Urban parks throughout the world are experiencing a design revival: In New York’s Brooklyn Bridge Park and others, vast plantings of herbaceous perennials and ornamental shrubberies provide a dynamic spectrum of seasonality and complex layers of texture, scent, and sensuality. Many such styles can be traced back to Italy, from the secret gardens of the Villa Borghese to those represented in Pompeii’s frescos. I propose to investigate the role of plants in Italian gardens, their influence on Western design, and the evolution of these private gardens into public parks today. Through tracing the historical threads that prompted the Italian fascination with flowering plants and later their falling out of favor, I hope to reinvigorate the use of plants in today’s public parks. This research—with direct access to sensory, cultural, historical, and academic markers in Rome’s gardens and archives—will provide a foundation to propel this movement in landscape design forward.