Cambridge Library Collection – Botany and Horticulture: The Wild Garden: Or, Our Groves and Shrubberies Made Beautiful

An Irish-born gardener and writer, William Robinson (1838-1935) travelled widely to study gardens and gardening in Europe and America. He founded a weekly illustrated periodical, The Garden, in 1871, which he owned until 1919, and published numerous books on different aspects of horticulture. His most famous book, The English Flower Garden (also reprinted in this series), was published in 1883, and fifteen editions were issued in his lifetime. The Wild Garden, published in 1870, attacks contemporary fashions in public parks and private gardens, which involved showy masses of colour in labour-intensive summer bedding, using mostly subtropical and exotic species. He calls for a return to native species, found in traditional English gardens, pointing out that these are more economical than short-lived annuals, and that there is much greater variety available to the garden designer. He suggests plants more suitable for the English climate, and exotics more capable of naturalisation.