Gertrude Jekyll
A British artist-turned-gardener who painted with plants, revolutionizing garden design with her lush, naturalistic color harmonies and textures.
1843–1932 (age 89)·British garden designer and writer·Birthday: November 29
Biography
Gertrude Jekyll came to gardening not as a botanist, but as an artist. Trained in painting and the Arts and Crafts movement, failing eyesight forced her to shift her canvas from the studio to the soil. She began to see flower borders as living compositions, arranging plants for their form, texture, and most famously, their color. Rejecting the rigid, formal bedding schemes of the Victorian era, she championed a more natural, flowing style where drifts of perennials bloomed in subtle, graduated sequences. Her legendary partnership with architect Edwin Lutyens produced some of England's most beloved homes and gardens, where her soft planting schemes perfectly complemented his sturdy stonework. Jekyll was also a prolific writer, publishing over a dozen books and a thousand articles that demystified her art for a middle-class audience. She transformed the gardener's role from mere cultivator to designer, leaving a legacy that made the English cottage garden a global aesthetic.
#1 When Gertrude Was Born
The biggest hits of 1843
Gertrude's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1843Born
1848Started school
1856Became a teenager
1859Could drive
1861Could vote
President: Abraham Lincoln
1864Turned 21
President: Abraham Lincoln
1873Turned 30
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1883Turned 40
President: Chester A. Arthur
1893Turned 50
World's Columbian Exposition dazzles Chicago
President: Grover Cleveland
1903Turned 60
Wright brothers achieve first powered flight
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1913Turned 70
The Federal Reserve is established
President: Woodrow Wilson
1923Turned 80
The Great Kanto earthquake devastates Tokyo
President: Calvin Coolidge"Yes! We Have No Bananas" — Billy Jones
1932Died at 89
Amelia Earhart flies solo across the Atlantic
Gas: $0.18/galPresident: Herbert Hoover"Night and Day" — Fred AstaireBest Picture: Grand Hotel
Key Achievements
- Designed or consulted on over 400 gardens, defining the 'English garden' style for the 20th century.
- Authored influential books like 'Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden' (1908), which codified her artistic planting principles.
- Forged a seminal creative partnership with architect Edwin Lutyens, integrating house and garden as a unified work of art.
Did You Know?
She was an accomplished craftswoman in metalwork, woodcarving, and embroidery before focusing solely on gardens.
Jekyll created her own nursery at Munstead Wood to grow and experiment with the plants she used in her designs.
She took up photography to document plants and gardens, producing thousands of glass plate negatives.
Despite her fame, she never formally trained in horticulture and referred to herself as a 'garden-planner,' not a landscape architect.
“The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies.”
