It was Humphry Repton who coined the title “landscape architect.” An amateur watercolorist, Repton had no formal training in horticulture before becoming “the great improver” of the gardens of England’s landed gentry, and the eventual, undisputable successor to the great Lancelot “Capability” Brown—the most famous landscape designer of them all.  

It was Repton’s Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening, published in 1794, which influenced Frederick Law Olmsted (“Mr. Central Park”), founding father of American landscape architecture. He, too, called his métier “landscape architect” to describe his naturalistic approach to the artifice of landscape design. He influenced generations. 

Thus, this Luxury Defined edition showcases homes with magnificent landscaped gardens designed by green-fingered masters of their craft. 

Consider the gardens of a Loire Valley château styled by French master architect Henri Duchêne; a 21st-century garden in Dublin by contemporary garden designer Paul Doyle; and the private garden Law Olmsted devised for Shelburne Farms in Vermont.  

In the words of another famous landscape designer, Gertrude Jekyll, “The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies.” 

1. Residence on Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont 

This idyllic, 22-acre private retreat is one of just seven private homes within Shelburne Farms, a Gilded Age estate on Lake Champlain, Vermont. 

The original 3,800-acre farm was established in 1886 by American heiress Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb and Dr. William Seward Webb. Its grounds were laid out under the direction of Frederick Law Olmsted, best known as the designer of New York City's Central Park.  

The magnificent main residence is perched on a ridge to maximize the views of Lake Champlain, the Adirondacks, and the Green Mountains of Vermont.  

The Shingle Style exterior encloses light-filled interiors, equally suited for grand-scale entertaining or intimate family gatherings. The centerpiece is the great room, with its three-season screened-in porch, offering westerly and northerly lake views. 

The property includes a separate guest house, a storage barn, and 836 feet of private shoreline on Lake Champlain.  

2. Remarkable Listed Neo-Gothic and Renaissance-Style Château in Bourges, Cher, France 

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This great estate is in the heart of the Sologne, in the Centre-Val de Loire, a region of forests and ponds that for centuries served as royal hunting grounds of the kings of France.  

The magnificent main residence is a 19th-century château designed by Hippolyte Alexandre Gabriel Walter Destailleur, French architect, collector, bibliophile, and art historian. Built between 1887 and 1893, and listed as a French Historical Monument in 1995, the château underwent a museum-grade restoration by the current owners.  

The 126-acre private grounds, resplendent with formal gardens, a pond with a private island, and deer park, were designed by landscape architect Henri Duchêne, a 19th-century revivalist of the 17th-century garden Grand Siècle tradition, established by Louis XIV’s principal gardener, André Le Nôtre.    

The estate also includes Le Petit Château, a 19th-century Neo-Louis XIII-style guest house; a guardhouse/caretaker’s cottage; and a water tower. 

3. Boutique Hotel in San Gimignano, Tuscany, Italy 

Just outside the medieval town of San Gimignano in Tuscany, Italy, this 16th-century monastery lies ensconced in six acres of parklike grounds inspired by Italy’s most famous 20th-century landscape architect, Pietro Porcinai.  

The stately main building was carefully converted into a boutique hotel with 20 luxurious guest rooms. The tower houses a luxurious wellness suite with a whirlpool spa. Its 12 windows frame the views of San Gimignano’s famous tower-houses. There are offices, common rooms, event spaces, three dining rooms, a professional-grade kitchen, and a restaurant housed in the original chapel.  

The buildings are arranged around the cloisters. The wider grounds are enclosed within old stone walls and composed of parkland designed in the 18th-century English garden tradition and Italian formal gardens devised by a student of Porcinai. A swimming pool surrounded by towering cypresses completes the picture. 

Related: Discover Homes in the Great Outdoors

4. Solferino Lodge in Rathmines, Dublin, Ireland 

Solferino Lodge is a charming Victorian villa in Rathmines, a leafy red-brick suburb of South Dublin, between the Grand Canal and the River Dodder.  

Built circa-1862, commemorating the Battle of Solferino, the villa was sympathetically modernized and extended over the last 20 years by its interior-designer owner in collaboration with celebrated Irish garden designer Paul Doyle.  

Solferino Lodge’s spacious, high-ceilinged rooms are filled with natural light and provide about 2,990 square feet of living space, cleverly reconfigured to separate the private and social spaces.   

Appointments include four reception rooms, a study, kitchen/breakfast room, four bedrooms (one en suite), a shared full bathroom, and a guest powder room.   

A barn-style extension at the rear, enclosing a light-filled dining and lounge space, opens through tall, sliding glass doors to a tranquil courtyard garden. The gated front gardens provide secure off-street parking for two cars. The property also includes the original stables.

5. Sagee Manor in Highlands, North Carolina 

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The sole property atop Sagee Mountain, 40-acre Sagee Manor is the most valuable estate in North Carolina. The elegant 12,000-square-foot mountaintop manor offers exceptional privacy and 360-degree views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

Designed by Atlanta-based architect Keith Summerour and inspired in part by a circa-1900 Tudor hunting lodge near Atlanta, its craftsmanship includes individually milled white oak moldings, paneled wood walls, antique stone floors, fireplaces, and Gothic arches. 

The terraced gardens are the vision of Rosemary Verey, one of England’s most distinguished landscape designers. Beyond the gardens is a tranquil pond with a stone pavilion. A croquet court lends to the Old World ambience. 

The tiered, gala amphitheater and private helipad (with reception pavilion) were part of a decade-long eight-figure enhancement. A three-bedroom guest cottage, a heated pool and pavilion, and a post-and-beam pavilion for entertaining are further amenities. 

An adjacent 8.8-acre outparcel with commanding views is available for purchase.  

The remaining land remains untouched, and is habitat for the flora and fauna of Nantahala National Park. 

Seeking graceful grounds and gardens? Start here.