Sometimes called “the father of the English flower garden”, William Robinson (1838 – 1935), an Irish gardener, journalist, and publisher, had a profound impact on late Victorian taste and ideas through promoting a new movement in garden aesthetics. As editor of many popular and influential weekly garden magazines and journals, and as author of best-selling books, notably The English Flower Garden and The Wild Garden, he challenged the formality of High Victorian patterned gardening and popularized more natural planting of hardy perennials, shrubs, and climbers, in line with the honest simplicity and vernacular styles of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Join the Northern Ireland Heritage Gardens Trust for a three day annual conference in Letterkenny, County Donegal, October 5 – 7. Online booking is now open, with an early booking incentive extended to Thursday, August 31. For more information visit www.nihgt.org