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.
One of the first gardens in the grand formal style was at Hampton Court Palace, began in England. There was a general return to a classical and geometric layout but it was distinguished by cluttered ornamentation and over-patterned, brightly coloured flower beds. The villa garden really came into its own in the second half of the nineteenth century with the rapid growth of urban, industrial civilization.
Men like London and Wise set up the first commercial nurseries and began selling plants throughout the land.
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.
One of the first gardens in the grand formal style was at Hampton Court Palace, began in England. There was a general return to a classical and geometric layout but it was distinguished by cluttered ornamentation and over-patterned, brightly coloured flower beds. The villa garden really came into its own in the second half of the nineteenth century with the rapid growth of urban, industrial civilization.
Men like London and Wise set up the first commercial nurseries and began selling plants throughout the land.
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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