DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0326
304
A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND.
plants, Petunias, Zinnias, Begonias, Ageratum, Calceolarias, and
many more, might now be added to the list, besides the
numerous foliage plants, such as Coleus, Echeverias, Cerastiums,
Draccenas, also Alternanthera, and other low growing things
which are used for carpet bedding. More skill is now used in
the selection of colours and arrangements of plants, some fine
effects being thus produced with these combinations. Graceful
and more feathering plants are planted among the old-fashioned
bedding plants, such as a groundwork of some self-coloured
viola, relieved by tall standards of ivy-leafed Geranium,
Draccenas, Cannas, or Grevillea robusta. At first the bedding-out
consisted in merely filling the beds with flowers to produce
as great a blaze of colour as possible. Trentham garden is
described in 1859 as a “ startling mass of Geraniums and
Calceolarias,” and this alone was the aim of the gardeners in
many places.
There is a very large folio volume by A. E. Brooke,
in which are depicted what were then considered the
finest gardens in England.* Most of them are Italian in
design, and the beds are filled with these gaudy but perish-
able flowers. Among the number he illustrates may be men-
tioned Woburn, Worsley, Eaton, Trentham, Castle Howard,
and Teddesley, designed by Nesfield, all laid out between
1845 and 1858. Sir Joseph Paxton, gardener to the Duke of
Devonshire at Chatsworth, and well known as the Editor
of the Magazine of Botany, was the architect of the building
of the Great Exhibition, for which he was knighted ; and he
afterwards laid out the gardens at Sydenham in an Italian
style, when the structure was rebuilt there as the Crystal
Palace. But the taste must not be judged from this crude
example, as many charming gardens of a stiff Italian design
exist. Besides those already quoted, Harewood is a fine
example. It was planned by Lady Harewood, and the designs
for the fountains and stone balustrades were made by Sir
Charles Barry. The laying out of Shrublands f was begun by
* Gardens of England. By A. E. Brooke, 1858.
-f In Suffolk, belonging to Lord de Saumarez.
A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND.
plants, Petunias, Zinnias, Begonias, Ageratum, Calceolarias, and
many more, might now be added to the list, besides the
numerous foliage plants, such as Coleus, Echeverias, Cerastiums,
Draccenas, also Alternanthera, and other low growing things
which are used for carpet bedding. More skill is now used in
the selection of colours and arrangements of plants, some fine
effects being thus produced with these combinations. Graceful
and more feathering plants are planted among the old-fashioned
bedding plants, such as a groundwork of some self-coloured
viola, relieved by tall standards of ivy-leafed Geranium,
Draccenas, Cannas, or Grevillea robusta. At first the bedding-out
consisted in merely filling the beds with flowers to produce
as great a blaze of colour as possible. Trentham garden is
described in 1859 as a “ startling mass of Geraniums and
Calceolarias,” and this alone was the aim of the gardeners in
many places.
There is a very large folio volume by A. E. Brooke,
in which are depicted what were then considered the
finest gardens in England.* Most of them are Italian in
design, and the beds are filled with these gaudy but perish-
able flowers. Among the number he illustrates may be men-
tioned Woburn, Worsley, Eaton, Trentham, Castle Howard,
and Teddesley, designed by Nesfield, all laid out between
1845 and 1858. Sir Joseph Paxton, gardener to the Duke of
Devonshire at Chatsworth, and well known as the Editor
of the Magazine of Botany, was the architect of the building
of the Great Exhibition, for which he was knighted ; and he
afterwards laid out the gardens at Sydenham in an Italian
style, when the structure was rebuilt there as the Crystal
Palace. But the taste must not be judged from this crude
example, as many charming gardens of a stiff Italian design
exist. Besides those already quoted, Harewood is a fine
example. It was planned by Lady Harewood, and the designs
for the fountains and stone balustrades were made by Sir
Charles Barry. The laying out of Shrublands f was begun by
* Gardens of England. By A. E. Brooke, 1858.
-f In Suffolk, belonging to Lord de Saumarez.