Women Who Shaped Garden History
Primary sources: the books, herbals, and garden writings produced by the women featured on this site. These are the works that shaped garden history firsthand.
Physica and Causae et Curae by Hildegard of Bingen (12th century). The foundational texts of medieval herbal medicine, cataloging hundreds of plants and their healing properties.
Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium by Maria Sibylla Merian (1705). The illustrated masterwork from Merian's Suriname expedition.
A Curious Herbal by Elizabeth Blackwell (1737–1739). 500 hand-colored plates of medicinal plants.
Gardening for Ladies by Jane Loudon (1840). The book that opened gardening to a female audience.
Colour in the Flower Garden by Gertrude Jekyll (1908). Jekyll's most influential work on planting design and color theory.
Wood and Garden by Gertrude Jekyll (1899). Monthly notes from Munstead Wood.
Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden by Theresa Earle (1897). The garden miscellany that became a Victorian bestseller.
A History of Gardening in England by Alicia Amherst (1895). The first scholarly history of English gardens.
The Genus Rosa by Ellen Willmott (1910–1914). An illustrated monograph on roses.
Italian Villas and Their Gardens by Edith Wharton (1904). A study of Italian garden design principles.
In Your Garden by Vita Sackville-West (collected columns). Gardening wisdom from her Observer columns.
Flower Decoration by Constance Spry (1934). The book that changed flower arranging.
Garden Design by Sylvia Crowe (1958). A standard text on garden design principles.
Land and Landscape by Brenda Colvin (1947). A pioneering work on ecological landscape planning.
Gardening Without Work by Ruth Stout (1961). The bible of no-dig mulch gardening.
A Southern Garden by Elizabeth Lawrence (1942). Year-round gardening in the American South.
We Made a Garden by Margery Fish (1956). A classic garden memoir.
The Dry Garden by Beth Chatto (1978). The book that introduced ecological planting to a wide audience.
Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden by Beth Chatto (2000). The story of the famous unwatered garden.
Colour in Your Garden by Penelope Hobhouse (1985). A rigorous study of color in planting design.
The English Country Garden by Rosemary Verey (1990). A celebration and guide to the English garden tradition.