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Timeline Victorian style of gardening

Victorian characters Victorian themes

Gardening was no longer the exclusive hobby of the upper classes. As industry and commerce prospered, a wealthy middle class emerged who wished to live near their source of income but away from the squalor and overcrowding they had helped to create in the cities. Improved transport and roads made it possible for villas to be built on the outskirts of towns where there was fresh air and an opportunity to display new-found wealth.

There was a desire for gardens with ostentatious features, following the latest fashions and themes, rather than harmonising with the landscape. Communication speeded up with the arrival of the steam engine which epitomised the pace and energy of the time. The Victorian period was celebrated for its progress, invention, new ideas and discoveries. Edwin Budding's new lawnmower invention meant that people could have manicured lawns, while gadgets such as cucumber straighteners were becoming increasingly popular.

When the Victorians weren't inventing or constructing they were writing about developments in books and magazines so others could benefit. Better printing systems made it possible for more people to gain horticultural inspiration from the garden writers of the day, such as Loudon. The impact and spread of knowledge was greater and quicker than ever.

Wealthy Victorians also created public spaces. Loudon in the 1830s and 1840s was responsible for designing many public parks, encouraging the use of more broad-leaved trees and plants in place of evergreens. Intricate bedding schemes and patterns were popular. After the Allotment Act in 1887, space for growing plants became available at a reasonable rent to this rapidly expanding urban class.

Gardenesque (1832 to 1880s)

The Gardenesque movement started in December 1832 when John Claudius Loudon suggested a style of planting design in a magazine that moved away from the picturesque English Landscape movements and the obsession with natural form and movement.

It relied on using non-native plants and exotics, displaying them individually in beds so they were able to develop their true shape and could be admired from all angles. The garden designs were based on abstract shapes with specimen plants that were intended to look artificial.