The English garden as we know it today owes most to two Victorians, William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll, and the influence of their ideas. William Robinson was greatly influenced by having seen plants growing naturally in alpine meadows on his travels abroad.
The main historical contribution of Germany has been a numerical one- in the sixteenth century there were more gardens in Germany than in any other country in Europe-and a certain exaggeration of the elements in any style they adopted. The French formal style of gardening also flourished in the sandy soil of Holland, on a smaller and less sophisticated scale but with more emphasis on hedges, fantastic topiary and decorative planting. Their box-edged formal beds were tilled with tulips in the spring, brought hack from the Middle East. The Dutch were responsible, through their trading and through their rise as a colonial power, for the introduction of much imported plant material- from China, America, South Africa and many other countries. They introduced the lilac, the pelargonium and the chrysanthemum into Europe and popularized tulips and many other bulbs.
In the same way that English medieval gardens remained pale counterparts of the elegant and colourful enclosures found in Europe, the gardens of English royalty and aristocracy developed on the lines of Italian and French Renaissance layouts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They were, however, less rigorously formal, since the English climate is more conducive to mixed planting. There was also a developing interest in horticulture and a new emphasis on flowers grown for their appearance rather than for culinary and medicinal use.
While Europe was following the fashionable style of the English landscape garden, the quite different Victorian age of gardening writings of Miss Jekyll and William Robinson also coincided with the restoraWon and rehabilitation of long-neglected smaller country houses, farmhouses and cottages and their ideas appealed equally to Mese self-sufficient gardeners. Gertrude Jekyll invented the herbaceous border, planted with roses, shrubs and hardy plants, which has an element of romanticism always associated with the traditional English cottage garden.
An emergent middle class began to move out into the suburbs or even the country, which meant that many more people had gardens of their own and an interest in gardening greatly increased.
The many new plant discoveries at this time included conifers, anemones, winter jasmine, forsythia, primulas, rhododendrons and azaleas. The most significant aspect of this era of gardening is that it established the prime importance of plants in the creation of a garden.
The main historical contribution of Germany has been a numerical one- in the sixteenth century there were more gardens in Germany than in any other country in Europe-and a certain exaggeration of the elements in any style they adopted. The French formal style of gardening also flourished in the sandy soil of Holland, on a smaller and less sophisticated scale but with more emphasis on hedges, fantastic topiary and decorative planting. Their box-edged formal beds were tilled with tulips in the spring, brought hack from the Middle East. The Dutch were responsible, through their trading and through their rise as a colonial power, for the introduction of much imported plant material- from China, America, South Africa and many other countries. They introduced the lilac, the pelargonium and the chrysanthemum into Europe and popularized tulips and many other bulbs.
In the same way that English medieval gardens remained pale counterparts of the elegant and colourful enclosures found in Europe, the gardens of English royalty and aristocracy developed on the lines of Italian and French Renaissance layouts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They were, however, less rigorously formal, since the English climate is more conducive to mixed planting. There was also a developing interest in horticulture and a new emphasis on flowers grown for their appearance rather than for culinary and medicinal use.
While Europe was following the fashionable style of the English landscape garden, the quite different Victorian age of gardening writings of Miss Jekyll and William Robinson also coincided with the restoraWon and rehabilitation of long-neglected smaller country houses, farmhouses and cottages and their ideas appealed equally to Mese self-sufficient gardeners. Gertrude Jekyll invented the herbaceous border, planted with roses, shrubs and hardy plants, which has an element of romanticism always associated with the traditional English cottage garden.
An emergent middle class began to move out into the suburbs or even the country, which meant that many more people had gardens of their own and an interest in gardening greatly increased.
The many new plant discoveries at this time included conifers, anemones, winter jasmine, forsythia, primulas, rhododendrons and azaleas. The most significant aspect of this era of gardening is that it established the prime importance of plants in the creation of a garden.
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