Horticulture - Greenwich Park as a Garden
The Flower Garden, showing bedding display and cedar lawns in the Flower Garden
Greenwich Park has a diverse range of planting locations. Many of these still reflect the influence of earlier horticultural planting and landscaping in the park in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods and which have been further developed in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The Flower Garden, in the southeastern corner of the park, still features Victorian and Edwardian cedar lawns and bedding areas and the extant trees, shrubs and perennials in the garden also reflect the planting traditions of the 1850s.
The southwestern plantings were added towards the end of the 19th century. The Dell Garden, a small valley garden planted with acid soil species, was formed from an old gravel pit. The American Garden, a partially enclosed area on the southwest wall of the park, was opened in 1898 to emulate the fashion for North American planting of this period.
The 200m Herbaceous Border occupies the site of what was originally a walled ditch or ha-ha, which formed a boundary between the Park and the Queen’s House. It did not become a flowerbed until 1925, eventually being redesigned by Chris Beardshaw in 2014, with herbaceous perennials, architectural shrubs and perennial grasses.
The Rose Garden is located behind the Ranger’s House to the west of the park, on the site of its former garden. It was first planted in 1960 and substantially redesigned and replanted with roses in 1994.
The Rose Garden, Greenwich Park
The Herb Garden, by St Mary’s Gate, is sited on land which originally formed part of the Park’s formal tree avenues planted in the 1660s. It was first planted in 1969, replanted in 1993 and still features herbs grown for aesthetic, household, culinary and medicinal purposes throughout history.
The Queen’s (or Dwarf) Orchard in the northeast corner of the park dates back to the late 17th century. It still includes heritage fruit trees and volunteers currently tend fruit and vegetables in the garden.