Gertrude Jekyll could turn her hand to anything; deeply involved with the Arts and Crafts movement, she mastered dozens of specialties in her quest to explore the relationship between human lives and their environments.
As her eyesight failed, she turned to large scale endeavors, and changed how the world thought about gardens; turning them from formal displays into living, breathing works of art. She used color, texture, and shape like a painter on a large, ever-changing canvas.
Gertrude’s innovations within her finished gardens – and decades of written work – made her an inspiration for generations of gardeners and landscape architects. And she became one of the most influential garden designers of all time.
(National Portrait Gallery)
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Time Travel With The History Chicks
Books!
You can read several of her books online, including Wood and Garden: Notes and Thoughts, Practical and Critical of a Working Amateur, and Color in the Flower Garden.
Web!
You can find links and photos of her remaining (or inspired by) public gardens on GreatBritishGardens.co.uk.
If you would like to see some of her art, photography, and gardens in one place, plus a gardener-centered look at her work, check out this article at Garden Museum UK, or visit them the next time you’re in London. There are also quite a few on GertrudeJekyll.co.uk (The “Official Gertrude site, has quite a bit of information on her.) For some photos of her home, there’s a lot here in this brochure from when it was last for sale in 2022.
Gertrude couldn’t find vases that she liked, so she made them. More on that in The Telegraph and buy them here at Gertrude Jekyll Designs.
Munstead Wood is not yet open to the public, but to keep an eye on the progress, or to donate to its preservation, visit The National Trust.
Her boots and other memorabilia are at the Godalming Museum, or the Guilford Museum if you’re ever in Surrey, and the Boots portrait by William Nicholson is at the Tate.
The David Austin rose named for her (known for scent and prolific flowers) you can find it wherever David Austin roses are sold, but also on David Austin Rose’s website.
Beckett talked about a couple that had restored a Gertrude Jekyll garden at their home, Upton Grey. You can’t visit anymore, but you can check out their website! The Manor House
