Elements of a Romantic Garden for Valentine’s Day

What are the elements of a romantic garden? Are they perhaps poetical?

“ For you, a romantic garden I shall devise

with scented roses, herbs, fountains, secret bowers,

warm summer afternoons, bird song, the drone of bees

and honey sweet kisses to fill those precious hours.”

That includes some of the elements, for sure. For example, if you ‘re creating a romantic garden, roses are bound to be one of the flowering shrubs you plant. Roses have a long history in our gardens, and while rose gardens waver in and out of fashion, the rose as a flower is always popular. Indeed, roses never totally leave the worldwide top ten favourite flowers list. They’re regularly at the #1 spot, and not just around Valentine’s Day.

But we get ahead of ourselves discussing individual plants, let us first outline the essentials of a Romantic Garden. Now, whilst every garden, every lover is different, there are a few fundamentals if we’re to get it right: –

Style
Access
Seclusion
Comfort
Scent
Seasonal Interest

And two further considerations. Firstly, have you decided whether the whole garden is to be romantic, or just one part of it? As a surprise gift, creating a romantic feature area is easier to achieve.

Secondly were you hoping to create a romantic garden for this Valentine’s Day? Time is somewhat of the essence if you’ve only just thought of it and are reading this blog a few days beforehand! I’d suggest offering plants and an “IOU a design and creation” for the romantic garden to grow them in.

Elements of a Romantic Garden – Garden Styles

Over the centuries, many garden styles have had the capacity to be deemed ‘Romantic’. The walled Pleasance or Pleasure Garden of the Medieval nobility was a place for romantic meetings as well as for ladies to safely exercise. In the Eighteenth Century, the Picturesque Movement had overtones of Romance writ large in the tumbling streams and banks of wild flowers.

the lover and oyseuse (idleness), roman de la rose, medieval garden, walled garden, book illustration, british library collection, The_Lover_and_Dame_Oyseuse_outside_a_walled_garden_-_Roman_de_la_Rose_(c.1490-1500),_f.12v_-_BL_Harley_MS_4425

So where does this leave us? With the comforting fact that a romantic garden may be formal or informal in structure. Not sure what the difference is?

Formal Gardens – think straight lines; low growing evergreen herbs to edge paths; topiary, although possibly with clematis growing through; espalier peach trees against a wall; roses trained as standards.

Informal Gardens – have winding paths; plants spilling over the edges of borders; shrubs with soft outlines, ie not topiary; rambling roses.

The garden style – formal or informal – also includes the plants and how they’re planted, or combined, together. For example, instead of Box hedging to edge formal garden beds use aromatic evergreen herbs, clipped into a regular shape. Surround standard roses with frothy Gypsophilla (aka baby’s breath) a popular flower for wedding bouquets.

Elements of a Romantic Garden – Access

Which is both how you enter into your garden and how you move around it. For example, French windows opening wide onto the patio; gates and paths broad enough for a wheelchair.

If your romantic garden forms only a section of the whole garden, you may like to include a narrow winding path leading to it. Perhaps adding an archway with gate and fencing or hedge to hide it from view. This separation makes it ‘special’.

tulips, white wooden gate, Trerice, cornwall, cornish gardens

Where the whole garden is romantic, your means of access should not be past the dustbins. Sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many people can forget or not see something they pass every day until someone else, like their garden designer, points it out.

Elements of a Romantic Garden – Seclusion

Whether your romantic garden is a small seating area or the size of a tennis court, enclosing it away from the outside world is essential. Depending on your surroundings, you may like to include a vista of surrounding countryside, but the overall feel should be enveloping. Finding that balance between openness and seclusion can be tricky.

Openness includes garden elements such as lawns and patios. In smaller gardens you may decide to do without these altogether, going for a ‘world within a world’ feel.

red rose, gate, walled garden, iden croft herbs

Seclusion may be achieved with a rose covered bower that blocks out neighbours, trellis fencing, tunnel arbours (plant covered walkways) and strategically planted trees and hedges. It also means using focal points to keep your eye and attention within the garden (for when your loved one isn’t with you).

