Gertrude Jekyll's Color Schemes for the Flower Garden [Paperback]

Gertrude Jekyll (Author), Richard Bisgrove (Preface)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 7, 2001

A beautifully illustrated edition of Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden, one of the most influential gardening books of the 20th century. With an approach as fresh and relevant now as when it first appeared in 1908, this book, by the great garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, is an eloquent expression of her painterly ideas on colour, and takes the form of an inspiring and instructive tour of her own garden at Munstead Wood. Beautiful and delicate illustrations of some of Gertrude Jekyll's favourite plants augment full-color interpretations of her planting plans to convey an instant impression of her aims. This edition – with a preface by Richard Bisgrove – does full justice to the author's vision of the use of color in the garden.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gertrude Jekyll created over 400 gardens in England, Europe and America. She holds a unique place in the making of English gardens and has exerted immense influence on good garden planting throughout the world. Her Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden, first published in 1908, was one of the most influential gardening books of the 20th century. She died in 1932. Richard Bisgrove is the director of the Landscape Management degree course at Reading University. He has designed gardens in Britain and the United States and lectures internationally on the history of garden design and on the work of Gertrude Jekyll.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln (June 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0711217920
• ISBN-13: 978-0711217928
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #282,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gertrude Jekyll's Colour Schemes, July 30, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden (Hardcover)

As an Engish Gardener "displaced in Kansas" this book was a delight. Anyone who wants to plan a garden large or small should turn to this little gem written over 80 years ago. Miss Jekyll was the definitive garden planner, her ideas of colours and seasonal planting will inspire you to create a beautiful garden of your own. Quite the best of her kind.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not-perfect version of a classic, December 8, 2007

By 

K. Mulcahy (NYC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gertrude Jekyll's Color Schemes for the Flower Garden (Paperback)

For those who are truly crazy about making and playing in flower gardens, this Gertrude Jekyll book is one of the best. It's not a practical how-to book. Few gardeners will share the climate she was writing about, or have her enviable resources, like a tidy trust fund, 10 acres and a small staff of gardeners. Ms. Jekyll was the most famous garden writer of her day, producing many books in addition to writing articles and designing a lot of high-end residential flower gardens.

This book is a fascinating and surprisingly relevant record of how she contrived her own flower gardens a hundred years ago. There are detailed planting plans of her gardens, drawn by her, and also some fantasy garden designs. In addition to the classic flower border (which she had a strong hand in inventing) there are designs for bulb and annual flower gardens, and many, many other ideas for landscaping. If you think the gardens of an elderly lady in England a hundred years ago would be filled with washed-out colors and fussy ornaments, you are in for a huge surprise.

Like Russell Page's 'The Education of a Gardener', this is the chance to get inside the mind of a great artist: how they think, how they see, and how they tranlate their insights into garden design. As originally published (with plan drawings and photos by Ms. Jekyll) her original is an all time classic.

I'm not completely enthusiastic about this edition. Some plant names are updated (fine), many color pictures are added (nice pics, but none of Ms. Jekyll's gardens), modern watercolors of plants mentioned in the copy are scattered about (OK, but more decoration than education) and a few additional Jekyll designs not included in the original book were added (very nice).

Negatively, they edit her plan drawings a bit, coloring them in, and removing the original scale marking, so you can't tell how big the beds are. The coloring will help those not super-familiar with plant names to get the jist of the designs. They have also removed some of her original B&W photos. That's not good. I'm sorry I lent my original version to someone and lost it.

This edition is a colorful and largely satisfying replacement, but I will probably try to hunt up a true reproduction of the original. I'd rather get a clearer version of Ms. Jekyll's voice.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For the experienced gardener, March 3, 2008

By 

H+E (Albuquerque, New Mexico United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gertrude Jekyll's Color Schemes for the Flower Garden (Paperback)

If you are new to gardening but want classic borders, this may not be the book for you. To understand this book, you need to have a thorough understanding of garden plants, especially those that are grown in England. This is not a "plug and play" kind of book. Here's an sample:
"The undergrowth of such a group may be of Solomon's seal at the back, and, if the bank or border is in the sun, of a lower groundwork of Iberis and Corydalis ochroleuca, or, if it is shaded, of Tiarella, woodruff or Anemone sylvestris. With these, for the sake of their tender green foliage, there may well be Uvularia grandiflora and Epimedium pinnatum."
If you didn't follow that sample, and understand the subtlety of composition here, imagining the composition of color, plant form, leaf texture, moisture and sun requirements, and seasonal variation, you'll need several good plant books and visits to arboreta to understand this book. There aren't photographs to illustrate the prose. It would be even more difficult to translate this into your specific garden.

That being said, it is fascinating to read Jekyll's own words, and even more so to see her drawings. Each plan is augmented by watercolor which helps in understanding. Each plan could take hours of study to begin the understand the genius of Jekyll. I agree with another reviewer in that it was a mistake to eliminate the scale on the drawings.