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ORIGINS OF THE BORDER

Herbaceous borders, as we know them, are a relatively recent phenomenon. The term was defined by John Loudon in 1822, in his Encyclopaedia of Gardening. Two of the earliest examples in England, the birthplace of the classical herbaceous border, are at Byron’s family home at Newstead in Nottinghamshire and at Arley Hall in Cheshire. Of Arley, Gertrude Jekyll wrote in 1904:

Throughout the length and breadth of England it would be hard to find borders of hardy flowers handsomer or in any way better than those at Arley …. It is easy to see … how happily united are formality and freedom.

(Some English Gardens)

Early frets and parterres The word ‘border’ derives from medieval times when beds were created around the edges of gardens. These beds were raised and edged with boards, no doubt the derivation of the term ‘boarder’ or border. In the seventeenth century, plants were grown not only in borders but also in ‘frets’, which were elaborate geometric border designs. Fruit trees and bushes were an important consideration in these gardens, grown so that they could easily be picked. The earliest border plants included fragrant flowers such as primroses, saxifrages, double rocket, wallflowers, double stocks and auriculas. The frets were planted with sweet-smelling lilies, hyacinths, peonies, tulips, iris, fritillaries, imposing crown imperials and daffodils.

Parterres also became popular in the seventeenth century. These were similar to frets, but the border designs were defined with narrow box edging. One of the finest parterres is to be found at Het Loo in Holland. Here, fragrant florists’ flowers – carnations, hyacinths, pinks and auriculas – were especially popular.

In the eighteenth century, selected flowers were highlighted as specimen plants. These were planted at intervals surrounded by bare soil to show them at their best. Indeed, the style was known as ‘sparse planting’. The effect was completely artificial or contrived and in no way exuberant or natural. Formality was the ideal. In the 1820s John Loudon held that:

Flowers in borders should always be planted in rows, or in some regular form … Every approach to irregularity, and a wild, confused, crowded, or natural-like appearance, must be avoided in gardens avowedly artificial.

(Tony Lord, Best Borders)

The Victorian influence The eighteenth century had also seen landscape-style gardens banish flowers to the walled garden, often set at some distance from the house. It was only towards the end of the century that flowers began to come back into vogue and were brought nearer to the home, where they could be appreciated for their aesthetic appeal. The first flower garden of this kind was created at Nuneham Park in Oxford, England, for the Earl of Harcourt. Here, flowers were used extensively in island beds and were planted en masse purely for effect. Borders had never been designed in such a relaxed or dense manner before and they paved the way for the Victorians’ love of colourful, informal bedding. They were, in many ways, the precursor of modern borders but differed from gardens today in that colour was juxtaposed rather indiscriminately. Under the Victorians, although a more naturalistic style of planting took place, unfortunately the overall effect was often cluttered or crude. They also relied on the help of a large number of staff to maintain the borders of mainly annual plants.

The Victorian style of design was modest in comparison to the Edwardian. They tended to plant excessively large clumps of a single species on such a grand scale that the subtle contrast of one group of plants with another was lost. The emphasis was purely on using bold colours to create a dramatic effect – the enjoyment of perfume and scented plants were virtually forgotten. The Edwardian age, according to Lady Ashbrook at Arley, was ‘the most dreadful period of gardening; the vulgarity was horrendous, all show and ostentation.’

Contemporary border design Fortunately, the excess of the Edwardian age and the questionable aesthetics of the Victorians were dramatically changed by two garden writers, Gertrude Jekyll and William Robinson. Under their influence, fragrant and structural plants were reinstated, as border designs took on greater subtlety and style.

Jekyll gardened with a view to creating beautiful ‘pictures’ and she encouraged planting with a single colour or a limited range of colours and plants. She also lived in a period when labour was plentiful, which is not the case today. One drawback of her designs was that she often used a limited number of her favourite plants (such as lilies and carnations). These plants bloomed for a few weeks only: in large gardens this was not a problem but it can be very restrictive in smaller city gardens and even country gardens today.

Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny, France, with its displays of painterly colour.

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Different types of border Borders generally run along a wall or hedge or mark the edge of a lawn. They were traditionally planted with hardy herbaceous perennials, but today any flowerbed in which there is variation in the planting heights is called a border. In the early nineteenth century, large island beds became popular to display species of plants to their best advantage. These beds, which sit in the middle of the garden, without a wall or hedge as a backing, allow air and light to circulate more freely around each group of plants and thus encourage healthy growth. Such beds are suitable for larger gardens and can also be grouped in twos, with a path dividing them.

Borders can also be mixed, combining herbaceous planting with shrubs and small trees for structure, together with tender perennials, annuals, biennials and bulbs. Shrubs and trees provide shaded areas in which to plant different species. Gertrude Jekyll used mixed borders, planting bulbs under trees and using shrubs to extend the flowering season.

Borders can also be composed almost entirely of shrubs, interplanted with bulbs and perennials for seasonal display. The famous American landscape architect Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), who travelled extensively throughout Europe, acknowledged the pre-eminence of English garden design at this time. For his home at Monticello in Virginia, he subsequently laid out a studied version of the jardin anglais with a serpentine walk, continuous adjacent mixed borders and an abundance of oval island beds. But the real impetus for the rise of the English-style garden, with its proliferation of colourful flower borders, came from the French designer Gabriel Thouin. The new fashion for formal promenades and island beds spread throughout France during the nineteenth century – even Josephine, wife of Napoleon, declared that she too was entitled to a jardin anglais at Malmaison. Claude Monet, who began the creation of his much painted gardens at Giverny in 1883, used paths bordered by wide mixed beds planted with masses of irises and old-fashioned fragrant favourites including peonies, honesty, sweet rocket and forget-me-nots.