Midsummer Nights Dream garden design inspiration for romantic gardeners. Surely Oberon’s description of Titania’s bower is one of the most evocative images ever conjured up:
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
with sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
there sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight.A Midsummer Night’s Dream , act 2 scene 1, Shakespeare
Wouldn’t a scented arbour in their garden be a lovely present for a bride and groom, or for a couple celebrating a special wedding anniversary? A midsummer nights dream of their own where they could relax together with a glass of wine in the evening.
So I thought I would conjure up a 21st century version of Shakespeare’s fairy realm for you: a garden design inspired by the play.
Midsummer Nights Dream Garden Design Inspiration
Firstly, I should say that this blog is not long enough to share with you a complete overview of my Shakespearean inspired garden design. Instead, I have picked out a corner of it to inspire you.
Gardens vary in size and aspect and not everyone has as much time to spend tending their own garden that they may like to have. Rather than use all the flowers and plants mentioned in the play, of which there are many, I’ve focussed on those mentioned for Titania’s bower.
I’ve considered the flowers and plants mentioned above as follows –
- their overallsuitability for our 21st century needs
- whether some would grow happily in a shady garden
- and whether they meet the frequent request for an easy maintenance garden design
A Fairy Queen’s Bower
As the playwright, Shakespeare was of course able to control the weather in his plays. As gardeners, that is a skill we might like for ourselves! The reality of living in Britain, however, means we are at the mercy of our variable weather. Lying down on wet grass is not particularly appealing – and certainly not romantic. A sloping bank of meadow turf, dripping with wild flowers and humming with bees is more likely to be dripping with water.
However, our Midsummer Nights Dream garden design inspiration has a solution. A herb seat, set under an arbour which can be made rain proof. A solid roof will help, but placing it so you’re not facing into the prevailing wind and rain is practical too.
The sides of the arbour can be made of trellis, for the convenience of growing scented climbing plants on, but also to give a feeling of seclusion whilst the plants grow. Your herb seat and scented bower could be rectangular or fitted into the corner giving a triangular shape.
You also need seclusion from the front. Take a couple of chairs at the approximate height of your herb seat to be and put them where the bower is planned. 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 for plant support for more scented climbers to increase your pleasure.
The herb seat
This is built as a raised bed, so can be custom made to fit the leg length of its occupants as well as the space available. Be generous with the bench width! Whilst romantic cuddles are encouraged, you may also like room to sit and chat. And that is far friendlier when sitting at a slight angle to each other rather than side by side.
If this feels like to much work, you could purchase a comfy bench and add large pots on either side, at a height where you can brush the aromatic foliage with your hand to release the scent. They could also double up as somewhere to put your wine glass. I’ve found keeping a clay plant saucer to use a tray generally prevents the glass form topping over.
Weather Watch
And if you know you will want to sit in your bower after a rain shower, you have options. For example, covering your herb seat when rain is forecast will ensure it stays dry. And the arbour itself could have a light tarpaulin thrown over it if you’re concerned about flowers dripping water down your neck. Alternatively, be generous with the size of our fairy bower and have solid roof and walls next to the herb bench, with flower covered trellis extending beyond this.
Plants for our Midsummer Nights Dream Garden Design Inspiration
When Shakespeare wrote Oberon’s speech, he had him list flowers which are not all in flower at midsummer. This may or may not be an issue for you, but I’ve suggested some options to prolong the season of flowering and scented plants from late spring through to early autumn.
A reminder of the flowers –
- wild thyme
- oxlip
- violet
- woodbine
- musk rose
- eglantine
There are subtle references to Elizabeth Tudor too in the plant choices, as we shall see. And I’ve popped in some anecdaotes and tips.
Wild Thyme
Wild thyme, Thymus serpyllum, is also known as creeping thyme as it naturally grows low to the ground. The evergreen foliage has an aromatic, pungent scent, which is released when the foliage is sat upon or walked over. This makes it an ideal plant for our herb seat, and for the soil in front where our feet will be.
