Describe the form, content and style of the Victorian villa
garden. Include in your answer the inspirations for this garden type.
The Victorian villa garden incorporated many
different styles of English gardens for the purpose of conspicuous
consumption—no villa was complete without a garden that represented the
spending power of the parvenu and nouveau riche. Both social mores and
technological developments had strong influences on the stylistic mishmash that
was the Victorian villa garden.
Technological developments abounded in the
Victorian era, but it was the glasshouse (colloquially called a greenhouse)
that added to the design of the Victorian villa garden. While the idea of
insulation to grown plants had been around since Roman times, the first glasshouse
was developed in Holland in the 1800’s, followed by Joseph Paxton who built The
Crystal Palace in London, putting glasshouses on the map for garden-owning
Victorians. Glasshouses, being expensive structures to build and maintain,
naturally housed expensive, exotic plants that also required much maintenance
for their survival. Individual plants were used as status symbols in the
Victorian garden, and the glasshouse was integral to maintaining those status
symbols.
Southport glasshouse
source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bd/Southport_Botanic_Gardens_Glasshouse.jpg
One of the first orchids to start the orchid craze in England, Cattleya labiata.
source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattleya_labiata#/media/File:Labiata.jpg
If you were worried about a lack of status
symbols in the Victorian villa garden, don’t be. Greenhouses were only one
component as the villa garden has more to offer by way of conspicuous
consumption. The past gardening trend had been that of Capability’s Brown’s
landscape gardens. This was rejected by the Victorians in search of formality
and acknowledgement of the ability of man. The garden became one of
constructed, artificial nature for the sake of beauty and displaying art and
architecture. Formal portions of the Victorian villa garden were included
directly off of the house, which often included a terrace, works of art (such
as statues), and formal elements such as parterres. Formal gardens opened up to
pleasure gardens, which looked like natural landscapes blemished by—and clashing—bedding flowers in various shapes and designs. Fountains,
patios and intently designed rockeries were also included in the pleasure
garden.
The final element of the Victorian villa garden
was the productive, or kitchen garden. Seeing how maintenance of the villa
garden could be quite costly, it made sense to have a productive garden—but it
was to be far off from the house. Sure, it’s necessary and helps offset costs,
but no one needed to see evidence of this sort of consumption.
Map of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire
source: http://www.places-to-go.org.uk/Images/Chatsworth_map.gif
source: http://www.places-to-go.org.uk/Images/Chatsworth_map.gif
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