From the striking Jardin Exotique in Monaco to New York’s famous High Line, Amazing Gardens of the World by Vivienne Hambly promises to be a new coffee table classic. It celebrates 100 traditional and contemporary gardens across the globe, from the grounds of the breathtaking Palace de Versailles to the futuristic Seattle Spheres of Amazon’s offices. Click or scroll through for a condensed tour of some of these spectacular gardens...

As Hambly writes in the introduction, "the most forward-looking gardens have sustainability and biodiversity at their heart". The gardens of the Renaissance-era Château de Villandry certainly do: organic produce – decorative cabbages, leeks, tomatoes and kale – thrives in the Autumn months, thanks to the efforts of the late Joachim Carvallo and his American wife Anne Coleman, great-grandparents of the current owner, Henri Carvallo.

Before being given to the National Trust in 1949, the Stourhead house belonged to the Stourton family for half a century and was one of England’s greatest Palladian mansions. Stourhead came into the possession of the Hoares, the banking family, in 1717. The house's sumptuous surrounding gardens, dating back to the mid-18th century, depict the traditional English landscape style, complete with an artificial lake and "views framed by classical follies and monuments".

Keukenhof is found in the municipality of Lisse, in the Netherlands, and is sometimes known as the Garden of Europe. One of the world's largest flower gardens, Keukenhof Park covers an area of 32 hectares, where approximately 7 million flower bulbs are planted annually. Described as a "living catalogue" of the work of 100 bulb breeders, Hambly says Keukenhof reflects the country's bulb and cut-flower growing heritage.

The Exotic Garden of Monaco overlooks the Mediterranean, having been built into a cliffside in 1933, providing incredible panoramic views of Monaco. The botanical garden features succulents and cacti from all regions of the world, such as South America and Africa, a collection that began with exotic plants collected from Mexico in 1865.

Artist Claude Monet lived in this Giverny home from 1883 to 1926. Originally called House of the Cider-Press, due to a nearby apple press, the building was enlarged by Monet on both sides, and now spans 40 metres long by 5 metres deep. But it is the garden that deserves the most attention…

Sitting some way from the house itself, the property harbours a Japanese water garden from the 1880s, inspired by prints Monet collected. A second garden can be found closer to the artist’s residence, featuring symmetrical flower beds, fruit trees and climbing roses. The impressionist would later immortalise the water lillies in a series of approximately 250 oil paintings.

Plentiful gardens can be found in the hills that overlook Lisbon, in the village of Sintra. One particularly spectacular garden is this 9.8 acre UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built in the late 19th century by Italian architect, Luigi Manini, the smorgasbord of grottoes, wells, fountains and lakes was designed for wealthy Brazilian-Portuguese businessman, António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro.

The Palace of Versailles is a former royal residence located in Versailles, about 12 miles west of Paris, France. Louis XIII had built a hunting lodge on the site in 1623, which was later replaced by a small château, before construction began on the palace we know now in 1661. The Palace of Versailles was largely abandoned in the wake of the French Revolution of the late 1700s, until the French Monarchy was restored the following century, and meaningful repairs on the building began. 

In 1661, Louis XIV instructed André Le Nôtre to create the formal gardens, which were completed over forty years. The formal designs incorporate parterres, clipped hedging, fountains and canals. Now a renowned UNESCO World Heritage Site, the palace and gardens attract 15,000,000 visitors a year.

Now an Italian state museum, the Villa d’Este in Tivoli was commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito Il d'Este for Pirro Ligorio  in 16th-century, as a new villa and garden to exceed anything the Romans had built. According to UNESCO, it is one of the "most remarkable and comprehensive illustrations of Renaissance culture at its most refined".

The garden itself has become a blueprint for numerous subsequent garden designs. Many water features flourish throughout the terrace, framed by two foliage-rich slopes. The Fountain of Organ is an early feat of engineering, while the Tivoli villa and gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  

Inspired by the colours he had seen used in Amazigh or Berber communities, French painter Jacques Majorelle designed this spectacular Marrakesh garden. From 1942 onwards, the artist set to work adorning walls, fountains and rills in striking, cobalt blue.

In 1980, fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and partner Pierre Bergé bought the garden in order to help restore the property. Pictured is the Musée Berbère, which houses artefacts initially collected by Majorelle in Amazigh. A second museum now contains items from the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, and the scattered ashes of Laurent. 

Named after the first prime minister of Mauritius, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden is the oldest botanical garden in the Southern Hemisphere. Established in 1770, the garden contains 80 tropical palm species as well as spices, ebonies and sugar canes. Before being renamed for Ramgoolam in 1988, it was known as the Pamplemousses Botanic Garden, and is famous for its long pond of giant water lilies.

French gardener Patrice Taravella created this decorative productive garden on one of the oldest Cape-Dutch farms in South Africa, where visitors can discover a prickly-pear maze, ponds planted with edible water lilies, and thousands of clivias that sing against the Simonsnerg mountain. A working farm with plentiful birdlife, the website asks that visitors leave their dogs at home. 

Opened in 2011, the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore hosts hundreds of thousands of plant species from around the world across its 250 acres. The world’s largest greenhouse, the Flower Dome, can be found here, while an emphasis on sustainability is demonstrated by the photovoltaic cells contained within the garden’s iconic Supertree Observatory. 

The Koishikawa Kōrakuen is a large urban park in the Koishikawa neighborhood of Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Built in 1629, it is one of three surviving daimyō gardens created during the early Edo period. The historical park is at its most beautiful during the spring and autumn months when the blossom blooms.

This 500-acre tropical garden in Thailand is one of the largest in Southeast Asia. The owners originally intended for the land to be given to a commercial plantation but, after admiring ornamental gardens abroad, changed their minds. It has been open to the public since 1980, boasting palm, orchid and cycad collections, a Thai topiary garden, French- and Italian-style gardens, and even a Stonehenge garden. It is also a major scientific centre dedicated to cycads, with its own Cycad Gene Bank.

With over two dozen living plant collections, the Royal Botanic Gardens sits on the banks of the Yarra River in Melbourne. The magnificent public gardens play host to lawns, lakes and garden beds that house collections of eucalypts, cycads, ferns and plants from New Zealand, New Caledonia, Southern Africa and South China. 

This 1.4-mile long elevated park was planted on a former New York Central Railroad spur on the west side of Manhattan in New York City. The High Line was designed for all seasons by the master of the New Perennial movement, Piet Oudolf, in collaboration with James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. 

Complete with a waterfall, a teahouse and mountain views, the Portland Japanese Garden was designed to help build relations between Oregon and Japan in the 1950s. Referred to as the most authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan, the 5.5-acre space has been open to the public since 1967, and continues to evolve and develop today.

These glass-domed buildings are part of Amazon's headquarters in Washington. Featuring living walls made up of over 40,000 plants, this biophilic design is becoming more and more prevalent in contemporary architecture, in a bid to counteract pollution and promote health and wellbeing. 

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