William Robinson: The Revolutionary Who Liberated Our Gardens

July 15, 1838

Dear readers, today we celebrate the birth of none other than William Robinson, that revolutionary figure who dared to liberate our gardens from the tyrannical regime of formal landscaping!

Born on this day in 1838, Robinson boldly championed what we now know as the Herbaceous border and advocated for the "wild garden" - a concept that shocked the horticultural establishment to its very core.

One cannot overstate how this man transformed our English landscape from stiff, regimented formality into something far more relaxed and - dare I say it - democratic.

Before Robinson's intervention, elaborate gardens were the exclusive playground of the aristocracy, requiring armies of gardeners to maintain. How delightfully subversive that he made beautiful gardens attainable for the masses!

Robinson's revolutionary ideas, spread through his prolific writing, brought him considerable financial success. By the tender age of 45, he had amassed sufficient fortune to purchase the Elizabethan Manor of Gravetye in Sussex, along with nearly two hundred acres of pasture and woodland. There, he practiced what he so fervently preached, creating a living testament to his wild garden philosophy.

Imagine walking those grounds during Robinson's time - nature seemingly untamed yet artfully directed by his visionary hand!

In 1896, the esteemed Gertrude Jekyll - herself no minor figure in garden design - offered this assessment of Robinson's profound impact:

"[Thanks to Robinson] ... we may see how best to use and enjoy the thousands of beautiful plants that have been brought to us by the men who have given fortune, health and often life in perilous travel that our gardens may be enriched and botanical knowledge extended.

We cannot now, with all this treasure at our feet, neglect it and refuse it the gratefully appreciative use that it deserves."

How perfectly expressed!

Robinson understood what so many before him failed to grasp - that plants from distant lands need not be confined to rigid patterns and unnatural arrangements. Instead, he encouraged us to observe how they grow in their native habitats and to place them where they might thrive naturally in our gardens.

His influential works, including The Wild Garden and The English Flower Garden, continue to inspire gardeners who wish to break free from conventional constraints.

Is it not remarkable that well over a century later, we still turn to Robinson's principles when seeking to create gardens that feel both wild and welcoming?

Today, as you survey your own garden plots, dear readers, perhaps you might consider how much you owe to this visionary man born on a summer's day in 1838.

Whether you realize it or not, his revolutionary spirit likely informs your planting choices more than you know!