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Herbaceous Borders - Part Two

© Kirk Johnson

Back in April , I published an article entitled Herbaceous Borders - Part One. I was going to publish part two in May, but I got sidetracked writing book reviews and articles for events at Suite 101. I have finally decided to write part two.

Part one was about the historical roots of herbaceous borders, and I pointed out that those roots weren't very strong. While the herbaceous borders of Victorian gardens were a nostalgic reaction against elaborate bedding schemes, very few gardeners confined themselves to those flowers which had been grown in seventeenth century gardens. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were the great age of European plant collectors and Victorian herbaceous borders welcomed that wealth of new plant material.

Among the interesting facts that I came across while researching this article is that Europeans weren't aware of hybrid plants before 1717, when Thomas Fairchild showed that by placing the pollen of a sweet william (Dianthus barbatus) on the pistil of a carnation (Dianthus caryphyllus), he could produce a hybrid with some of the characteristics of both species. There had been crosses between plant species in nature and in gardens, but this is the first recorded example of an intentional cross.

The introduction of so many new species during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the discovery of how to hybridize species had an enormous impact on garden design. It is the primary reason why Victorian gardens were so different from the gardens of earlier centuries, even when the Victorians were trying to imitate earlier styles.

The photo below shows a typical double herbaceous border of the late nineteenth century. It is enclosed by walls, but many borders were also enclosed by clipped hedges. The formal lines of the central path and the surrounding enclosure provides a framework that unites a diverse collection of flowers, which was often a riot of colors.

The photo is in black and white, but the lightness of the flowers gives me the impression that this garden may have been dominated by pastel tints. If so, this garden may have been influenced by the writings of Gertrude Jekyll. Her book "Color in the Flower Garden", published in 1908, still has a profound effect on the design of gardens.

While Ms. Jekyll's sophisticated ideas about the use of color influenced many herbaceous borders during the Edwardian age, more continued to be an unsophisticated mix of colors, not unlike the cottage gardens which she so admired. Even the grandest herbaceous borders weren't necessarily complex from a designer's point of view, but they were always high maintenance. Every three or four years, it was necessary for an herbaceous border to be dug up and replanted. Only those flowers which resented being moved, such as peonies, were left in place. The rest were dug out and heeled into another part of the garden, so that the soil could be loosened and enriched. Then, the old perennials were divided and replanted.

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