English Knot Gardens

History

The English knot garden began to emerge in the 16th and 17th centuries. It evolved from the Italian and later the French parterres garden style. This style engaged a series of hedges of geometric shapes that filled the landscape. As in the more simplistic version of the medieval garden, this style was a further expression of humankind's dominion over nature.

The English took this style one step further to develop intricate, weaving patterns of hedges. The English style was on a smaller scale than the grand vistas of the French parterres or the Italian hillside gardens. The knot garden was enclosed in a square much like the earlier medieval gardens. The square was symbolic of humanity and the knot garden inside the enclosure symbolized the celebration of humanity and the journey of life.

Depending upon your means, an English knot garden ranged from simpler squares and rectangles of the parterres to intricately woven hedges from the broderie style. Broderie was influenced by the complex patterns woven into silk embroideries from India. These knot gardens were also fashioned after woodcuttings that were popular at the time. In order to appreciate the garden in all its glory, it must naturally be viewed from above.

Components of the English knot garden

The outline of the knot garden is traditionally square and fashioned of hedging material such as boxwood. This square was symmetrically divided further into squares or other geometric shapes. A fountain, pool, sundial or a single topiary plant often marked the centre of the square. Often a border made of hard wood enclosed the entire knot. This low fence served to protect the hedge from passersby and prevented anyone from entering the knot.

The hedges of the knot garden are generally low. This feature enabled the gardener to step into the centre of the bed for maintenance purposes. Hedges could be fashioned from many different plants i.e. boxwood, lavender, rosemary. Plant selection remained simple and usually only 2 or 3 types of plants were used. In a lover's knot 2 colours of the same plant type could be used to symbolize the lover's union.

The spaces between the hedge was filled with either sand, crushed stone or gravel (sometimes coloured) or flowers planted en masse. Typically a single type of flower filled each area.

Flowers and their colour always had symbolic meaning and were used to express a particular ideal. An entire knot for instance might be devoted to love or religion.

Plant Symbols in the English Knot Garden
Roses, Veronica - Love
White Lilies - Purity, Virgin Mary
Daisies- Innocence
Sweet Marjoram - Virtue

Colours also had symbolic meanings:
Red - Passion, love, blood
Blue - Happiness
Green - Remembrance
Pink - Contentment, peacefulness
White - Purity

Mazes and labyrinths are a form of knot garden. Symbolically the maze represented the tortuous journey of life and the distractions one must avoid in order to reach a place of fulfillment. Sometimes taller, denser hedges were used allowing the one entering to disappear into the knot. They were often places for lovers to walk or to enter separately and seek each other out.

As in the previous styles of the medieval and Zen gardens, all plants have deep symbolic meaning. There isn't one aspect in the design of the garden that is randomly selected. Every element is carefully selected and arranged to convey a message or ideal. It is the inspired poetry of the garden. The knot garden's use of flowers and geometric shapes became a language that was also reflected in the culture of the time. This is most evident in the writings of William Shakespeare. In fact there are knot gardens devoted specifically to William Shakespeare work. You will find one such garden at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in Brooklyn, New York.

 

In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue and white… Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee.
The Merry Wives of Windsor

O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth in it live.
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly
When summer's breath their masked buds discloses;

But for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade,
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made;
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth.
Shakespeare's Sonnet LIV

"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance…and there is pansies, that's for thoughts."
Hamlet