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The Tenuta Banna castle , with the tallest tug in Piedmont , Italy , belong to one of the part ’s most beautiful the three estates , and its setting is the material of sprite tales . It preside over a lake that reflects the pale - yellowintonaco — a special kind of plaster that turns any surface into a sail — and many small garden where infinite rosebush bloom from summer through dusk . It is the very evocation of a Titian painting . Twelve stat mi in the south of Torino , Tenuta Banna ( tenutameans “ estate ” in Italian ) wassail in its past times as much as it looks toward the time to come .
Photo by : Allan Pollock - Morris .
As arcadian as ever , though boundlessly more popular these daytime , the Banna estate was a fief in gothic metre . Then , in 1785 , along with its surrounding villages , Banna was named a principality that was sold many clip until its present owners , the Spinola family , acquired it in the early 20th century . “ The garden of Banna is a place where both Marchese and Marchesa Spinola verbalise their dear for beauty , flowers , tree and computer architecture , ” read Paolo Pejrone , a noted Italian landscape painting architect and founder of the Piedmontese Garden Academy , who in 1995 redesign and touch on the gardens of Tenuta Banna .
“ The enclosed gardens are form like a Iranian carpeting , ” says Pejrone . “ I picked a very childish manner of doing the garden : but , and a small whimsically . ” The landscape is organized into five walled gardens arranged into an litre - shape around a larger rectangular courtyard , flanked by the castling and the tower on one side , and 691 acres of farm on the other , where hay is left growing tall in the fall and Narcissus pseudonarcissus announce the arrival of spring in wholesale slew . There are white and red oak , cypresses and clustering of bamboo so well adapted that they look as if they grew naturally from come planted centuries ago . A secret garden and potager grace the land ’s medieval Christian church , near the castle .
The pet of the five walled outdoor rooms is the roseate garden . “ The most authoritative aspect in choosing the roses , ” order Pejrone , “ was their fragrance . They all had to have a strong odour and repeat blooming . ” On balmy nights , clouds of attar seem to form above the bubblegum - pink ‘ Queen Elizabeth ’ and clean ‘ Iceberg ’ parterres . Each of the institute lame bursts with rosiness , enclosed by geometrical box hedges . Rosa‘Paul Neyron ’ form a thick dark - pinkish layer above the plant with their 6 - inch - blanket blush .
When the garden was being create , Guillot , a greenhouse based in Lyon , France , that has been dedicated to the creation and marketing of new roses since 1834 , made a hybrid just for Tenuta Banna and named itRosaOrsola Spinola ® after its owner . The Orsola Spinola ® hybrid ( a shrub rose with blossoms of argent - pinko ) is part of Guillot ’s Générosa ® compendium of “ new former roses , ” which have an copiousness of aroma , blooms , form and people of colour variety . The backdrop to the rosaceous garden is the orotund - floweredRosa‘Mme Alfred Carrière ’ , which is whitened when first undetermined , then develop a pink blush as the blooms age . The abundance of blush wine in the garden let in those that open quickly and reveal their nitty-gritty too soon ; those which are absolutely globose at the shopping center with some outer oval petals just flattening out ; and others that seem to come from the tulle ruffles of a can - can professional dancer . “ Like a clock functioning , the roses end up just before the first C. P. Snow arrives in November , ” explains Pejrone .
Growing these plants and making them bloom in abundance involve many years of horticultural loser . The soil at Banna is solid clay , and nothing except lime and London planetrees prospered . But with the dedication of many local gardeners work on the demesne through the years , the filth improved and new species have been introduce .
Beside the rose garden is another enclosed garden featuring a square stone fountain at the center of a lawn , hem in by Battle of Magenta begonia and the crabappleMalus‘Red Sentinel ’ ; it could be the perfect enclave to ok - tune a sonata . In fact , each yr since 2004 , the Spinola Banna Foundation has offered young music and contemporary - art student a residency where they can use the gardens as their muse to create new works . “ All the parts of the garden are very sheltered , so despite being in a huge estate , you are always in a intimate elbow room , ” say Pejrone .
The other three enclosed gardens are designed on a straight line , with fall - flowering perennials in the English - cottage style , an herb garden and an outside way with four linden tree shading a pear-shaped stone mesa . There is a purposeful contrast between the umbra of this last room and the large cheery courtyard beside it where an good and rather stiff bladdernut shrub ( Staphylea colchica ) with dangle white panicles presides over a bed of lily-white flag and lavender . From the courtyard , one can smell the perfume from the blooms of the southerly magnolia in the rosaceous garden perfume the frosty mornings of leaping , while the many apple tree diagram along the walls blossom in shades of pale pinkish and white .
To the side of the palace is a large , gothic brick structure with an annexed church . Pejrone turned what was once the non-Christian priest ’s kitchen garden into a “ hidden garden , ” imbed with Formosan and Japanese wisterias . The collection ranges from the common white and purpleWisteria sinensisto lilacWisteria floribundaalong the wall , with panicles reaching almost 3 feet in length . The wistaria is a great accompaniment to the languorous peony maturate in the beds below , used in flower agreement around the house . Next to the cloak-and-dagger garden , estragon , rosemary , tomatoes and leafy greens arise in an organic potager , neatly hedged in a diamond pattern . Pejrone turned an old cistern into a fountain , where red , pink and blank rose heyday float across the control surface . The back wall of the jet is embrace with a dreary - regal clematis , adding vibrancy to the otherwise quiet scene .
There is a wilder face to the space between the rook and the Christian church . Here , farseeing , heavy limb of old Tree lean toward the ground , and the grass grows tall . A weeping beech and a 300 - year - older London planetree fill in a carpet of wintertime aconites andScilla siberica , engraft some 50 years ago . In means , this mix of sure-enough and newer plants mime the contrast between the antique buildings and the forward-looking field of the garden .
“ Tenuta Banna is a position full of peace treaty , ” says Pejrone . “ There are only a few gardener working restfully in the garden at any given clip , never with motorized equipment , so that it almost seems like another century . Banna is a blank out place , with no sense of prison term . ”
