The Walled Garden at Asheville's Biltmore Estate is included among the ten "American Gardens" stamps released recently by the U.S. Postal Service. The sheet of 20 Forever stamps showcase the natural beauty of American gardens, featuring 10 gardens open to the public, ranging from botanical to country estate to municipal gardens.
Each stamp in the series represents a garden significant to American history. Biltmore is commemorated by a scene of wisteria and tulips in its Walled Garden designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, known as the father of American landscape architecture. Biltmore was founded by George W. Vanderbilt as a working estate with areas carefully designed to be a place of beauty with impressive gardens. Olmsted combined woodlands, fields and gardens in his design for Biltmore, which blended European design with his signature naturalistic style. Biltmore was Olmsted’s last work and is considered his masterpiece.
More than 1.4 million people visited the Biltmore Estate, America's largest private home, in 2019.
The sheet of 20 stamps features 10 different photographs taken between 1996 and 2014. The gardens include: Biltmore Estate Gardens (North Carolina); Brooklyn Botanic Garden (New York); Chicago Botanic Garden (Illinois); Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (Maine); Dumbarton Oaks Garden (District of Columbia); The Huntington Botanical Gardens (California); Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park (Florida); Norfolk Botanical Garden (Virginia); Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens (Ohio); and Winterthur Garden (Delaware).
The release of this series honors a love of gardening that stretches back to the earliest years of our country, inspiring George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers to plant some of America’s most iconic colonial-era gardens. From the 19th century to today, landscape designers have continued that tradition.
Every year, millions of Americans visit gardens, public and private, with many public gardens open year-round. In addition to the plants and trees on display, classes, exhibits and other events encourage visitors to experiment and create their own gardens.
The stamps can be purchased at local post offices and at usps.com/americangardens