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Victorian Gardens and Gardening
The growth of gardening. The Victorian age, the age of industrial
revolution and squalid city slums, was also the age of a popular explosion
of interest in that most British of occupations, gardening. And not
just as a private pastime. For the first time, a concerted effort was
made by authorities to provide extensive public gardens. There was a
reason for this benevolent behavior by the well-to-do. They believed
that gardens would decrease drunkenness and improve the manners of the
lower classes. Intellectuals and the upper classes also encouraged gardening
as means of decreasing social unrest.
Kew. In 1840 the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew
passed from crown control to the government, which meant a transfer
from enthusiastic amateurs to professional gardeners.
Kew was opened to the public in 1841, over royal opposition (the queen
was fond of exercising there). In 1848 the striking Palm House was built,
a result of improved glass and iron manufacturing techniques. The Palm
House is a gigantic greenhouse 363 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 60
feet high. As a sidenote, Joseph Hooker, director of Kew from 1865-85,
is credited with popularizing the ubiquitous rhododendron in Britain.
Bedding out. The expanding British Empire opened up far-flung
corners of the globe to avid gardeners, and a sort of collector-mania
spread throughout Britain. Avid botanists combed the globe for new and
exotic plants to bring home. One of the results of this frenzy of collecting
was another craze, bedding out plants. The concept of bedding plants
was Aztec in origin, but in the hands of Victorian enthusiasts it became
a British passion. The bedding out craze, together with improved greenhouse
design, resulted in a fashion for massed beds of vibrantly coloured
plants laid out in intricate mosaic patterns.
The parsonage garden. Inevitably, this passion for exotic plants
created a reaction in favour of traditional British plants and garden
forms, particularly the parsonage, or vicarage garden. Strangely, the
number of parsons who have had a strong influence on British garden
history is quite high. The vicarage garden was a showpiece of 1-3 acres,
planted, not with colourful exotics, but with a homogenous mix of traditional
plants, such as wisteria.
Robinson, Jekyll, and the natural style. The most influential
gardener of late Victorian times was William Robinson, author of The
English Flower Garden, perhaps the most influential work in British
garden history. Robinson, and later Gertrude Jekyll, emphasized a natural
look, with creepers and ramblers, hardy shrubs, roses underplanted,
herbaceous plants and bulbs. Two later examples of this natural style
can be seen at Hidcote
and Sissinghurst.
London garden squares. Another Victorian garden phenomenon was
the London square. London squares were developed by 19th century property
developers. Here, the houses backed onto a green space where children
could play in full view of the houses. The squares were the focal point
for a communal social life. This green-space garden was run by a resident's
committee, funded by subscriptions from all the householders. As years
went by and pollution increased, only the hardiest plants could survive,
particularly the plane tree, which "took over" many of these
squares. Examples of these London squares exist at Bloomsbury, Belgravia,
Pimlico, Brompton, Kensington, Notting Hill, and Cadogan Place.
MORE Victorian Britain :
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Next : Victorian
Art and Architecture
History
Prehistory - Roman
Britain - Dark Ages - Medieval
Britain - The Tudor Era - The
Stuarts - Georgian Britain -
The Victorian Age
Contents © David Ross and Britain Express
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