"Cheryl Isaak" wrote in message
...
I came into this thread late. Have you read Beverly Nichols? While it is
the British trends he covers, it might give you some wonderful insight.

Delightful books and well worth reading but Nichols' garden books were about
gardens that predate the time frame mentioned by the OP.


C
On 10/13/09 3:41 AM, in article ,
"Guy
Pinder" wrote:

Thats Brilliant! I was just after a feel of how gardens changed over the
years and what trends were about when. This is very helpful cheers GUY

lannerman;866662 Wrote:
Hi, Guy, As a boy growing up in the fifties, gardens were still very
much influenced by the war years with every back garden in the land
still growing veg and every front lawn surrounded by roses with a
hydrangea in the corner and clumps of very traditional perennials like,
solidago, pinks, cranesbill geranium, asters, chrysanthemum and dahlias
etc. etc. My involvement with gardening started with me working at my
local garden centre in Somerset in 1966 when I remember a far greater
proportion of deciduous shrubs than are popular today ; Forsythia,
Weigelia (as it was spelt then) Lilac, spirea and really shrubs which
were grown for their flowers. Of course, it was these early garden
centres that were responsible for introducing the general public to
more unusual evergreen shrubs that up until then had only been known by
a very small section of society. So slowly as we drifted towards the
70's, the average man had not only more leisure time but had the money
to spend on plants and became less reliant on what was grown at home.
In the late 60's everybody wanted a rockery, alpines were very
popular, as were dwarf conifers especially 'Boulevard' and 'Rheingold'.
By now containerisation was the norm, albeit those horrid floppy
bags,but it did mean that for the first time plants were available all
the year and not just in the traditional dormant period. In the 70's I
moved to Cornwall and worked initially as a landscape gardener and then
again for a garden centre. By now (mid 70's) slab patios were in vogue,
and to go on them garden furniture (Iroko for the rich, plastic for the
poor) rockeries now incorporated waterfalls and ponds, the first of the
conservatories were appearing, albeit initially for the majority only
lean-to alluminium greenhouses (which were totally unsuitable to sit in
due to at the best condensation and at the worst leakage) Curved flowing
borders by now had replaced straight lines and natural slate, especially
slate crazy paving was all the rage. Lots of garden centres by now had
sprung up so everybody had access to an ever increasing range of mainly
evergreen shrubs, the traditional deciduous species now only selling
when thay were in flower. As we moved through the eighties, the garden
became 'the outdoor room' with barbeques now gracing the patio. There
were still the die-hard veg growers but the 'organic' revolution was
really taking hold. Television was now playing its part in driving
trends (this really took off in the early nineties with programmes like
ground force etc.) and the garden centres were now becoming outdoor
activity centres. Car boot sales became big business and from the early
nineties (to date) is where I have been selling plants. So enough
waffle, not really very much about plants !
Best wishes Lannerman.