Women Celebrated by Registered Parks and Gardens

Until the 20th century a woman's role was generally as a wife and mother. She had few rights of property or opportunities for professional recognition or advancement, was discouraged from learning or displaying intellectual prowess and was denied the vote. Some exceptional and advantaged individuals used the garden to assert their interests and build their own reputations but it was not until after the 1920s, when women's rights, suffrage, and access to education were established, that many more women were able to develop careers in garden design, horticulture or landscape architecture. Here we showcase nine women and the garden landscapes they influenced.

Brenda Colvin (1897-1981) was one of Britain's most distinguished garden designers and landscape architects. She was a pioneer, dedicated to promoting the profession. In 1929 she helped found the Institute of Landscape Architects (now the Landscape Institute), becoming its president in 1951. One of her early commissions was Burwarton, which has extensive formal gardens and a landscape park, all carefully sited to take advantage of the locality's rugged upland scenery. The garden comprises a series of terraces with steps and gravel walks, which fall away south of the house. In the 1920s Brenda extended them to include a rose garden within a yew hedge. The Burwarton Estate, still one of the county's largest, is not open to the public.

Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) was an artist, craftswoman, writer and garden designer. Through her design consultancy and nursery, she helped transform garden design into a profession for women. She was one of the most influential gardening figures of her age, writing many books and articles in gardening journals and newspapers, and was the first woman to be awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour by the Royal Horticultural Society. Hestercombe garden was one of Gertrude's commissions in partnership with the architect Edwin Lutyens. The principal feature is the Great Plat - a large, sunken garden with stone steps at each corner and geometric-shaped panels of lawn enclosed by stone flags, which meet at a central sundial.

Norah Lindsay (1873-1948) started as an amateur garden stylist for her friends, and became a sought-after garden designer. She had a spontaneous and informal planting style, consisting of clumps of seemingly self-sown plants, which were lent structure by architectural plants. Her artful informality, with a haphazard abundance of flowers set against a backdrop of trimmed hedges, provided contrasts of light and dark. One of her commissions was Mottisfont Abbey. On the level ground within the U-shape formed by the wings of the house, Norah designed a box-edged parterre, planted with spring bulbs and summer bedding schemes. 

Penelope Hobhouse (born 1929) is an award-winning garden designer, garden historian and writer, whose style has been influenced by Gertrude Jekyll. She created the garden at Walmer Castle, Kent in 1997 to commemorate the 95th birthday of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Walmer Castle includes formal gardens and pleasure grounds, and the Queen Mother's garden is enclosed by high, castellated red-brick walls. A central lily pool, flanked with broad panels of lawn, is surrounded by gravelled walks and large colourful mixed borders. At the north end is a summerhouse and there is a double E-shaped parterre for 'Elizabeth'. The terraces contain plantings of a pink patio rose named after the Queen Mother.

Princess Augusta (1719-1772) was 17 when she married Frederick, Prince of Wales, who was son of George II. It was only after her husband died that Augusta acquired the independence to pursue her own interests. Frederick had begun a collection of exotic plants at Kew and, under the care of the Dowager Princess, the gardens at Kew were developed further and extended. Exotic plants and trees were sent to Augusta from abroad and, by 1768, the herbaceous collection had over 2,700 species. Kew is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Sylvia Crowe (1901-1997) was a landscape architect well-known for the variety of her work. She is celebrated for her garden designs, industrial and housing landscapes, and aesthetic and ecological principles in forestry. She designed landscapes for hospitals, power stations and reservoirs, and assisted with the gardens at the new towns of Harlow (illustrated here) and Basildon. Sylvia was concerned that new developments were being landscaped by non-specialists and that the standard of landscape relative to housing was poor. At Harlow, the Town Park was created as a green 'wedge' between built up areas and to provide an easily accessible open space to residents of this post-war new town.

Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) was a poet, novelist, biographer and gardener. Her garden at Sissinghurst is one of the most admired and influential English gardens of the 20th century. Laid out around surviving 16th century buildings and park, Sissinghurst garden was a collaboration with her husband Sir Harold Nicolson. Harold is credited with designing the formal structure of the garden's separate enclosures, and Vita with the exuberant planting. The enclosures, often linked by vistas, include a Rose Garden, Cottage Garden, Herb Garden and The White Garden. Sissinghurst was a showcase for small gardens, as each separate garden enclosure was on a small scale and so appealed to amateur gardeners.