1. Italian gardens from the Romans to the 17th Century

We start with Emperor Hadrian’s 2nd century garden at Tivoli and its influence on Renaissance gardens in Tuscany and Rome. For a hundred years the cardinals vied with each other to create ever more lavish gardens. Architects laid out the most exciting gardens of the period, particularly the Villa d’Este and the Villa Lante. Later Renaissance certainty became distorted with Mannerist symbolism, best expressed by the monsters that haunt the garden at Bomarzo.

2. Formal Gardens

From about 1600 the Baroque style was developed in Italy and spread across Europe. Notable Baroque gardens are those created by Le Notre at Versailles. This style was copied all over Europe from St Petersburgh to Naples. In England, from Inigo Jones in the 1620s to the French and Dutch-inspired gardens in the last decades of the century; miles of clipped box, beech and hornbeam, topiary yews by the score, fountains, statues, arbours and gravelled walks were all the rage.

3. The English Landscape

The eighteenth century garden was a complete reaction to what went before and as the century progressed so the trend towards naturalism intensified; the Arcadian landscapes of William Kent, transformed into an Elysian vision under Capability Brown. The gods and nymphs who had inhabited Kent’s gardens were chased away by the swains and shepherdesses. By the end of the century even they were gone, replaced by Picturesque ruggedness and Gothick horror.

1. 19th Century Romantic Gardens

The wild excesses of the Picturesque produced some wonderfully dramatic, if impractical, gardens. The reaction to this gardening chaos led to a more formal style of planting championed by Humphry Repton and then an explosion of garden ornamentation in every conceivable style, as taste and restraint were abandoned altogether. Technology came to the aid of the gardener; conservatories and greenhouses were built on a larger scale until Crystal Palace, the ultimate glasshouse, was built by Sir Joseph Paxton.

2. Arts and Crafts: Lutyens and Jekyll

At the end of the nineteenth century a house by Edwin Lutyens, with a garden by Gertrude Jekyll, became an Edwardian ideal. Together they designed gardens with a strong architectural background, softened by luxuriant planting in the natural style. Their partnership thrived in the brash, new-moneyed Edwardian era, but the First World War ended that golden afternoon. As Lutyens became distracted by the creation of New Delhi and Miss Jekyll, almost blind, became more and more reluctant to leave Munstead Wood, so the gardens they designed together were fewer and further between.

3. English Gardens after Miss Jekyll

The long shadow of the Arts and Crafts Movement has hung over English gardening for most of the twentieth century. The dominance of Miss Jekyll and the popularity of gardens at Hidcote and Sissinghurst have proved to be an enduring legacy. But with the new century Post-Modernism, rich in symbolism, has, in gardens like Portrack, Little Sparta and Througham Court, explored the worlds of literature and science. Towards the end of the century, the New Perennial Movement stimulated an interest in woodland and wild-flower meadows. This was spearheaded by designers such as Dan Pearson and Tom Stuart-Smith, and is, perhaps, more in tune with the twenty-first Century.