History of Gardens – Gardenesque

Another style that came out of the Landscape Movement was Gardenesque, which was popular from 1830 - 1930s. The Gardenesque style celebrates individual plants, and comes from the desire to plant plants for their own merits, rather than for garden design. The style gained popularity because of all the plants pouring into England from all over the world, the increasing knowledge about propagation, and the availability of large scale green houses in which to raise exotic plants.

Gardenesque: flowers, trees, and shrubs (The Gardener's Magazine, 1938)

John Claudius Loudon (1783 - 1845) was a proponent of Gardenesque, and wrote in 1840 that "the aim of the Gardenesque is to add to the acknowledged charms of the [picturesque], all those which the sciences of gardening and botany, in their present advanced state, are capable of producing". Gardenesque often displays plants in the picturesque setting.

Gardenesque: specimen trees (The Gardener's Magazine, 1938)

In 1866, architect and writer John Arthur Hughes described Gardenesque as being "distinguished by the trees and shrubs, whether in masses or groups, being planted and thinned in such a manner as to never touch each other; so that viewed near, each tree or shrub would be seen distinctly while from a distance they show a high degree of beauty...Grace rather than grandeur is its characteristic." The garden becomes a collection of individual specimens rather than composed. Many of the trees and shrubs coming out of the Americas were perfect candidates for this garden style.

Learn More:

• The History of Gardens, by Christopher Thacker
• The Story of Gardening, by Penelope Hobhouse
• The Gardener’s magazine and register of rural and domestic improvement, by J.C. Loudon

History of Gardens – Picturesque

A couple of years ago we explored the Landscape Movement, which was introduced in England and lasted over a hundred years (roughly 1720 – 1810s). The gardens were meant to be indistinguishable from nature, and even to improve on natrue. Landscape characteristics included sweeping house-to-borrowed views, serpentine lines, trees and plants silhouetted against the sky, and the use of eye catchers. Capability Brown was one of its chief promoters and implementers (see Garden History – Landscape Movement, and Elements of the Landscape Movement).

Around 1800, garden design took a turn from the beautiful and the sublime. Critics argued that it was impossible to tell what was designed by man, and what was pure countryside. They felt that that true landscape gardening must show the hand of man. A new movement emerged—Picturesque—in which the garden or landscape was not just wild, but was further refined to emulate a picture that an artist might create. Humphry Repton (1752 – 1818) became the successor to Brown, and champion of the Picturesque.

Red Book: Repton's redesign of a village (see Alchetron)

In 1788, Repton started his gardening career, with little practical horticulture experience, but lots of good ideas. Where he lacked practical gardening experience, he excelled at presentation and salesmanship. For each garden design, he created a Red Book (referring to its binding) that contained a description of the proposal, and watercolor paintings showing the before and after look of the design. This approach helped educate and persuade his clients.

Red Book: Repton's redesign of the estate view from the house (see Alchetron)
Notice the tab in the upper picture that is used to peel away the "before" picture to reveal the "after".

Repton followed many of Brown’s basic design principles, but he started to prettify the areas around the house. Where Brown brought the lawn right up to the house, Repton brought in terraces, balustrades, shrubs, and flower beds around the house. He used long winding roads to make the property seem larger and access to the house more dramatic. He reintroduced the fountain, and used trellises and greenhouses. He designed picturesque themes, such as Chinese, American, arboretum, and forcing gardens. He modified many of Brown’s original landscape gardens with these new ideas, and created new landscapes in the Picturesque style.

Learn More:

• The History of Gardens, by Christopher Thacker
• The Story of Gardening, by Penelope Hobhouse
• Humphry Repton, by Alchetron Free Encyclopedia (watch the videos!)

Color in the Garden: Strong Reds

This year we are learning more about color in the garden, and developing a palette of plants for each color that we can use in our San Francisco Bay Area gardens. English garden writer Penelope Hobhouse is our guide, and we're using her book, Color in Your Garden to better understand color. Her information and guidance can help us add reds to our garden.

The color range explored in the red chapter includes full strength red, or darkened or shaded reds with blue or brown, leaning towards purple, maroon, and almost black. They are on the cold side of the reds, and contain no warming yellow.  Names used to describe these reds include crimson, magenta, carmine, cherry (cerise), bronze, maroon, claret, and burgundy, amethyst, fuchsia, and so forth.

Spring:

Rose	Flame Tree
Giant Trillium	Gooseberry (Chinese Lanterns)
Azalea	Tulips

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Hobhouse writes that red is the most bold and provocative of spectral hues. It appears most vibrant when enriched by complementary mid-greens of trees, plants, and grass. Recall the strong impact of the red azaleas lining the green Wedding Garden at Filoli (see Spring Details at Filoli). Red is easily spotted in the tropics to ensure pollination; and red seeds are easily seen in temperate climates to ensure dispersal. Nature uses red sparingly, except in the fall when leaves turn red.

Summer:

Unknown Inflorescence

Kangaroo Paws

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The texture of petals or leaves influence how reds appear. Shiny petals may appear lighter and brighter than velvety petals. Foliage may appear more matt. The colors are often richest when the sun's rays are longest and reddest in the evening, especially glowing when light shines through a leaf towards the observer.

Fall:

Vitis

Toyon Berries

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Hobhouse recommends pairing flowers and foliage that are "linked" on the color wheel, or are complementary to either heat up or cool down the affect (some of these concepts are well beyond my gardening abilities, but good to know about)! She also states that the emotional qualities of red make their strongest impact if they come as a surprise.

Winter:

Camellia

Rambling Rose

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Red foliage is especially prominent in the fall, but can also appear in new foliage (such as Photinia). Use these colors to your advantage in the garden design.

Foliage:

Liquid Amber in fall	Succulents trimmed in red
Flax	Unknown
Maroon leaves (almost black)	Prunus

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To find more about red flowers and foliage that thrive in the San Francisco Bay Area, see Wildflowers of the East Bay Regional Park District. Another good source is Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates.