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English Garden Style New American Garden Style ]]>

For American Gardens

Colorful Blooms
Why “country garden” plants? What denotes a ‘country’ rather than ‘urban’ plant? If I were to write the definition for the comparison, it would concern the amount of care and attention a plant needs, and whether it has strong visual impact for its size. Country gardens tend to be large, farther from the doorstep, and looser in feeling… so for a simpler and yet abundant feeling, these are plantings that maximize impact for the effort. Open spaces can often mean less shelter from the elements, a plant will need to be sturdy, and not be easily damaged by winds, it is an abundantly flowering plant that is capable of giving the good show required by the English garden style.

I thought up a few motifs that might prove interesting parts, or even an entire theme, in our gardens.

A patch of meadow….

What is more English than a country meadow? A heath, perhaps, but for most of us, it is the meadow garden that can replicate something of a an English style feature. Represented by the garden in St. Mary de Haura, of New Shoreham. This is how I picture the English countryside, but not everyone has a large expanse of garden….what then?

Medieval ground cover, or a small herbal lawn, could make a garden mead bench when grown in a raised bed created from simple lumber boards strapped or nailed together.

A mass of dainty flowers like something from a Medieval tapestry, maybe inside a “Mead” raised bed might give you just the flavor you are looking for. In a formal arrangement with some box shrubs for accent, this could be a wonderful entryway design. A meadow in a box is a very accessible garden feature.

A little about a mead of the Middle Ages.

“Turfed seats were a major feature of ‘gardens of pleasure’.”

All the plants listed are well able to compete with each other, although a little more care to create space for dianthus might be needed. Grow your mead seat in sun.

Old fashioned abundance of perennials….

This is what we all picture when thinking of Britain’s great gardens… a gorgeous array of perennials in large borders, or an overflowing Cottage garden. Both large and small contain an arrangement of spires, mounds, and weaving plants growing to varied heights in harmonious color choices. The plants suggested here are a representative sample of what you could grow in your garden, choices depend on your climate and growing conditions.

Pots of annual flowers….massed for an English style effect

This is an easy one to incorporate. The English style garden often has accents of potted plants. Some of the prettiest flank steps, or gates. Dramatic focal points use large pots, alone or filled with one exciting planting. In smaller gardens an array of smaller pots filled with such favorites as the gardeners desires can become a “border” of flowers in themselves. Just remember that in the climate of our continent, The USA, containers can dry out quickly and need regular watering. Regular watering is the one secret to lush growing beautiful flowering containers. Keep that in mind when adding this feature to your design.

More ideas for container plants, recipes to try.

A book I think is fabulous for creating your containers is P. Allen Smith’s Container Gardens: 60 Container Recipes to Accent Your Garden

Herb Garden Fragrance

When I think of herbs and English gardens I usually think of Tudor Knot gardens, but those were manicured by a troop of gardeners and wouldn’t give a “country” feeling at all. Not suitable for most of us, with our busy schedules and gardening staff of one (I am speaking of us, maybe two of us, if we are lucky), so our inspiration might come from another age and time. There are other forms of herb gardens with an English garden look, or we can simple combine the plants our own way and make sure to fill them to overflow with creeping, mounding, spired, and vining herb plants.

The Physic garden, with blocks of the same plant in regular rows, or a loose Bee garden, arranged on an axis and surrounding a center feature such as a fountain, or decorative bee skep- with a small side bench to watch the busy apian visitors, of course.

Graceful Climbers and Clamberers
An arbor, a trellis or columns laced with a climbing plant or vine gives just the right amount of detail and grace to an entryway or to soften the line of a fence.

photo by Sue Hasker
American plantings to give English grace to doors and fences:

• ‘New Dawn’ Rose
• Clematis, many varieties- but especially Clematis montana
• Wisteria
• Morning Glory ‘Heavenly Blue’
• Honeysuckle,Lonicera sempervirens
• Lathyrus latifolius

To pull your plants together in a way that gives an impression of a real English garden, look into the pages of English Style Gardens, Style Notes, and the English Cottage Garden.

