An Ideal Partnership: Lutyens and Jekyll – James Bolton
The last two decades of the C19th reverberated with the row amongst gardeners and architects. At a stroke, the problem was solved by the partnership between Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens. A house by Lutyens with a garden by Jekyll, became an Edwardian ideal. Together they designed gardens with a strong architectural background, softened by luxuriant planting.
The First World War ended that golden afternoon of the brash, new-moneyed Edwardian era and as Lutyens became distracted by the creation of New Delhi and Jekyll, almost blind, became more and more reluctant to leave Munstead Wood; so the gardens they designed together were fewer andfurther between.
James Bolton set up his garden design business following two years as Head Gardener at The Old Rectory, Farnborough. He had trained with the Direction des Parcs et Jardins in Paris. A NADFAS lecturer since 1995, he lectures extensively on garden history, was Faculty Director in Design at the Inchbald School of Design and a lecturer at Middlesex University. He organises tours to the best private gardens in the UK, italy, France and South Africa.