t SHAKESPEARE GARDEN PLAN 
BY' JENS JENSEN, Landscape Architect 
4 61 616 Prepared im Codperation with the Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebration Committee of the Drama League and Officially Endorsed 1916 
N EFFORT to restore the Eliza- 
bethan garden at this period 
would be but an antiquarian af- 
fectation, and of no real value. 
The extremely geometrical figures or 
“knots” would, indeed, fit poorly into 
our free scheme of modern day garden- 
ing, and so a Shakespeare garden be- 
comes nothing more than the expression 
of a sentiment in 
honor to the mem- 
ory of the great 
poet. The writings 
of Shakespeare are 
remarkable from 
the garden view- 
point, because of 
the omissions of 
most of the more 
common showy 
flowers of his day; 
hence, the accom- 
panying plan is 
more suggestive 
than detailed. 
At the Conven- 
tion of the Drama 
League of America, 
held in Philadel- 
phia in April, 1914, 
a national move- 
ment in commem- 
oration of the 
tercentennial of 
Shakespeare’s 
death was inaugu- 
rated, with Mr. 
Percival Chubb of 
St. Louis as Chair- 
man of a National 
Committee, to pre- 
pare suggestions 
for suitable cele- 
brations. 
Among the possibilities for various 
forms of celebration, the widespread 
interest in gardening was looked upon 
as an opportunity to propose the plant- 
ing of old English gardens with the 
flowers named in the plays of Shake- 
speare. A little booklet, entitled 
“Shakespeare Garden and Wayside 
Flowers,” accompanied by 
a selection of appropriate 
quotations, compiled in Eng- 
land, gives a list of sixty- 
nine flowers mentioned by 
the poet. Not all of these 
could be grown in the 
United States. Some are 
deemed undesirable pests 
that would overrun a gar- 
den; hence this list has been 
reduced and only those flow- 
ers which will insure beauty 
and will afford consecutive 
bloom have been introduced 
into the accompanying plan. 
A number of masques 
representing the flowers of 
Shakespeare have been pre- 
pared and may be obtained 
through the Drama League. 
One called “The Lover’s 
Garden” is suited to schools 
and clubs. 
Group of Elms 
Mr. Jensen’s suggested plan for a Shakespeare garden. 
Aconite (Monks Hood), Balm (sweet), Broom, Carnation, Cockle (corn), Colum- 
bine, Cowslip, Crowflower (Ragged Robin), Crown Imperial, Daffodil, Daisies (pied and white), Eringoes, Flax, 
Flower-de-luce, Harebell or Wild Hyacinth, Iris (blue), Larksheels or Delphinium, Lavender, Madonna Lily, 
Mallow, Marigold or Marybuds, Marjoram (sweet), Pansy, Peas, Pinks, Peony, Poppy, Primrose, Rue, Violet, 
A small border may be worked up with the following: Aconite, Columbine, Daffodil, 
Sea Holly, Flax, Iris, Carnation, Primrose, Lily, Marigold, Pansy, Pinks, Peony, Rupe, Violets, Wormwood. 
planted with the following: 
Wormwood (Diana’s Bud). 
In explanation of the scope of the plan 
here given Mr. Jensen writes as follows: 
It was rather a difficult task—at least 
it so appeared at the start—to devise a 
plan for a Shakespeare Garden. There 
was really nothing tangible to get hold 
of, no plans to follow. Shakespeare left 
no garden plan, not even the description 
of a garden to follow. The only mate- 
Po 
had a great deal of weight in the final 
plan, and really determined one of the 
dominant features of the scheme, was 
our own gardens from colonial days. 
Added to this combination were some 
minor details that have found a place 
in the modern garden. 
The plan, as it was finally designed, 
consists of a hedged-in garden sur- 
rounded by a for- 
est border—a sun 
opening in the 
woods, as it were. 
The garden is 
reached through 
this forest border 
which here repre- 
sents shadow and 
silence. A Honey- 
suckle arbor forms 
an entrance to the 
garden proper. 
The first thing to 
greet the visitor is 
the bird pool—that 
is the name given 
it on the plan. 
This pool expresses 
EO Ore 
purity; it is the 
spring of eternal 
youth. It should 
be of the simplest 
goriaist of "Haw design with no 
mach Nutebark "Fe concrete visible. 
Csr op oa err Glace 
: The edge of the 
CAS G45] pool might be built 
rial available of Shakespeare’s times is 
what Lord Bacon in his essay entitled 
“Of Gardens” has left in a description 
of the way he would like to design his 
garden. It was therefore Bacon’s idea, 
or rather the spirit of it, that gave the 
first constructive thoughts to a Shake- 
speare garden. Another influence that 
The garden at Shakespeare’s home, Stratford-on-Avon, Eagland, as it is to-day 
168 
See text for explanation. 
of thin weathered 
The flower beds may be limestone slabs 
showing the natu- 
ral stratification of 
the limestone rock 
with Virgin’s 
Bower rambling 
over the ledge, and 
perhaps a few clumps of Violets, a col- 
ony of Ferns with prehistoric associa- 
tions, and a bit of Rush or Horsetail. 
On either side of the garden is a path 
flanked by Hawthorn hedges. From this 
path the shrine of the garden is reached. 
Flowers as they are mentioned in 
Shakespeare’s works, each one express- 
ing its own beauty as its 
blossoming time appears 
during the season, are 
grouped together in a some- 
what informal way in eight 
beds, separated by grass 
paths. It terminates in a 
slightly raised square in the 
centre of which, surrounded 
by Roses, stands a bust of 
Shakespeare. 
-The flower borders are 
broken by Brier Roses and 
Hawthorns so as to give the 
garden an air of unrestraint. 
The woodland border sur- 
rounding the garden, as well 
as the garden itself, con- 
tains nothing but the plants 
that are mentioned in Shake- 
speare’s works, and only such 
varieties as will lend them- 
selves to this scheme from 
a practical standpoint. 
