American Gardening

It was no surprise that since garden writer William Robinson (1838-1935) was so important in England that he would also assume a role in the development of the American garden. The Pittsburgh seed company owner Benjamin A. Elliott, who began his company in 1840, gave a considerable amount of space in his catalog to instruction for [...]

William Robinson (1838-1935)  became an important influence in English garden history during the second half of the nineteenth century. He preferred the English naturalistic style, and fought with those who encouraged a formal and symmetrical look to the landscape. His intolerance for the ‘landscape architect’ guided much of his writing.  He thought plantsmen and horticulturists [...]

John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843) has been called the Father of the English Garden. I think that is because in his writing he promoted the art of gardening among all classes of people, not just the wealthy. In the first issue of his Gardener’s Magazine in 1826, he wrote: “We shall endeavor to promote a taste [...]

One of the research activities I enjoy is scouring library archives for their treasures. Recently I spent an afternoon in the Special Collections at Harvard’s Loeb Design School.  There I came across the book The Gardens of England (1857) by artist E. Adveno Brooke. The book was filled with page-length drawings of prominent English gardens from [...]

Gardening resembles clothing as a cultural symbol.  It represents what is in fashion at the moment. In nineteenth century England plant collecting made varieties of plants from Africa, Asia, and the Americas available to gardeners who had never seen them before. People gardened to show off their collections. The garden moved from the eighteenth century picturesque [...]

A couple of summers ago we visited England’s Stourhead where the garden illustrates the eighteenth century view of the landscape. I arrived at 9 a. m. and found that I was the only visitor on the property for at least an hour. I enjoyed that aloneness. I first made a stop at the Information Center [...]

The meaning of the expression ‘English garden’ depends on what time period in English garden history one chooses. Here its meaning comes from the nineteenth century. John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843) has been called the father of the English garden.  He made the middle class feel that gardening was worthwhile, and not simply for the aristocracy. [...]

The English garden tradition helps us to appreciate today’s English garden. English garden writer Edward Hyams said in his book The English Garden: “It was in the great gardens that the national horticultural style was formed; that the immense wealth of our plant material was collected; that the technology of English horticulture was developed; and, even, [...]

English garden style dominated the American garden in the nineteenth century because the seed and nursery catalogs used that style in marketing the garden. Following the style of England and Scotland, ribbon gardens also became popular in America. Philadelphia nurseryman Thomas Meehan wrote in his magazine Gardener’s Monthly in May of 1862: “The Ribbon system, so [...]

I just finished reading Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle. The author is the current Countess of Carnarvon, Lady Fiona, who married the Earl of Carnarvon in 1999.  They took over Highclere eight years ago. The book reads like a novel. It is nonfiction, and based largely on [...]