The Garden Triumphant: A Victorian Legacy

The Garden Triumphant offers a richly detailed exploration of Victorian gardening culture—the era that created "whole nations of gardeners" and established patterns that persist in gardens today. Botanist and garden historian David Stuart examines how, for the first time in history, almost everyone gardened, and most gardeners worked in similar ways regardless of their wealth or social status.

Stuart chronicles the explosion of horticultural innovation during the Victorian period: the manufacturing of new lawnmowers, cast iron urns, ceramic edgings, and rubber hoses; the discovery of new markets as parlor-bound women took up gardening as a hobby; and the embrace of constant novelty as gardeners sought ever-new varieties and fashions. The influence was so profound that any garden featuring alternating blue lobelia and white alyssum, island beds, garden gnomes, or terracotta pots with lemons is still essentially Victorian in character.

This is both a social history and a practical guide, offering insights for anyone interested in "period" gardens, historical horticulture, or understanding the roots of modern gardening practices. Stuart's expertise as a botanist lends authority to his analysis of plant introductions and cultivation techniques, while his engaging prose brings the Victorian gardening world vividly to life.

David Stuart is a respected botanist and garden historian, author of several acclaimed books including The Plants That Shaped Our Gardens, which chronicles the work of plant collectors who retrieved exotic species from around the world.