1558-1603
During the Elizabethan era England enjoyed a time of great prosperity, of exploration, innovation and achievement. Elizabethans embraced Renaissance ideas from Europe,
combined them with their own cultural traditions and made a style of their own in architecture, painting, sculpture, music and drama. Garden making must have been seen as an important demonstration of this enthusiasm for the arts.
The enclosed medieval garden developed, under the Renaissance influence, into the more elaborate garden of the Elizabethan era. Many buildings from this time are still standing but no gardens remain so we must rely on the very little contemporary pictorial and written evidence that has survived. Plans, paintings and books such as Thomas Hill's The Gardener's Labyrinth, published in 1577, give us some inkling of how gardens were laid out and how the new owners were to 'dress, sow and set a garden'.
Small gardens of the period would still have had many medieval features and been used to produce fruit, vegetables and herbs for domestic and medicinal use but with greater prosperity the growing middle class would have had much grander gardens to complement their newly-built houses. The garden would have been designed as a whole and as an extension of the house and, adopting Renaissance principles, would have been divided into geometric shapes by wide walks, alleys or hedges. As well as beds for vegetables, salads and herbs there would have been orchards and flower gardens. Perhaps there would also have been a tunnel arbour covered in vines and plants 'of a fragrant savour' like rosemary, jasmine and roses and 'having windowes
properly made toward the garden, whereby they might the more fully view and have delight of the whole beauty of the garden.' A hedge, probably of quickthorn, would have surrounded the whole garden.
The gardens of the nobility were even more lavish and, influenced by classical Italian gardens, could have added waterworks, grottoes, topiary, statuary, mounts or terraces, perhaps even a banqueting house. The Renaissance principles of formality, geometry and symmetry revolutionised garden design at this time and nowhere was this more clearly illustrated than in the Elizabethan knot garden.
Just as the classical writers had inspired interest in so many other fields so the rediscovery of ancient herbalists such as Dioscorides and Theophrastus had a similar
effect on the scientific study of botany. William Turner, often called 'the father of English Botany', was the first person to attempt to identify and describe the plants growing in England, both wild and cultivated. In 1548 he published The Names of Herbes and in 1568 completed his most important work, A New Herbal I, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. In 1596 John Gerard, gardener to Lord Burghley, the Queen's chief minister, published a list of the plants that he grew in his London garden and followed it in 1597 with his famous Herbal. All are of great value in showing what plants were actually in cultivation in England at the time.
At this time botany was closely allied to medicine and plants were studied mainly for their curative powers and 'virtues'. In fact, many botanists were also doctors and they travelled Europe, studying, collecting and exchanging plants and visiting colleagues. But, as well as this scientific study of plants and along with the increase in gardens and gardening there was also a growing appreciation of flowers for their beauty. The Elizabethans loved plants - of that there can be no doubt. They used them as symbols in literature, as decoration in tapestry and embroidery, carving and plasterwork and in many portraits of the period the subjects posed with a flower in their hand. There are many references in Gerard's Herbal to plants being used as ornament and appreciated for their beauty.
Of tulips he writes 'but they are esteemed especially for the beauty of their flowers.' and fritilliaries 'are greatly esteemed for the beautifying of our gardens, and the bosoms of the beautiful.'
It was during the reign of Elizabeth I that the first new plant introductions began to reach England. William Harrison wrote, 'to see how many strange herbs, plants, and annual fruits are daily brought unto us from the Indies, Americas, Taprobane, Canary Isles, and all parts of the world.'Wherever trade was carried out merchant adventurers would collect plants and bring them back to an eager public in Europe.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The plant exploration which had begun in the sixteenth century increased considerably in the seventeenth. The Tradescants, for example, introduced many plants from collectors abroad as well as from their own travels in Europe and America and in the next three hundred years wealthy garden owners and botanical institutions sent men all over the world searching for plants. The names of Banks, Douglas, Fortune, Hooker, Wilson and Forrest evoke tales of daring and dangerous exploits in order to bring back plants for English gardens. Nurserymen, keen to obtain new plants, also sent collectors abroad or took shares in expeditions and were then able to grow, propagate and distribute the plants to a wider public. They also had a hand, together with gardeners, specialists and enthusiasts in the selection and breeding of better plants. To this day plant hunters, nurserymen and even amateur gardeners continue the search.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Elizabeth II
1952 -
At the time of Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952 the United Kingdom was still struggling to return to normal just seven years after the end of the Second World War. Towns and cities were being rebuilt, gardens returned to their previous splendour after the 'Dig for Victory' campaign and everyone was looking forward to a time of peace and prosperity. Over the nearly fifty years of this Elizabethan Age the influences on our gardens have been enormous.