3 folk lore anecdotes
Where thyme grows wild it indicates a wholesome or clean air. Perhaps this is why Fairies were thought to be particularly fond of thyme, as they were spirits of the air.
In the ‘did Shakespeare write Shakespeare?’ debate in the nineteenth century, Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was one of those proposed as an alternative author of Shakespeare ‘s plays and sonnets. This is the Francis Bacon who, in his suggestions for garden plants, says that paths should be planted with fragrant flowers such as
“burnet, wild thyme and watermints, which perfume the air most delightfully being trodden upon and crushed”.
Also, an old tradition says that Thyme was one of the herbs that formed the fragrant bed of the Virgin Mary. The bed of thyme referred to in Titania’s bower may, in this sense, be a reference back to Elizabeth Tudor, the Virgin Queen.
Alternative Planting for our Midsummer Nights Dream Garden Design Inspiration
Of course, you may feel that the flowers of wild thyme, which are much loved by bees as well as fairies, is not conducive to your sitting down in a relaxed frame of mind! Lawn chamomile, Chamaemelum nobile ‘Treneague’, is a non-flowering plant, the perfect herb, perhaps, for a herb seat in a sunny spot.
There’s a famous chamomile seat in the herb garden at Sissinghurst Castle, designed by Vita Sackville-West. But visitors are not allowed to sit on it!
Oxlip
Oxlips, Primula elatior, are a European native species. They became rare in the UK when woodland habitats were taken over for agriculture and conifer plantations. Oxlip only grows naturally in some areas of East Anglia in damp woods and meadows. Taller, paler and less fragrant than the cowslip, the oxlip grows from spring into early summer. It may well have been included in Oberon’s speech as the oxlip is associated with sleep. Oxlips were also used to treat coughs and rheumatism. Perhaps gained as a result of sleeping on wet grass…
However, there will be a clash between the shade, damp loving oxlip and the sun loving chamomile and thyme. Perhaps finding a nearby spot in your garden to grow this rare wildflower is a better idea.
Violet
Violets, the Latin name for which is Viola, (quick reference to Twelfth Night here for the Shakespeare buffs) have a variety of species which are to be found in the UK. The description ‘nodding violet’ refers to the characteristic downward bend of the flower’s stalk.
The most common violet found is the dog violet, Viola canina, Viola riviniana, but this has no scent. Viola oderata the sweet violet, is scented (see link below for more on sweet violets). Both of these plants flower in spring rather than midsummer, which has the advantage of extending the romantic season to Valentine’s Day. Sweet violets in tall pots next to your herb seat will allow you to enjoy their delicate fragrance.
Not that Shakespeare would have known this particular flower, but for your interest, ‘nodding violet’ is also a common name for Streptocarpus caulescens. The Cape primrose is popular in Australia as both outdoor and house plant as it flowers all year.
Woodbine
Woodbine is one of the common names for the scented climber honeysuckle Lonicera. A British native, honeysuckle may be either deciduous or evergreen, depending on variety.
Some writers consider that Shakespeare wasn’t referring to the honeysuckle but to another, deciduous, climber. Personally, I feel that they’ve forgotten the other native honeysuckle which would have been well known in Elizabethan England. Lonicera xylosteum, commonly known as fly honeysuckle, dwarf honeysuckle or fly woodbine is arguably more of a deciduous shrub than a true climber, but it will still twine around a support or trellis.
However, “over canopied with luscious woodbine” does to me suggest the evergreen honeysuckle, full of scented blooms which would hang down between the slats of a trellis roofed arbour.
Lonicera periclymenum, the European honeysuckle, is an evergreen and was voted the County flower of Warwickshire – Shakespeare’s county – in 2002 following a poll by the wild plant conservation charity Plantlife. Now this woodbine would most definitely have been flowering at midsummer and twining around Titania’s bower!
Musk Rose
The Musk Rose, Rosa moschata, was adored by the Elizabethans. It has a heavy scent unlike other early roses. Mentioned in medieval herbals, the original habitat of the musk rose is still under question, but it probably originated from the western Himalayas.
