Trentham Gardens - New Wave Regular Style

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Gardening in England is a national tradition, which has become the hallmark of foggy Albion, and this despite the fact that neighbors, the French and Italians, taught the British to create decorative landscapes. Until the end of the 17th century, gardens in England looked like beds with aromatic herbs, vegetables and fruits. They were cultivated by medieval monks at monasteries and almost all ordinary inhabitants of the kingdom, thus replenishing their grocery basket. Today, many English gardens, founded several centuries ago, are considered the best examples of landscape art. And one of them is Trentham Gardens.

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Location: Stone Road Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST4 8AX;
Size: 330 ha;
Age: 258 years;
Website: www.trentham.co.uk
Feature: Is it possible to combine “incompatible?” Two very different styles in the design of the garden, the strict "regular" and reckless "Naturgarden", merged into a single ensemble on the territory of the Trentham Gardens. What came of this, read on.

Content:

The Gardening Revolution of England
Trentham Gardens History
Works by Peter Udolph - Flood Meadow by the River and the Floral Labyrinth
Italian garden in the interpretation of Tom Stuart-Smith
What besides plants?
Trentham Gardens - Photo Gallery

The Gardening Revolution of England

The beginning of the end of the era of "English vegetable gardens" was laid by the creator of Versailles Andre Lenotre, who arrived at the invitation of the English nobility in the country to create several parks and gardens for the royal people of England. And after some half a century, the local landscape architect Lancelot Brown made a revolution in domestic gardening, developing the concept of the English landscape garden in the form in which it exists now.

During his long creative life, he created about two hundred gardens and parks, many of which have been preserved to this day in almost original form. Trentham Gardens is one of his many works. True, she has undergone many cardinal changes over her long life.

Trentham Gardens History

Their story began in 1759 with a landscape park. It was defeated by Lancelot Brown along the shores of the lake with a length of approximately 1.5 km (today colorful meadow plantings of summers, biennials and perennial flowers grow here). At that time, the lake, as well as 330 hectares of land of future gardens, belonged to the English Duke. Much later, in 1833, another gardener-architect Charles Barry pitched in the already existing park, the so-called Italian flower gardens - an example of a landscaped garden in a regular style. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the 20th century the estate fell into disrepair and was sold. The park with a hundred and fifty-year history has become public domain, which, of course, did not benefit him.

Only relatively recently, in 2004, the famous landscape designers of the present, Tom Stuart-Smith from Great Britain and Peter Udolph from Holland, breathed new life into the brainchild of Lancelot Brown. The Englishman recreated in a more modern way the upper part of the old Italian flower garden, and the Dutchman interpreted the lower part in his own way.

Works by Peter Udolph - Flood Meadow by the River and the Floral Labyrinth

It should be noted that the Dutch architect got a very problematic area for work. The fact is that the local river, spilling every year, covers rather large areas of the garden with water. Therefore, the task of Peter Udolph was also to pick up such plants for the flower beds of this zone that can withstand regular floods and quickly restore their decorativeness in moist soil.

He coped with this task with honor, choosing an approach in the style of minimalism: he impregnated the impressive plantings of low varieties of lightning with variegated splashes of flowers that respect moisture. Here are astrantia, and astilbe, irises and bathing pools, daylilies and highlander stem-embracing.

Peter Udolph created his floral labyrinth on 55 acres, one side adjacent to the Flood meadow, and the other to the Stuart-Smith Italian garden. His brainchild represents 32 gorgeous flower gardens in the style of natural-type gardens that share narrow paths made of lawn and gravel.

Like all the work of the Dutch landscape architect, they are always decorative - from early spring to deep winter, when they are pruned.

But if you are lucky enough to be in the Trentham Gardens at the end of summer or at the very beginning of autumn, you will see Udolph's flower gardens at the very peak of their decorativeness. At this time, this site really resembles a labyrinth - it is easy to get lost among tall miscanthus, meadowsworms and window sills.

A particular pleasure is a walk through the maze to either of the two huge lawns at different ends of the garden. These are original beautiful platforms where you can admire and study the most diverse, but always spectacular and harmonious combinations of Udolph's color compositions. There are many vacationers on the lawns on weekends. They arrange small picnics here, “taking a breath” after walking around the neighborhood.

Italian garden in the interpretation of Tom Stuart-Smith

The regular garden, created at the top of the old Italian garden by an English landscape architect, is perhaps the most “irregular” of all the “regular” ones. A classic of garden art is the Italian garden, where the chiseled forms of thuja and geometrically rigorous boxwood borders play the first violin, filled with erratic and chaotic flower beds typical of the New Wave gardens, but not Italian at all.

Udolph’s work surrounds the new Italian garden from all sides, the plants selected for the flower gardens of the latter are purely “Udolphian,” but his regular style remains regular. The “exuberant” flowerbeds and flower beds do not merge with the mixborders of the neighboring garden due to the strict lines that create boxwood curbs.

Inside there, rudbeckia and honekhlohlo, a window sill and reed, pike and a highlander stemming chaotically grow. In addition to ornamental grasses and cereals, characteristic of the New Wave gardens, the architect settled heat-loving perennials inside strict borders: dahlias, gaillardia, aeoniums and gladioli. As befits in the gardens of the Italian style, there are many old flowerpots. In them, the designer landed a scarlet begonia, emphasizing the tone of bright perennial flowers.

What besides plants?

Every day, this pearl of English gardening is visited by hundreds of tourists from all over the world, and for many years the Trentham Gardens have remained the British favorite destination. They come here for fresh air and the smell of herbs to enjoy stunning views and take leisurely and relaxing walks. It also hosts interesting shows and seasonal fairs.

On the territory of the gardens there is a shopping center, in 77 wooden houses of which there are shops, cafes, restaurants and eateries. Here you can buy not only plants and gardening products, but also many other useful little things for life. And all this - in the warm and joyful atmosphere of the English countryside. So, if you’re in the good old England, you should definitely visit here!

In the meantime, see more photos of Trentham Gardens in our photo gallery.