No longer a 'nation of shop keepers' perhaps we are now a nation of gardeners. The rapid rise in the number of small houses has meant an increase in the number of gardeners, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The keener ones have embraced the opportunities afforded them by greater prosperity and leisure to take a real interest in plants and gardens. And what opportunities there are.
Thousands of small gardens are open for public viewing and many larger ones are opened by the National Trust, English Heritage, horticultural institutions and private owners. Some of these might well be recreations or restorations of older gardens making us aware of all the ideas from past centuries that we have to draw on. An abundance of books, magazines and radio and television programmes brings us concepts old and new. Foreign travel gives us an opportunity to see gardens in other countries and plants in their natural habitats.
Just as Elizabethans in the sixteenth century valued plants for their beauty so today we appreciate and use plants and flowers as decoration for our homes and clothes, in art, music and literature as well as growing them in our gardens. For some people that is enough but for others the growing of plants is endlessly fascinating - a passion, some might say an obsession.
Britain has a very small natural flora, due to it being cut off from mainland Europe before plants could re-colonise after the last ice age, but our garden flora is immense. The varied climate provides suitable conditions for a vast range of plants from all parts of the world. Although some gardeners are interested in particular types of plant or an individual genus, by far the majority want to cultivate as wide a variety of different plants as possible. It is the garden of just such a dedicated plantsman of catholic taste that is portrayed in our exhibit. Recently we have come to appreciate the wisdom of growing different types of plants in conditions similar to those in which they grow in the wild. This knowledge makes it possible to turn often difficult situations to advantage and to grow a range of more interesting and unusual plants or to find just the right spot for a particularly difficult plant.
There are far more plants around than we can ever hope to cultivate. The list is endless - as is the enjoyment, frustration and satisfaction that can be gained by finding and growing them.
So, is there a garden style that reflects this time in history, this second Elizabethan Age? Perhaps not. But possibly it is this very lack of constraint which is the modern way - the freedom to select from the rag-bag of ideas, ancient and modern, and create an individual style to suit a particular home, taste and lifestyle. Some only want a pleasant view to look out on, others an outdoor room in which to relax or entertain and those with an artistic talent might use the garden as an expression of this. Others just want to indulge their love of plants. For whichever style is chosen what all gardens have in common is plants.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Display - Chelsea 2000
The Elizabeth I section of our exhibit is an impression of a sixteenth century knot garden. Following the Renaissance rules of symmetry and geometry, it is divided into two identical square knots of a design that can be seen in garden plans of the time. The hedges are cotton lavender {Santolina chamaecyparissus) and germander (Teucrium chamaedrys). There is, apparently, no evidence that box was used for the making of knots before 1600. At the centre of each is a topiary ball of rosemary. We have chosen to fill the knots with plants, widely spaced as was the fashion. The willow fence is a medieval feature that continued to be used and the border in front contains a further selection of plants from the period. The gravel path between the knots leads up to a gateway opening into the modern garden of the present Elizabethan period.
This depicts a plantsman's garden at the beginning of the twenty first century. The design is based on the idea of growing plants in an environment similar to the one they have in the wild. So there are moist, dry, shady and sunny areas with different plants in each that enjoy the varying conditions. One very important aspect that has altered in the last few decades of the twentieth century has been the weather. In Kent at least, the winters have been getting warmer and the summers drier and this has a great effect on the plants that we can grow. We have, therefore, added a very dry area to the exhibit to display some of the more drought-tolerant plants.
A plantsman loves plants and wants to grow as many different and fascinating ones as possible so our exhibit includes some plants that would have already been grown in the sixteenth century, some very new introductions or selections and some from every age between. The plants are arranged in pleasing associations taking into account colour, both of flowers and foliage, form and texture.
Central to our display is a sculpture made from a very modern material, stainless steel, but in an organic form which seems to grow from the earth. It reflects every beam of light that catches it and every shimmer from the surrounding plants.