This article throws light upon the top two gardening styles in Spain. The gardening styles are: 1. Gardens of Immigrants from the Carthiginian and Roman Period 2. Nobility, Christians in the Spanish Medieval Period.
1. Gardens of Immigrants from the Carthiginian and Roman Period:
Around 1100 B.C, Phoenicians presently Lebanon set up trading colonies along Spanish coast. Greeks also traded along the north southern coast. With the fall of Phoenician regime, the Liberian Peninsula came under the rule of Carthage (Tunisia) but was then occupied by Rome following the Punic wars. The Roman ruled Iberia for six centuries, laying important foundation of Latin language, Roman laws, the municipality and the Christian religion.
The Palmeral is a landscape grove of date palms and is an oasis. The Palmeral of Elche was laid out at the end of 10th century A.D. where city of Elche was built. Elche is located 23 km of Alcante, and 45 km from Benidorm. It is home of largest date palm plantation in Europe and is unique example of northern African agricultural practice in Europe.
Here the date palms are planted alongside the boundaries of irrigated plots of land, helping to maximize the retention of water in arid climate. The same techniques are used around oasis in the North African deserts. Many other flowering plants also have been planted to make it colorful and attractive.
Now-a-days there are 91 orchards in Elche occupying 1.5 km2 area. This municipal Park is known as the green lung of the area and is most representative of all. The Heurtadelcura of Elche is amazing garden with the largest diversity of palm trees.
A famous date palm is the “Imperial palm” (Palmera imperial) with 7 stems in the shape of a candelabra and named after Elizabeth, known as Sissy, the Empress Consort of Franc Joseph who visited the plantation in 1894.
2. Nobility, Christians in the Spanish Medieval Period:
Spain ceases to be a part of Roman Empire and experienced of a series of invasions by the vandals, Suevi, and Alani but was dominated by Visigothic rule. However, Visigoths never got cultural dominion over the region.
To a large extent they adopted Hispano- Romans, composing their official documents in Latin and accepting Christianity as official faith. The Arabs entered Spain from the South at the beginning of the 8th century. They conquered Spain quickly except for a small area of north.
The period of Muslim rule is divided into three period’s viz:
(i) The Emirate (711-756),
(ii) The caliphate (756-1031), and
(iii) The RenosadeTaifas small independent kingdoms (1031-1492).
The year of 1492 heralded the discovery of South America by the Crown of Castile under the command of Christopher Columbus. The Canary Islands became a part of Spanish territory in 1495. Cortez, the Spanish adventurer conquest Mexico in 1519 with a small force. Pizzaro defeated the Inca (Peru) and began to rule.
They brought back the field crops, like maize, tobacco, cotton, rubber and vegetables like beans, tomatoes, chilli, pumpkin, potato and fruits like papaya, cassava, custard apple, cashew nut and among the flower like marigold, dahlia, zinnia, tuberose, nasturtium, morning glory, heippeastrum, zephyranthes, etc.
On the other hand Spanish travellers and settlers introduced cabbage and peaches and Portuguese travellers introduced lemon, grape, fig, pomegranate, melon, sugarcane, and plantain in Mexico and other South American countries.