From Iron Benches to Innovation: Lady Wolseley’s Garden Legacy

September 15, 1872

On this day, we cast our gaze back to when Frances Garnet Wolseley, destined to become the 2nd Viscountess Wolseley, drew her first breath into a world she would later help transform through the art of gardening.

How fitting that she would emerge in autumn when gardens prepare for their next great awakening.

In an era when women of privilege were expected to merely admire gardens from those dreaded iron benches she so delightfully criticized, Lady Wolseley dared to dig deeper.

She established the remarkable Glynde College for Lady Gardeners in East Sussex, an institution that would flourish under the watchful eyes of gardening luminaries including the incomparable Gertrude Jekyll, the passionate Ellen Willmott, and the revolutionary William Robinson.

It is with real sorrow that we see so many [survivors] of an era of not particularly good taste in the shape of iron benches.

It is their undoubted durability which has preserved them, and we who try to rest upon them are the sufferers, not only for their unpleasing appearance but from the ill-chosen formation of the back...

One can hardly suppress a smile at her pointed commentary on those Victorian monstrosities that still plague many a garden today.

Does it not strike you as deliciously ironic that these benches, meant for contemplation of beauty, should themselves be so wretchedly uncomfortable?

Imagine, dear readers, the courage it took to establish a college for women gardeners in those days!

While men dominated the horticultural world, Lady Wolseley created a haven where women could master the arts of pruning, propagation, and garden design.

Her students didn't merely learn to arrange flowers – they studied soil chemistry, plant pathology, and the principles of landscape design.

Through her writings, including Gardening for Women and In a College Garden, Lady Wolseley championed the cause of professional women gardeners with the same tenacity that her roses climbed their trellises. Her practical approach to gardening education transformed countless lives, proving that green thumbs know no gender.

What would Lady Wolseley make of our modern gardens?

One suspects she would approve of our increasing focus on sustainable practices and native plantings, while perhaps raising an elegantly arched eyebrow at our continued tolerance of uncomfortable garden furniture!

As autumn paints our gardens in magnificent hues, let us remember this remarkable woman who broke new ground – quite literally – in horticultural education.

Her legacy blooms on in every woman who has made gardening her profession, and in every garden that benefits from their expertise.