ONLINE COURSE The Elizabethan flower garden

As the flower garden takes its first steps away from native wildflowers towards a world of exotics drawn from the Americas and Africa, we will look at the impact this has on our flower gardens. The shy natives with their long-standing traditions and uses in the cottage garden are eclipsed in courtier gardens by the sunflower and the love apple. Love-lie-a-bleeding comes face to face with ‘Love Unrequited’ but only one appears in Shakespeare, who in general eschews the exotics for flowers the ‘groundlings’ at the Globe would gave recognised. A period of incredible expansion in our understanding of the world is reflected in our flower gardens and the way we plant them.