Georgian and Regency Gardening was coming into its own. With it came the birth of the English Landscape movement and the lawnmower. This period also produced the inspiring Capability Brown who came to prominence in the second half of the 18th century.

In this article

Timeline Georgian and Regency style of gardening

Georgian and Regency characters Georgian and Regency themes

1730
William Kent works on the original garden plans for Kew Gardens.

1735
Systema Naturae is published by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. Carl Linnaeus (1707 to 1778) developed a sexual system of classifying plants based on the number of stamens and stigma on a flower. It's still used today.

1751
Capability Brown sets up a landscape business in Hammersmith, London.

1768
Joseph Banks sails with James Cook across the Pacific to bring back horticultural specimens.

1772
George III employs Capability Brown to remodel parts of Kew Gardens.

1788
Humphrey Repton gets his first commission as a landscape gardener from Jeremiah Ives in Norfolk.

1795
Plant hunter Archibald Menzies brings back monkey puzzle seeds from South America.

1804
The Horticultural Society was formed, later to become the Royal Horticultural Society.

1822
John Loudon publishes the Encyclopaedia of Gardening, including soil-improvements with fish.

1826
The Gardener's Magazine is founded by John Loudon, one of the most influential garden writers of his time

1829
Nathaniel Ward invents the Wardian case helping plant hunters transport plants.

1830s
Edwin Budding invents the lawnmower. Before 1830 lawns were cut with scythes, which was extremely labour intensive and left an extremely rough finish. By 1858, more than 7,000 machines had been sold.

1834
David Douglas dies on a plant-hunting expedition in North America.

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