Border

History

Because William Cobbett believed that American readers were unfamiliar with the term border, he included a footnote defining it in the American edition of William Forsyth’s treatise about fruit trees (1802). Nevertheless, earlier eighteenth-century American accounts and depictions of gardens evince a relative degree of familiarity with what Cobbett described: a ten-foot-wide space, used for growing espaliered fruit trees, situated between a walk and a wall.

In the broadest sense, borders indicated clearly defined spaces in which plant material was grown, a concept that was common in American usage. Less frequently, “border” was a term used to designate edging of beds, such as those made from boards. The term “plate-bandes,” found in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century European treatises and referring to the borders used alongside “broidery” parterres, was not commonly used in colonial or federal America.

The use of border to refer to a specific area of the designed landscape devoted to the display of plants and trees changed little during the period between 1600 and 1850. Yet several different, albeit related, meanings of border are found in the American context. A border could refer to the demarcated, outer edge of a discrete and often relatively large garden feature, such as a parterre, lawn, or grass plat [Figs. 1 and 2]. A.-J. Dézallier d’Argenville (1712) employed this sense of border while counseling readers to enclose parterres to protect the plants within. George Washington, in 1785, requested that several apricot and peach trees be moved to the borders of his grass plats. The Encyclopaedia, or A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and Miscellaneous Literature (1798) recommended three-to four-foot borders for the outer boundary of a gravel walk surrounding a lawn.

The use of borders as boundaries and enclosures is closely related to their use along the edges of walks, a common practice throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Lining the edges of walks with borders, which were often three- to four-feet wide, created an elongated space that could accommodate a greater variety of plant material than could beds, which were often limited in diameter for ease of maintenance. In 1807, Thomas Jefferson described his garden at Monticello in a letter and a sketch, with just such an argument for borders, allowing him “to indulge” in a “variety of flowers” [Fig. 3]. The 1832 plans for Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., likewise included ten-foot borders filled with shrubs, perennials, and bulb flowers. George William Johnson, writing in 1847, cautioned against overly narrow borders that would convey a sense of “meanness” to the scene as opposed to the “grandeur” of an ample border.

Borders could frame walks, avenues, or drives (as at Rosewell, on the York River, Va. [Fig. 4]; the Lilacs, the residence of Thomas Kidder in Medford, Mass.; and Mount Auburn Cemetery), or they could skirt walls, espaliers, shrubberies, or other related structures (as at the Woodlands and Peale’s Museum in Philadelphia, Pa. [Fig. 5]; and the Elias Hasket Derby House in Salem, Mass. [Fig. 6]). Johnson, in fact, pointed to these uses when defining border in his 1847 dictionary. There he noted that, in addition to offering extensive space for the display of plants, framing borders also acted as screening devices, to cloak walls, for example.

The notion of a border as a bank raised around a garden, as described by Samuel Johnson (1755) and echoed by Noah Webster (1828), seems to have been little-documented in American garden design. No descriptions or depictions of this practice have yet been identified.

Plant material within borders varied widely. Fruit trees, dwarf trees, specimen trees, shrubs, and perennial and annual flowers all appear in descriptions of borders. Borders could also house vegetables, especially when placed within the confines of a kitchen garden (see Kitchen garden). As discrete units set within a larger garden complex, borders were useful for separating different kinds of plant material, as at Lemon Hill in Philadelphia, where borders of pinks and other flowers enclosed squares that were planted with vegetables and fruits.