Rosa moschata has a long garden history and would originally have been selected for domestic cultivation because of its excellent scent. Until European merchants discovered the tea and China roses in the Orient, Rosa moschata was really the only repeat flowering rose known to the Western world.
It is a white flowered rose, with light grey-green foliage and virtually thornless stems. Blooming from late spring to late autumn, the musk rose is perfect for covering our scented bower with fragrant blossom.
Originally only in single flowered form, Rosa moschata plena, a double flowered form, can be found in Thomas Jefferson’s garden at Monticello. So still heritage, although later than the Elizabethan age.
White flowers show up well at dusk, so both the musk rose and the honeysuckle would be pretty if yours was mainly an evening romance.
But you may prefer a colour other than white. Why not try one of the hybrid musk roses bred by Rev. J. Pemberton in the early twentieth century? These two fragrant cluster flowered roses both have links to our Midsummer Nights Dream Garden Design Inspiration –
Rosa ‘Moonlight’ – “well met by moonlight, fair Titania” – has lemon-creamy white flowers
Rosa ‘Thisbe’ – one of the characters in the rude mechanicals’ play – has buff yellow flowers
although the pink hybrid musk rose below would also be apposite as its called ‘Cariad’ which is Welsh for sweetheart
Eglantine
Eglantine is also a rose, Rosa rubiginosa, Rosa eglanteria, also known as Sweetbriar. In Tudor times, the use of the name brier or briar was not restricted to the sweet briar as it is today, it referred to any wild rose. And indeed sometimes any scented thorny plant, for example, hawthorn.
During Elizabeth Tudor’s reign, eglantine became one of the plants particularly associated with the Queen.
Rosa eglanteria has a single pink flower, and flowers once only around midsummer. However, its sweetness and the reason for its name of sweetbriar is due to the aromatic foliage, which is apple scented. This lasts much longer than the blooms which have little scent by comparison. The flowers are followed by scarlet rose hips which are both decorative and wild bird food.
Whilst the hips and its native species lineage give the eglantine a wildlife ‘tick’, the thorny arching stems make it less suitable for being in close proximity to seating areas! Planting it near your romantic arbour, perhaps on the screening trellis is a better idea.
and finally
Our Midsummer Nights Dream garden design inspiration is at an end, for now at least. We have succeeded in creating a romantic bower for two lovers to sit and relax surrounded by scented flowers and aromatic foliage from February to October. And they will be able to spend most of their time enjoying each other’s company, as very little maintenance will be required once the planting has established.
If you would like a Shakespearean inspired garden brought up to date for the 21st century – do get in touch, as we would love to create one for you.
For further gardening advice and inspiration, ideas for edible gardens and more, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below including celebration planting ideas, a short story for summer and free info PDFs. You could also check out our monthly Tipsheet and come to find us on Instagram – @plewsgd Pinterest and Facebook
And on that note, you can have a peek at my new overgrown garden at Spitfires and Slow Worms on Instagram & Facebook
where I have found both woodbine and eglantine hiding beneath the ivy and brambles.
However, if you’d like some personal help, we offer a mix of practical sessions and theory in our bespoke Gardening Lessons and Courses. There’s a blog link below plus a pdf download with more info
Related Gardening articles you may enjoy from our Award Winning Blog
Romantic Gardeners
Elements of a Romantic Garden for Valentine’s Day
Garden Visits – Romantic Kenilworth Castle
More Planting Inspiration
Scented Roses, rose bushes, climbers, fragrant flowers
Would You Like a White Garden or a White Flower Border?
Garden Design Portfolio
The Herbal Bed – a stage set in Beckenham
The Herbal Bed is a play by Peter Whelan about Susannah, Shakespeare’s daughter. Plews designed and created the herb garden stage set for a local theatre, and won a prize for it.
Gardening Courses and Lessons
What might a Plews Gardening Lesson be Like?
Plews Gardening Lessons Information
short story / flash fiction
A Walled Garden on a Summer’s Afternoon
Free Gardening Info PDFs to download
Flowers called Elizabeth Plant List
