neW urBan environmenTs, C.1860–1950^171through trimming, mowing and weeding.^49 In the twentieth century, as never
before, they served as reservoirs from which alien species invaded the wider
landscape, especially the urban landscape. Yet gardens were, or could be,
also incredibly rich in native fauna and flora. Their benefits in this respect
depended on their design, on the kinds of plant established within them, on
the extent of cover provided by shrubs and trees, and on the diversity of
habitats they provided within a circumscribed area.
In the late nineteenth century, there were major changes in the character
of garden design among the wealthy and fashionable. Highly formal and
geometric layouts involving the profligate use of bedding-out plants fell
from favour.^50 Designers like William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll instead
advocated the planting of hardy perennial flowers, some of which were
versions of indigenous species but others introduced, in wide herbaceous
borders and beds. Such ‘Arts and Crafts’ gardens still had structured elements,
often for example featuring compartments defined by yew or privet hedging
and displays of roses arranged in geometric beds. But they also contained
areas of less formal planting which at the largest residences, on the fringes of
town, included woodland gardens: even in the smaller gardens shrubberies
were a major feature. Robinson in particular advocated the creation of ‘wild’
areas where mixtures of native and introduced species would be planted in
a casual, informal manner. At his own home, Gravetye manor is Sussex, he
planted drifts of scilla, cyclamen and narcissus between the stools of hazel
in the coppiced woods. Such designs were suited, not so much to the rolling
acres of the established country house, but to the kind of large house in
the countryside or on the edge of it, with extensive but not unmanageable
grounds, of the kind now desired by many successful businessmen.^51
Robinson’s predilection for planting hardy exotics in the peripheral parts
of gardens, on the edge of towns, had the predictable effect of encouraging
their dispersal into the countryside, often many decades or centuries after
their initial introduction.^52 White comfrey (Symphytum orientale), for
example, one of Robinson’s favourites, is a native of southern Russia which
was first introduced as a garden plant as early as 1752, but which does
not seem to have spread far before the later nineteenth century: it is now
widely established in the countryside. Japanese knotweed, introduced at
the start of the nineteenth century, likewise only really spread in the wild
at this time.^53 It is now common on river banks throughout England, a
serious threat to indigenous marginal vegetation. Canadian golden rod, a
taller version of the native plant (reaching a height of two metres), was first
planted in gardens in 1648, but it fell from favour because of its invasive
tendencies. Robinson thought it ideal for the ‘wild garden’, particularly if
planted with the American michaelmas daisy. Both are now widespread,
not only in urban wastelands but – in the case of the former especially – in
the countryside, again forming dense stands along watercourses.^54 Buddleia
Buddleja davidii was another significant introduction of the period, brought
from China in the 1890s. It spread rapidly throughout the country, in part