Editing Gertrude Jekyll (section)

== Themes ==
Jekyll was one half of one of the most influential and historical partnerships of the [[Arts and Crafts movement]], thanks to her association with the English architect [[Edwin Lutyens]], for whose projects she created numerous landscapes and who designed her home [[Munstead Wood]], near [[Godalming]] in Surrey.<ref>Tankard, Judith B. and Martin A. Wood. Gertrude Jekyll at Munstead Wood. Bramley Books, 1998.</ref> (In 1900, Lutyens and Jekyll's brother Herbert designed the British Pavilion for the [[Exposition Universelle (1900)|Paris Exposition]].)

Jekyll is remembered for her outstanding designs and subtle, painterly approach to the arrangement of the gardens she created, particularly her "hardy flower borders".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Gardens of Gertrude Jekyll|first=Richard|last=Bisgrove|date=15 October 1992|publisher=Frances Lincoln|isbn=0711207461}}</ref> Her work is known for its radiant colour and the brush-like strokes of her plantings; it is suggested by some that the Impressionistic-style schemes may have been due to Jekyll's deteriorating eyesight, which largely put an end to her career as a painter and watercolourist.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rutherford|first=Sarah|title=The Arts and Crafts Garden|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|year=2013|isbn=9780747813446|pages=62}}</ref> Her artistic ability had been evident when she was a child and she had trained as an artist,<ref name="Guildford-sketchbook1856">{{cite web |title=Gertrude Jekyll's sketch book |url=https://www.guildford.gov.uk/museumcollection/socialhistory/gertrudejekyllsketchbook |website=Guildford Museum |publisher=Guildford Borough Council |access-date=21 November 2018 |archive-date=21 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121204054/https://www.guildford.gov.uk/museumcollection/socialhistory/gertrudejekyllsketchbook |url-status=dead }}</ref> and she also collaborated with [[Minnie Walters Anson]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Ladell |first=Alwyn |title=Priory Mansions Hotel, 23 Bath Road, East Cliff, Bournemouth, Dorset |date=2014-11-10 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/alwyn_ladell/15761443332 |access-date=2025-03-28}}</ref>

[[File:Gertrude Jekyll, Colour in the Flower Garden, fold-out border plan.jpg|thumb|600px|center|Jekyll's plan of the main flower-border at Munstead]]
She was one of the first of her profession to take into account the colour, texture, and experience of gardens as aspects of her designs. Jekyll's theory of how to design with colour was influenced by painter [[J. M. W. Turner]] and by [[Impressionism]], and by the theoretical [[colour wheel]]. Her focus on gardening began at [[South Kensington School of Art]],<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.gertrudejekyllgarden.co.uk/jekylldesign.htm
 |title=About Gertrude Jekyll
 |access-date=19 December 2007
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071027151347/http://www.gertrudejekyllgarden.co.uk/jekylldesign.htm
 |archive-date=27 October 2007
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}}</ref>
where she became interested in the creative art of planting, and more specifically, gardening. In 1904, Jekyll returned to her childhood home in the village of Bramley to design a garden for  Millmead House in Snowdenham Lane.<ref>{{cite news |last= Elwes |first= Annunciata |date= 17 June 2022 |title= A sensational country home built by Edwin Lutyens with gardens designed by Gertrude Jekyll — now for sale for the first time in 50 years |work= Country Life |url= https://www.countrylife.co.uk/property/a-sensational-country-home-built-by-lutyens-with-gardens-designed-by-gertrude-jekyll-now-for-sale-for-the-first-time-in-50-years-244157 |access-date= 12 January 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{NHLE |num= 1378321 |desc= Millmead House |grade= II |fewer-links= yes }}</ref>

Not wanting to limit her influence to teaching the practice of gardening, Jekyll incorporated in her work the theory of gardening and an understanding of the plants themselves.<ref>Wood, Martin. ''The Unknown Gertrude Jekyll.''London: Frances Lincoln, 2006.</ref> Her writing was influenced by her friend [[Theresa Earle]] who had published her "Pot-pourri" books.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=Earle [née Villiers], (Maria) Theresa [known as Mrs C. W. Earle] (1836–1925), horticulturist|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-48832|access-date=2020-10-04|year = 2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/48832}}</ref> In works like ''Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden'' (reprinted 1988) she put her imprint on modern uses of "warm" and "cool" flower colours in gardens. Her concern that plants should be displayed to best effect even when cut for the house, led her to design her own range of glass flower vases.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/8143714/Gertrude-Jekyll-vase-designs-set-to-sparkle-again.html | title=Gertrude Jekyll vase designs set to sparkle again | newspaper=The Telegraph | date=24 November 2010 | access-date=3 June 2012 | author=Swengley, Nicole}}</ref>

Later in life, Jekyll collected and contributed a vast array of plants solely for the purpose of preservation to numerous institutions across Britain. At the time of her death, she had designed over 400 gardens in Britain, Europe and a few in North America. Jekyll was also known for her prolific writing. She wrote fourteen books,<ref name=dnb/> ranging from ''Wood and Garden'' and her most famous book, ''Colour in the Flower Garden,'' to memoirs of her youth.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

She was also interested in traditional cottage furnishings and rural crafts, and concerned that they were disappearing. Her book ''Old West Surrey'' (1904) records many aspects of 19th-century country life, with over 300 photographs taken by Jekyll.