A general shift, however, can be detected in the arrangement of plants within flower borders, from the “judicious” mixing that allowed individual specimens to be highlighted in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries to the use of masses of plants to create broad swatches of color by the mid-nineteenth century. William Hamilton’s border at the Woodlands corresponds to the latter type in his desire to display a great variety of plants while maintaining “distinctions of the sorts.” Jefferson, less interested in curious exotics, used his border to grow “handsome” or “fragrant” plants, and his 1811 letter to Bernard M’Mahon indicates that he had hoped to grow plants recognized then as “florist’s flowers,” plants appreciated for the unique beauty of their blossoms. By contrast, Jane Loudon (1845) and Joseph Breck (1851) both advocated massing plants and choosing plants for a constant display of color rather than for the flowers’ unique qualities. Throughout this shift, the notion of arranging plants in graduated rows from lowest to highest appears to have remained relatively unchanged. See, for example, the recommendations of English treatise writer Richard Bradley (1719–20) and Jane Loudon (1845).

-- Anne L. Helmreich

Texts

Usage

• Washington, George, 9, 12, and 18 February and 12 and 14 March 1785, describing Mount Vernon, plantation of George Washington, Fairfax County, Va. (Jackson and Twohig, eds., 1978: 4:87, 89, 92; 101–2)

“Transplanted an English Walnut tree . . . but from their size and age I have little expectation of their living. Also moved the Apricots & Peach Trees which stood in the borders of the grass plats which from the same causes little expectation is entertained of their living. . . .

“Planted Eight young Pair Trees sent me by Doctr. Craik in the following places—viz.

“2 Orange Burgamots in the No. Garden, under the back wall—3d. tree from the Green House at each end of it.

“1 Burgamot at the Corner of the border in the South Garden just below the necessary.

“2 St. Germains, one in each border (middle thereof) of the upper Squares by the Asparagas Bed & Artichoake Ditto upper bordr.

“3 Brown Beuries in the west square in the Second flat—viz. 1 on the border (middle thereof) next the Fall or slope—the other two on the border above the walk next the old Stone Wall. . . .

“Planted border of Ivy under the No. side of the So. Garden wall. . . .

“Laid the borders of the gravel walk to the No. Necessary—from the circle in the Court yard. . . .

“Planted the 9 young peach Trees which I brought from Mr. Cockburns in the No. Garden—viz.—4 on the South border of the second walk (two on each side of the middle walk)—2 in the border of the Walk leading from the Espalier hedge towards the other cross walk and 3 under the South wall of the Garden; that is two on the right as we enter the gate & one on the left. The other Peachtree to answer it on that side & the two on the West Walk, parrallel to the Walnut trees were taken from the nursery in the Garden.”

• Cutler, Rev. Manasseh, 14 July 1787, describing Gray’s Tavern, Philadelphia, Pa. (1987: 1:275)

“In the borders were arranged every kind of flower, one would think, that nature had ever produced, and with the utmost display of fancy, as well as variety.”

• Hamilton, William, 1789, in a letter to his secretary, Benjamin Hays Smith, discussing plans for the Woodlands, seat of William Hamilton, near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Madsen 1988: A4, A5)

“I would have Hilton dig a piece of the Border on the East side of the House somewhere about the front of the paper Birch or double Peach. It should be french dug & three or four Inches thickness of fine mould put on the surface & they [exotic bulbous roots] should be planted at six or eight Inches from each other & about 5 or 6 inches deep taking care to preserve the distinctions of the sorts which can be easily done as they were all laid in ranges by themselves. . . .

“[2 May] I would have you mark all the polianthos snow drops in the Bord’rs of the Ice H. Hill walk. . . .

“[1 June] I meant to have made a small 3 feet wide Border in front of the necessary skreen of cedars & Lombardy populars & to have planted some of these Runners at the foot of them to run up and hide the dead cedars. What was not used of them I meant to have sown in such a manner as to have run over the Espalier as soon as the Border along it was cleand. If the Border is done you can have them sowd in such a manner as to produce the greatest variety.”

• Constantia [pseud.], 24 June 1790, “Description of Gray’s Gardens, Pennsylvania” (Massachusetts Magazine 3: 415)

“Now, side long bends the path; then, pursues its winding way; now, in a straight line; then, in a pleasing labyrinth is lost, until, in every possible direction, it breaketh upon us, amid thick groves of pines, walnuts, chestnuts, mulberries, &c. &c. we seem to ramble, while at the same time, we are surprized [sic] by borders of the richest, and most highly cultivated flowers, in the greatest variety, which even from a royal parterre we might be led to expect. . . .

