For as long as people have been making ornamental gardens, there has been an inherent tension between the naturalistic approach and the formal, with the formal often being preferred by powerful people who wished to demonstrate their domination of the natural world - for instance, the Gardens at Versailles. There has also frequently been a tension between the use of native and exotic plants, with use of exotics often chosen to demonstrate wealth and/or horticultural skill.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the British Arts and Crafts Movement and French Impressionism were artistic responses to a rapidly industrializing world. The first major Impressionist exhibition known as the "Salon of the Refused" was held in 1863, and William Robinson published The Wild Garden in 1870, followed by The English Flower Garden in 1883. Both movements were ridiculed by their respective establishments, but were led by extraordinary people. Gertrude Jekyll was an accomplished artist before declining vision led her to pursue and dramatically evolve garden design, while partnering with Arts and Crafts architects. Claude Monet is probably one of the world's most significant artists, but he was also a passionate garden designer, who focused his energies on his home at Giverny which continues to be a major garden tourism destination. Both of these artistic movements influenced American artists and designers during what many consider a golden era of landscape design, and the American Society of Landscape Architects was founded in 1899.
Long before I considered pursuing a career in ornamental horticulture, I was a fan of Impressionist painting - the subject matter and locations, the colors, the free flow of the brush strokes, the lack of formality, all resonated with me. I consider it to be a very happy art genre which usually celebrates beauty and nature.
As I was studying garden history, I kept an open mind about degree of formality, modern versus traditional design, and investigated the design traditions of a number of civilizations and nationalities. Every period and every tradition has merit and reflects important cultural values, but the gardens that inspire me most include cottage gardens, Arts and Crafts landscapes, Rural Cemeteries, potagers, college and university campuses, and other historic gardens. These are all essentially Wild and Romantic gardens, and when they're placed in a rugged setting, such as the Maine Coast or Ireland, they're even better!
While I'll discuss flowers in much more detail in other posts, the Wild and Romantic garden needs a healthy mix of plants with certain qualities: fragrance, enchanting colors, a relaxed habit, heirlooms (which have a story), vines reaching for the sky, bulbs to provide both permanence and ephemerality, cottage flowers which are humble, bold tropicals in pots, ornamental trees and shrubs to provide some sense of enclosure, plants shared by those who are important to you, and of course - roses!
In the photo galleries on this site, I'll share pictures of the gardens, flowers, and places which inspire me, and I hope these images will resonate with you. While I am also a designer, specializing in fragrant plants, my photos will mostly feature the design work of others. The gardens you see in magazines take years (or even decades) of maturing and vigilant editing to be picture perfect. They're beautiful from the day they're planted, but not yet compelling, and aside from show and tell shots for your family and friends, garden photography should really move people.
While I do have additional thoughts on the subject, this RHS article is excellent and concise introduction to the Wild and Romantic philosophy!
For a space to be a garden, there must be at least one gardener, who regularly engages with the land throughout the growing season, if not year round. A wild garden is meant to have a naturalistic appearance, but is actually a carefully conceived, living work of art, containing both native and non-native plants. It contains a diversity of colors, textures, forms and fragrances.
In my mind, a romantic garden must start with a "wild" foundation, and have a sense of enclosure, intimacy, abundance and mystery. Garden structures, furnishing and pots should have classic artisan qualities. Movement is also essential and this includes plants, water, birds, and insects. Finally, a romantic garden offers a succession of blooms, throughout the growing season, and a sense of graceful decay during the winter months.
The most famous is the English cottage garden, as well as their cousins known in the United States as "Grandmother's Gardens." Arts and Crafts gardens are larger and more formal, but possess energetic plantings framed by lawn, evergreens, or restrained hardscape. "Rural" cemeteries with an abundance of ancient trees, heirloom flowers, rolling hills, and centuries of sculpture (including hand-crafted gravestones) can be wild and romantic - examples are Laurel Hill in Philadelphia and Bonaventure in Savannah. Woodland gardens can also qualify if they've been enhanced with spring ephemerals, flowering shrubs, and other plantings which provide three to four seasons of interest.
In places where rain is sufficient and organic methods are pursued, the answer is yes. A succession of diverse flowers, fruit and seed that progress through the year is excellent for wildlife. Our geographic focus is the Atlantic coast, but there are many capable designers around the United States, and internationally, who can select a design palette appropriate to your location. In addition to native plants, and other plants well-adapted to your climate, gardeners can certainly consider the use of tropicals in pots, or the use of tropicals as annuals. People in tropical climates can often use temperate plants during their cooler seasons, the opposite of the approach we Northerners take.
Absolutely! It has been done many times, most famously by Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst in Kent, England. The solution is a series of garden rooms of varying scales, enclosures, plantings, and degree of formality. Some people really like a large lawn, but it's an extreme excess of negative space, and a biological wasteland. For the same reason that few of us would choose to live in a one room house, no matter how much square footage is included, a one room landscape offers none of the charm or productivity of a series of garden spaces.
Certainly. These structures and neighborhoods need urban heat island mitigation (and color and fragrance) far more than a cottage in the suburbs or country. Naturalistic plantings and solid modern structures are a perfect contrast between soft and hard, natural and human-made. The density of the intentional plantings significantly reduce weed pressure, and with a diversity of plants, there's a lot of resilience - if extreme heat impacts some plants their neighbors will fill in the gaps, the same is true for excessive rain or wind. Weather that kills some plants in a microclimate helps others to thrive, so a cottage approach to density helps maintain healthy borders and beds. Also keep in mind that plants, like people, belong in supportive communities.
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