Colour in the Flower Garden

by Gertrude Jekyll

Jekyll, Gertrude

Genres: Gardening, Nature

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Gertrude Jekyll was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines.

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50764

Opening: There comes a day towards the end of March when there is but little wind, and that is from the west or even south-west. The sun has gained much power, so that it is pleasant to sit out in the garden, or, better still, in some sunny nook of sheltered woodland. There is such a place among silver-trunked Birches, with here and there the splendid richness of masses of dark Holly.

I'm a gardener with lawns and woods, so of course this was going to appeal. A year through helpmate and a keeper.

[Wanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

27 DEC 2015 - a recommendation through Laura. My love of gardens (both structured and unstructured) ensures I will adore this book. Many thanks, Laura.

Project Gutenberg download - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50764

Chap. II - Sense of beauty is the gift of God, for which those who have received it in good measure can never be thankful enough.

A quiet, unassuming meditation through a beautiful garden. Thank you, Laura

[Laura]

Distributed Proofreaders is proud to celebrate its 31,000th title, Colour in the Flower Garden — many thanks to all the volunteers who worked on it!

Gertrude Jekyll, probably (after Capability Brown) the most famous English garden designer, lived from 1843 to 1932 and created at least 400 major gardens within Europe and North America, often working closely with the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. She set out to develop a career as a painter, but developed an interest in the use of colour in planting, and, possibly prompted by deteriorating eyesight, moved into garden design. She was heavily influenced by Impressionism, eschewing excessive formality in design and planting.

Her book Colour in the Flower Garden sums up the experience of 40 years, using the garden she designed for herself at Munstead Wood. The book describes her philosophy in detail and gives detailed planting schemes for many areas of the garden, but is by no means prescriptive. She describes what she has done and why, and lets the results speak for themselves.

It is also profusely illustrated with, regrettably monochrome, photographs of the garden.

For the gardener, it is a very accessible and interesting record, but from an age and of a scale which make it, perhaps, less than useful.

Two quotations give a flavour of the scale and ambition.

Talking of flower borders: “I believe that the only way in which it can be made successful is to devote certain borders to certain times of year; each border or garden region to be bright for from one to three months.”

And about one area of her garden: “Ten acres is but a small area for a bit of woodland, yet it can be made apparently much larger by well-considered treatment.”

I look out at my own garden (20 x 8 meters) and think, “I grow plants, but this is not, by Jekyll’s standards, a garden.”

This post was contributed by Les Galloway, a DP volunteer who post-processed this project.

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.


Jekyll's design at Hestercombe Gardens, Somerset

[LandscapeArchitect Books]

Recommended by Peter Monro of Portland Maine as one of the best books in landscape architecture in 1998. Thanks to the Landscape Information Hub UK. http://www.lih.gre.ac.uk/histhe/books...

[sandra tingle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Illustrations missing in Kindle version

I purchased this primarily for the floral illustrations by Gertrude Jeckyll however they are not unfortunately not included. The list of illustrations is included however, so maybe this was an oversight.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jekyll’s books make great reading even if you are far from a gardening expert. Visual artists in all media would benefit in particular from her observations.