Let us consider an easy example. Your romantic arbour could be rectangular or fitted into a corner giving a triangular shape. The sides and roof should be made of trellis, for the convenience of growing scented climbing plants on, but also to give a feeling of privacy.

garden arch with seats, arbour, pergola, climbing scented jasmine

You also need seclusion from the front. Will you be mainly sitting, lying on a lounger or on an herb lawn? Sit or lie where the arbour is planned to be. Are you overlooked? If so, from where? A quick and easy way to screen is to place trellis in this sightline. Match the trellis style to your arbour trellis and use it to support scented climbing plants such as sweet peas.

Elements of a Romantic Garden – Comfort

You need to feel comfortable in order to feel romantic. And I don’t think that’s just a middle-aged comment. An herb lawn to lie on would be idyllic but is not tempting in a wet British summer! Indeed, sitting in your arbour after a rain shower may find you with drips of water running down your neck.

vintage gazebo, Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash

For more year-round use, you could build a gazebo. This is a permanent structure, generally octagonal with a pitched roof and open sided, so you still feel part of the garden. Comfortable seating with cushions that could stay out all summer long ensures that it’s always inviting.

fire pit, wine glasses, garden table, dry stone wall, circular fire pit, garden design

Or go full out and have a small summer house with one side that opens fully, a wood burning stove inside and an attached verandah. This would enable you to enjoy your romantic garden year-round. (And I’ll probably come to visit for afternoon tea in August or hot gin on a snowy evening!)

Elements of a Romantic Garden – Scent

Scent comes from both flowers and foliage. It is possible to have scent year-round.

Herbs – The aromatic foliage of evergreen herbs makes them an essential element in a romantic garden. Non-flowering Chamomile is ideal for an herb lawn: the scent is released as you walk. Rosemary and Myrtle are traditional at weddings.

chamomile 'treneague', evergreen herb , aromatic foliage, herb lawns

Roses – Rosa moschata is repeat flowering white rambling rose with a musk scent. It’s thought to be the rose referred to by Shakespeare in the romantic comedy, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Another rose with romantic connections is ‘Royal William’. A repeat flowering hybrid tea rose with crimson blooms and a good fragrance.

Valentine’s Day scented flowers – Sweet Violets (Viola odorata), Daphne bhoula, Wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox), Winter Honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) and Witch Hazel (Hamamelis). These are all garden hardy in the UK and likely to be flowering in mid-February.

wintersweet, chimonanthus praecox, scented flowering shrub. winter scent, winter gardens, deciduous shrub

Elements of a Romantic Garden – Seasonal Interest

When will you use your romantic garden? If you plan romantic elevenses on Valentine’s Day, then nothing else until the warmer weather, seasonal interest is less important.

If the whole garden is a romantic garden, you may like something to look out at during winter and early spring. For example, Cornus davidia involucrata, also known as the dove tree, has beautiful flowing white bracts in spring. This may be an easier dove for you to care for than a pair of romantic cooing doves in a dovecote.

Elements of a Romantic Garden for Valentine’s Day

Then there are other romantic items you might like to add, such as the aforementioned dovecote and turtle doves. Or a fountain, with a statue of Venus rising from the foam.

And of course, the initial design and creation of your romantic garden is just the beginning. Ongoing maintenance should be factored in, whether you ‘ll be doing this yourself or paying a professional gardener.

For help with creating your own romantic garden, for Valentine’s Day, for a wedding; or just because you’re a romantic, there are some blogs below on related subjects for you to peruse. And if you’d like personal help with designing in your own garden, do get in touch.

“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you…I could walk through my garden forever.”

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Or why not ask about our bespoke Gardening Lessons, where your classroom is actually your own garden? We can help with both gardening basics and more ‘expert tasks’, carry out worm and other experiments and for example, also show you how to plan a vegetable plot. Have a read through this pdf download for info. And if you prefer company, there are small group Gardening Workshops to come to.

For further gardening advice and inspiration, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below Plus we have a monthly Tipsheet You could come and find us on Instagram Pinterest and Facebook too.

Feeling nosey? You can have a peek at the progress of my garden renovation, Spitfires and Slow Worms, on Instagram and Facebook

You’ll get to see it in person if you come to the Plews Gardening Workshops Although later dates and topics still need to be finalised, there are already a few up on Eventbrite for you to book into. Follow for updates on topics and dates on Instagram, Eventbrite, Facebook

And, for those who like to know, the rose in the header picture is Rosa ‘Valentine’s Heart’ – rather appropriate I thought 😊