Exploring Europe Through Garden Art: The Battle of Styles

As the wheel of fashion began to turn during the 19^th century, as it always does, a battle of styles emerged in the world of gardens. This battle was two-sided, between the horticulturist and the architect. It was a battle between natural and formal and between William Robinson, a horticulturist, and Sir Reginald Blomfield, an architect.

William Robinson was an Irish gardener who began his career at a young age. He believed that because gardens were made of plants, the design belonged to gardeners. Robinson’s style was based out of his love of plants. It could be described as very natural and very informal. He had a love for plants that were hardy perennial plants meaning that they lived for more than two years and you didn’t have to replant them every year. The approach taken by Robinson was a wild one. He chose to use grouping of plants that looked very natural and not placed. He had a respect for a plant’s natural growing habits and did not want to force them to look a certain way. Overall his gardens were very informal and were most similar to the English landscape gardens that came before. His goal was to create gardens that allowed people to truly appreciate the beauty of plants.

Sir Reginald Blomfield

On the other side of the battle was Sir Reginald Blomfield. He was an architect and garden designer who had a distaste for the naturalistic style such as those designs by William Kent and William Robinson. He also had another, John Sedding, on his side. Blomfield felt that gardens were the setting for the house, which meant that it was the architect’s responsibility to design them. His style was polar opposite to that of Robinson’s, in that it is very formal. His inspirations came from the formal Renaissance gardens. He wanted to connect smoothly the architecture and the garden and believed that the formal garden was the best way to do this. Sedding was also an architect and garden designer who had very similar views to those of Blomfield. He liked the idea of basic and clean-cut gardens and his inspirations came from formal English gardens.

John Sedding

From all of these debates, the arts and crafts garden emerged. Gertrude Jekyll who was a gardener and Sir Edwin Lutyens who was an architect were able to form a team and bring together the best of both worlds. They were able to collaborate on both the housing and the gardens and turn them into a coherent piece of work. The best portrayal of their work can be found at Hestercombe House.