Victorian themesFernsFern collections became extremely popular. Victorians kept them in specially designed glasshouses known as ferneries. FruitGrowing exotic fruit such as figs and dessert grapes in greenhouses became popular. So did training hardy fruit trees in styles like espalier, cordons and fans, which would adorn the sides of walled gardens. ArboretumsWoodland gardens were a very popular way to display the new rhododendrons and azaleas from China. The discovery of ornamental trees from abroad prompted wealthy landowners to enhance properties with an arboretum. TerracesFormal gardens were back in fashion, especially the classical style. An Italianate terrace was considered a suitable platform for both a noble and a middle-class house, an architectural device that linked the garden to the house. These terraces were usually balustraded and decorated with urns, vases, grandiose flights of steps and parterres. Bedding displaysLow box hedging would surround flowerbeds filled with bright contrasting bedding plants. Tender or half-hardy varieties, such as geraniums and lobelia, were varied from year to year or season to season. These gaudy displays were an ideal vehicle to show off the owner's financial wellbeing and their gardener's talents. Bedding plants organised in intricate patterns became fashionable in both private gardens and public parks in the 1830s, as tender flowering plants began to arrive from places such as South Africa and Mexico. Plants including pelargoniums, heliotropes, salvias, lobelias and cannas were used to add bright splashes of colour. RosesRoses, chrysanthemums and dahlias were going through a rapid evolution via hybridisation. By 1840 there were more than 500 cultivars of dahlias.
In Victorian times the fashion was to have a separate formal rose garden within the boundaries of the main garden. Then, at the beginning of the 20th century, designer Gertrude Jekyll led the way to a more relaxed method of using roses, pioneering the use of mixed borders, climbers and ramblers. The Monkey Puzzle treeThe monkey puzzle became the 'must have' plant of Victorian society. It would be planted to be viewed as part of the landscape or, in smaller, suburban gardens, as the central feature to a bedding scheme. It was introduced to Britain in 1795 by Archibald Menzies after his visit to Chile. But the plant remained a rarity until the 1840s when William Lobb rediscovered the tree on a plant-finding mission to South America. He sent the seeds back to Veitch Nurseries who'd funded his trip. By 1843 Veitch Nurseries was offering 100 seeds for £10. Wellingtonia treesThe Victorians loved the giant Wellingtonia trees because of their impressive size. They were planted in many gardens as specimen trees, and in rows creating Wellingtonia avenues. Introduced by the plant hunter William Lobb in about 1854, the naming of the tree caused an international row between Britain and America. In Britain the tree was named Wellingtonia gigantea after the Duke of Wellington, who died in 1852. Yet the Americans wanted to call it Washingtonia, after the first US president George Washington. After years of dispute, it was finally named Sequoiadendron giganteum because of its similarity to the Californian redwood (Sequoia sempervirens). |
