Gertrude Jekyll's Lost Garden [Hardcover]

Rosamund Wallinger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2006

The garden at the Manor House, Upton Grey in Hampshire, England, was designed by Gertrude Jekyll for Charles Holme, the founder of 'The Studio'. Having fallen into disrepair it has been accurately and painstakingly recreated over a period of sixteen years to embody Gertrude Jekyll's original vision. It now contains the only fully restored Jekyll wild garden still in existence. The recreation was made possible by the discovery of Jekyll's original plans at the Reef Point Collection in the United States, secured for posterity by the great American landscape architect Beatrix Farrand. Rosamund Wallinger, the current owner of the Manor House, personally undertook the restoration of this Edwardian masterpiece. Meticulous records and photographs kept throughout the restoration have enabled Rosamund Wallinger to produce a beautifully illustrated and historic document. Full of fascinating horticultural details, and tinged with a very necessary sense of humour, her account makes fascinating reading for an

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In 1983, when Wallinger and her husband purchased Upton Grey, a turn-of-the-century manor house in Hampshire, she had no idea that she was about to embark on a new passion that would consume her life. While researching the history of the house, built by Charles Holme, a leading Arts and Crafts figure of his day, she made the exciting discovery that the overgrown garden was designed by Gertrude Jekyll. Wallinger had very little interest in gardening before she moved to Upton Grey, but she had the sense to recognize Jekyll's importance, and she was determined to restore the garden to its original design. Tracking down Jekyll's original plans, which were housed at the University of California at Berkeley, she began the long and arduous task of deciphering the plans, locating plants (many of which were extremely hard to find), and tackling the physical demands of restoring the garden. She documented her progress with photographs (the before and after shots are remarkable) and a journal. Her account of the mistakes she made along the way as well as exciting discoveries and her increasing appreciation of Jekyll's legacy make fascinating reading. Sixteen years later, Upton Grey stands as the only fully restored Jekyll garden. This beautiful book will inspire any gardener and is essential for all gardening collections.DPhillip Oliver, Univ. of North Alabama Lib., Florence
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

'This book may even appeal to raeders without and interest in historical gardens. It is written in a highly personal style...Gardening successes and failures are described with humorous irony, and the txt combines philosophical reflections and sound practical advice' Country Life

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Antique Collectors Club Dist; 1 edition (January 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1870673352
• ISBN-13: 978-1870673358
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,507,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful and inspiring book, August 28, 2000

By 

W. Oliver (Alabama) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gertrude Jekyll's Lost Garden (Hardcover)

In 1983, Rosamund Wallinger (the author) and her husband purchased a turn-of-the-century manor house in Hampshire called Upton Grey, a large estate that needed many repairs and a derelict garden that was overgrown with weeds. While researching the history of the house, Wallinger learned that the garden was designed by the great garden designer Gertrude Jekyll. She had no interest in gardening before she moved to Upton Grey, but she did recognize Gertrude Jekyll's stature in gardening history, and so she set out to restore the garden to its original splendor, a task that would take more than a decade. She located Jekyll's original plans at the University of California and began a difficult process of translating the plans from Jekyll's bad handwriting and attempting to locate the plants that were originally used in the garden. Fortunately for us and herself, Wallinger kept a journal in which she documented her progress. The before and after photographs are amazing and the reader becomes quickly engrossed in Wallinger's project as well as a growing attachment to her menagerie of dogs, ducks and geese. This beautiful book will be an inspriation to any gardener, especially those have a formidable gardening challenge ahead of them.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gertrude Jekyll's Lost Garden: An Adventure in Restoration, August 24, 2000

By 

Anadel Law (Menlo Park, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gertrude Jekyll's Lost Garden (Hardcover)

During research for restoration of a derelict Arts and Crafts home, which had been designed by the famous English architect, Edwin Lutyens, to fit around the shell of an Elizabethan farmhouse, the new owners discovered that the original garden had been designed in 1908 by the legendary Gertrude Jekyll.

Rosamond Wallinger began research on the garden, discovered Jekyll's plans in the University of California's Bancroft Library, and `with the ignorance and enthusiasm of a true amateur', decided to restore the garden to its exact original glory

This story is a fascinating account of the labors, heartaches, and joys which accompanied the sixteen year project. It took her and her husband two years to remove the brambles and weeds which covered the two acres of original garden. The detective work required for the location of exact plants specified in the plans involved a global search and brought her many connections throughout England and Europe, gardeners who shared her enthusiasm for the project and provided information, seeds, and cuttings.

Wallinger, whose previous gardening experience was nearly non-existent, freely confesses the mistakes and mishaps which occurred during the project. Her meticulous records and beautiful photographs show the emergence of the now complete garden, the only fully restored Jekyll garden still in existence. Readers will enjoy the unfolding story, told with self-deprecating humor, which also contains practical advice and insight into the Jekyll's ,methods.

An eminently readable book of interest to garden historians, garden enthusiasts, and arm chair gardeners as well.

(The garden is now, in season, open to the public on a regular schedule, and visitors today can enjoy the paradise garden envisioned by Gertrude Jekyll nearly a century ago.)

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Restoring an historic garden, June 4, 2003

By 

Valerie Adolph "Coast Journal" (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gertrude Jekyll's Lost Garden (Hardcover)

Imagine buying a delapidated old manor house old manor house with a large overgrown garden for a very reasonable price and finding that not only was the house historically important but the garden, invisible under weed growth, had been designed by one of the most famous of English garden designers. Its hard to imagine who was most fortunate - the purchasers who lucked into this masterpiece but who paid for it many times over in the toil and expense of careful restoration, or the nation who almost lost a yet another treasure to developers.

The Wallingers, looking for a house that was fairly close to London, but within their price range, took a chance on a most unprepossessing house. This book tells the story of the restoration of the garden to the exact specifications of Gertrude Jekyll. It must have been a daunting task. The plans themselves, once they were unearthed, were difficult to read. To be honest, they look like a bunch of scribbles and scrawls and to have deciphered them at all is a remarkable achievement.

This book covers the first fifteen years of the gardens re-birth. It is a detailed account, taken from Rosamund Wallingers diary, but it is written with wit and style and her frustrations and triumphs are felt rather than read. And all along you can follow the illustrations of how the garden progressed from months of ripping up and burning to the glorious borders, wild garden and rose garden of the present.

But this is a value-for-money book with the story of one familys life work , not just a collection of pretty garden pictures. Not many people restore gardens, we usually start off from scratch. So this is a whole new viewpoint, and there is much that we gardeners can learn from it.