William Robinson
(1838-1935) and
Gertrude Jeckyll
(1843-1932)
William Robinson:
“Grandfather
of the English Flower Garden”
Robinson’s
philosophies:
Lessons
from Nature
Dislike
of carpet bedding
The
virtues of naturalistic planting
Planting
in drifts—broad sweeping masses that defined garden spaces.
Planting
in this “informal style” should be “encouraged to behave
and flourish as if put there by nature.” Robinson
Flower
gardens are carefully composed, like an artists paint on a canvas with an eye
to height, shapes, density, and color – with the added complications of
working in 3 dimensions, and using living and growing plants as tools.
“Plants
are allowed to realize their full potential.” Robinson
Natural
Planting should convey an atmosphere of relaxed planting, effects “which
to some degree disguise the existence of a coherent overall master plan.”
Robinson
Gertrude
Jeckyll:
Early
career as an artist
The
formal characteristics of her gardens:
• projection
of the lines of the house outward along vistas
• the
repetition of forms and materials (stone, etc.) of the house
• the
softening of forms with planting.
• the harmony of the materials emphasized the gardens as a series of outdoor related rooms.
Jeckyll worked to soften the geometries by using
perennial borders
The garden as a series of outdoor rooms
Jeckyll’s collaboration with architect Sir
Edwin Lutyens (1879-1944)
The cottage gardens
Viewing the flower borders:
Best view: End vantage point–emphasizing the borders linear quality.
Layering the overlapping of plants caused by the foreshadowing of perspective.
Viewing the flower border from either one of its long ends also offers the advantage of:
obscuring gaps in the plantings caused by insect or weather damage.
condensing the volume of plants—creating mass
making the colors seem more saturated.
Jeckyll’s translation of the color spectrum
Bloom sequence
In the 1930’s the flower garden was taken over by hobbyists who were encouraged by Jeckyll, but most lacked her training, her skills, her design sense and her vision.
Landscape designers associated with amateurism.