“In the flower borders, the silver pine, the turin poplar, bay tree, and a variety of ever greens, are judiciously interspersed.”

• Beebe, Lewis, 1800, describing Lemon Hill, estate of Henry Pratt, Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Martin 1991: 113)

“An ally of 13 feet wide runs the length of the garden thro’ the centre—. Two others of 10 feet wide equally distant run parallel with the main alley. These are intersected at right angles, by 4 other alleys of 8 feet wide—Another alley of 5 feet wide goes around the whole garden, leaving a border of 3 feet wide next to the pales. This lays the garden into 20 squares, each square has a border around it of 3 feet wide. The border of the main alley, is ornamented with flowers of every description. Likewise the border of every square, is decorated with pinks and a thousand other flowers, which it [is] impossible for me to describe. The remaining part of each square, within the border, is planted with beans, pease, cabbage, onions, Beets, carrots, Parsnips, Lettuce, Radishes, Strawberries, cucumbers, Potatoes, and many other articles. . . . Within the pales, on the out border, one planted, Quince, snowball, Laylock, and various other small trees, producing the most beautiful flowers.”

• Pintard, John, 1801, describing New Orleans, La. (quoted in Sterling 1951: 227–28)

“The Governours [sic] House fronts the river—is a large wooden building formerly the Treasury. . . . A very fine garden belongs to this house—at least as to Trees—Orange & etc but no great taste as yet prevails in the design of any garden—I have seen all that have any pretensions that way, being disposed in the old still formal style—the border and circles kept up with strips of board wh[ich] have a very mean effect.”

• Jefferson, Thomas, 7 June 1807, describing Monticello, plantation of Thomas Jefferson, Charlottesville, Va. (quoted in Betts and Perkins 1986: 36)

“I find that the limited number of our flower beds will too much restrain the variety of flowers in which we might wish to indulge, and therefore I have resumed an idea . . of a winding walk surrounding the lawn . . . with a narrow border of flowers on each side.”

• Jefferson, Thomas, 8 April 1811, in a letter to Bernard M’Mahon, describing Monticello, plantation of Thomas Jefferson, Charlottesville, Va. (1944: 455)

“I have an extensive flower border, in which I am fond of placing handsome plants or fragrant. those of mere curiosity I do not aim at, having too many other cares to bestow more than a moderate attention to them. in this I have placed the seeds you were so kind as to send me last. in it I have also growing the fine tulips, hyacinths, tuberoses & Amaryllis you formerly sent me. my wants there are Anemones, Auriculas, Ranunculus, Crown Imperials & Carnations.

• Forman, Martha Ogle, 1824 and 1827, describing Rose Hill, home of Martha Ogle Forman, Baltimore County, Md. (1976: 176, 232)

“[6 March 1824] I had the two borders to right and left of the Garden gate planted with shrubbery and several planted on the approach to the garden. . . .

“[31 March 1827] A very pleasant day, dividing the crocuses on the left border of the garden.”

• Dearborn, H.A.S., 30 September 1831, describing Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass. (quoted in Ward 1831: 47)

“As the tract which has been solemnly consecrated, by religious ceremonies, as a burial-place forever, is so abundantly covered with forest trees, many of which are more than sixty years old, it only requires the avenues to be formed, the borders, for some ten feet in width, planted with shrubs, bulbous and perennial flowers . . . to put the grounds in a sufficiently complete state for the uses designed, and to render them at once beautiful and interesting.”

• Dearborn, H.A.S., 1832, describing Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass. (quoted in Harris 1832: 80)

“The upper Garden Pond has been excavated, to a sufficient depth to afford a constant sheet of water, with a fall at the outlet of three feet, and being embanked, avenues with a border of six feet, for shrubs and flowers, have been made all round it.”