Hi, In message <1392332013.52795.YahooMailNeo@web121303.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>, Jim McKenney <jamesamckenney@verizon.net> writes >Well, David, wouldn't you agree that although we use the same word, >paradise, to describe these traditions, do they really have much in >common? More the concept. I'm not in a position to doubt the English garden is better than the rest. I found this quote on the PBS wiki: "He that has two cakes of bread, let him sell one of them for some flowers of the Narcissus, for bread is food for the body, but Narcissus is food of the soul." --The prophet Muhammad Lilies seem popular in Iran. Does history record if the paradise was for the people doing the weeding/mowing/watering or the ones hanging about contemplating. I think other cultures have the concept of exceptional gardens where the gods live. Maybe that shades into gardeners imagining how things could be. -- David Pilling email: david@pilling.demon.co.uk web: http://www.davidpilling.net/