother's mother, Grandma J, was a very organized gardener, She had borders of perennials and shrubs in immaculate condition, no weeds, not croweded. She loved to walk me through the beds and point out the different flowers and explain how they grew and what they needed to grow the best. She was a teacher, and I think her orderly beds represented her need for order after being with unruly kids all day.

My father's mother (Grandma D) had a garden that was totally different. She just stuck plants wherever the mood struck her, weeded occasionally, and focused more on growing vegetables and crops. She was the wife of a farmer/rancher, and had a more relaxed style of flower gardening. Both gardens were magical to me as a young girl, and both had their charm.

I remember Grandma J's bouquets of sweet peas on the windowsill, of her bringing flowers to any gathering, and I remember Grandma D's delicious vegetables, and her wild beautiful flowers. Those memories inspired me to make the garden I have today. My garden is for my own enjoyment, but I hope my children and grandchildren will sense the magic I am trying to plant there.
Kathy

PATRICK, I love your clarification on what you meant by
GLAMOUR. Sounds like a description for a magical Irish
garden, which suits me fine.

Pam that was just beautiful.

Magick lives in the heart and hands of each of us who call ourselves gardener.
The garden is merely a reflection of what lies within us.

The one indispensible ingredient of a magical garden is the gardener's passion. Passionate gardens aren't necessarily beautiful or even competent, but they are immediately recognizable as being the result of passion. If the passionate gardener is also creative and competent and has esthetic sense, then the resulting garden is likely to be beautiful and magical. I think that most other things can be gotten around.

I struggle all the time to free up my thinking about what I CAN do in the garden! I remind myself over and over that I am limited only by mundane considerations such as budget, weather and soil and water supply and labor. The only rules are the rules of what I find beautiful!!

This is a good thread.

Melissa

Same that makes everything magical for me-the time of day.
The soft light of early morning can make even ho-hum scenery warm and inviting.Thats always been my time.

OK, I don't have any of the items in Patrick's post...

I'll have to go with patricia's garden.

Pam-----I would appreciate anything you can write that would help my daughter through this very difficult, depressing time in her life---I so admire what you have done with you life and know that your story would inspire my daughter----

thanks again,

Florence

I've noticed that some humble gardens are magical, as well as, gardens that have all the features we'd like. The magic seems to be in the flowers themselves--they are vibrant and glowing and have never been stressed. There is such a feeling of joy in a sunny colorful garden it's as if the flowers are singing.

I like reading these thoughts. And lo and behold, I really like Pete's answer about the time of day..the soft light.
John Muir said something about taking the time to look into the faces of the flowers.
For myself, I find competitiveness can infect my enjoyment of my garden, but it is also possible to put that aside most of the time. And then like wise OLD Pete, the colors of the day can sing their song.
Linda