Unit information: The Flower Garden, 1800-1914 in 2009/10

Unit name	The Flower Garden, 1800-1914
Unit code	ARCHM0121
Credit points	10
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Emeritus Professor. Mowl
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Anthropology and Archaeology
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This is an optional unit offered in Teaching Block 2. It will examine the stylistic, technological and horticultural development of the flower garden in England in the nineteenth century and the opening years of the twentieth century; before the onset of World War I. Each seminar will focus upon a different theme including architecture and revivalism, science and morality, feminisation of the garden and sentimentality and colour, exoticism and excess.

Aims:

The unit will address the theory and practice of garden design in England between 1800 and 1914 by focusing upon individual flower gardens, designers and horticultural commentators. The fluctuating emphasis upon art and nature will be explored through literary and visual representations of the flower garden.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Exploration of the changing fashions in garden design should engender an awareness of the historical, scientific and social attitudes of the period and compliment both of the core modules on the history of landscape gardening.

Teaching Information

Lectures, seminars and site visits.

Assessment Information

An essay or seminar paper (3,500 words.)

Reading and References

• Boniface, Priscilla (ed.), In Search of English Gardens: John Claudius Loudon and his wife Jane, 1990

• Elliott, Brent, Victorian Gardens, 1996

• Colquhoun, Kate, A Thing in Disguise: The Visionary Life of Joseph Paxton, 2004

• Hibberd, Shirley, The Amateurs Flower Garden: A Handy Guide to the Formation and Management of the Flower Garden and the Cultivation of Garden Flowers, 1871

• Ledward, Daphne (intro.), The Victorian Garden Catalogue: A Treasure Trove of Horticultural Paraphernalia, 1995

• Loudon, John Claudius, The Landscape Gardening and Landscape Architecture of the Late Humphry Repton Esq. Being his Entire Works on these Subjects, 1840

• Robinson, William, The Wild Garden or, Our Groves and Shrubberies made Beautiful by the Naturalization of Hardy Exotic Plants, 1870

• Sitwell, Sir George, On the Making of Gardens, 1909

• Stone, Jean, The Rustic Garden, 1992