Related Squidoo Lenses:
Quaint Cottage Garden
Growing Lavender
10 Best Perennials for your Garden

Other Related Pages:
Climbers at Monticello

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English Garden Style New American Garden Style

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Victorian Flowers: The flowers of Emily Dickinson Too Many Flowers ]]>

Tussie Mussies, those dainty old fashioned bouquets, were once a domain of theLanguage of Flowers. In Victorian times the choice and arrangement of flowers became an intriguing way to use a symbolic code to relay silent messages. The origination of the Victorian enthusiasm for attribution of meaning to flowers began with Lady Mary Wortley Montague, wife of the British ambassador to Constantinople. Renewed interest has been stirred up with the recent royal marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton, when she chose a bridal bouquet redolent with fragrance of lily of the valley and symbolic meaning, drawn from the pages of traditional language of flowers.

The press release from the Royal Palace:

“The bouquet is a shield-shaped wired bouquet of myrtle, lily-of-the-valley, sweet William and hyacinth. The bouquet was designed by Shane Connolly and draws on the traditions of flowers of significance for the Royal Family, the Middleton family and on the Language of Flowers”

What is the ‘Language of Flowers’?

Undoubtedly the idea is older than the known history of it, but our present idea of the language of flowers in the symbolic sense comes from the Victorian age. It was then that

The wife of the eighteenth century British Ambassador to Constantinople,Lady Mary Wortley Montague, took note of a curious custom in the harem, and wrote of it in letters back to England. The secret language of the women included many token items, besides flowers, but the idea of a secret code between lovers caught the imagination of Europeans. From France came the lists of flowers and their purported meanings, and by the middle of the nineteenth century the practice had reached a height.

It seems that a number of European fads in floriography flourished beginning in the seventeenth century: Sweden, after the return of Charles II of Sweden from his exile in Turkey, in France, and later in England.

French Language…

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Adjusted for culture and custom, the meanings of flowers may vary, according to the source. There are some that remain perennial in meaning, and those are the ones most usually combined in modern flower arrangements for weddings and other occasions.

These are from one source, some others flower meanings may be found, here. Flower dictionaries were written to track the meanings of flowers, called floriography.

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The pink carnation became the symbol of a mother’s undying love, and in 1907 was chosen by Ann Jarvis as the emblem of Mother’s Day

Arbor vitae…Unchanging friendship.
Camellia, white…Loveliness.
Candytuft…Indifference.
Carnation,deep red …Alas! for my poor heart.
Carnation, white…Disdain.
China aster…Variety.
Clover,four leaf…Be mine/lucky
Clover, white…Think of me.
Columbine…Folly.
Daisy…Childhood innocence.
Daylily…Coquetry
Dried leaves…Sadness.
Deadly nightshade…Falsehood.
Fern…Fascination.
Forget-me-not…True love. Forget me not.
Fuchsia,red … Taste.
G,red…Consolation.
Geranium, rosepink…Preference.
Goldenrod …Be cautious.
Heliotrope…Devotion.
Honeysuckle…Love, sweet and secret.
Hyacinth,white…Unobtrusive loveliness.
Ivy…Fidelity.
Lily, white…Sweetness.
Lily, yellow…Gaiety.
Lily of the Valley…Return of happiness.
Mignonette…Your qualities surpass your charms.
Monkshead… Danger is near.
Myrtle…Love.
Orange blossoms…Chastity.
Pansy…Thoughts.
Passion flower…Faith.
Peach blossom…I am your captive.
Pear…Affection.
Primrose…Inconstancy.
Quaking grass…Agitation.
Rose…Love.
Rose, dark red…Bashful shame.
Rose, yellow…Jealousy.
Rose, white…I am worthy of you.
Rosebud,Moss…Confession of love.
Shamrock…Lightheartedness.
Straw…Agreement.
Straw, broken…Broken agreement.
Sweet pea…Depart.
Tuberose…Dangerous pleasures.
Verbena…Pray for me.

“Belladonna: In Italian, a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison.”
- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

More Meanings
Meanings from a book of 1885, and older, collated and extensive.

Who might be interested in the Language of flowers?

For those hallmark high points of our lives, which we often commemorate with flowers and symbolic meaning, weddings, funerals, important anniversaries and births, the language of flowers may add to our appreciation of the thoughts relayed. A bride may chose flowers meaningful to her, a family may wish to have a casket arrangement which holds meaning in their grief, and good wishes for the birth of a new baby may be incorporated into a bouquet of flowers.

Anytime we wish to add a shade of meaning to flowers we give to someone, we can consider the time honored meanings of the blooms we choose.

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Victorian Flowers: The flowers of Emily Dickinson Too Many Flowers