From the Garden Gnome to the Pink Flamingo!

Nicola here. I’m sitting outside today in the sunshine (we’ve been having very un-summery weather here in the UK lately so I’m making the most of it) and around me are various ornaments that are, literally, part of the garden design and something I really love having in my garden. There’s Fez, Kiwi and Piwi (who are metal birds) and elsewhere, my badger (in the photo), tortoise and even a peregrine falcon with its beak chewed off by one of the guide dog puppies. I’d never really thought what a feature garden ornamentation is until I read an article recently saying that the tradition of decorating your garden – or grove - dates back to Ancient Egypt.

The Ancient Greeks favoured statues of the well-endowed god Priapus which were placed outside to encourage fertility, act as bird scarers and allegedly warn of unpleasant consequences to trespassers. I haven’t included a picture of Priapus out of respect for readers’ sensibilities but the idea of decorating one’s garden with statuary was one that endured through the Roman period when the fashion for sculptures of animals began. At Roman villa complexes in England designs for hedges have been found that allowed for gaps where urns and statues were displayed.

Monasteries and manor houses dictated garden style in the medieval period with emphasis on medicinal herbs but also trellis walkways, arbours and flower meadows. By the Tudor era, Italian Renaissance influences started to appear in the gardens: labyrinths, banqueting halls and garden ornaments in the shape of sundials, statues but also some rather fabulous heraldic animals on poles! A great example of this has been re-created at Hampton Court Palace which displays Henry VIII’s heraldic devices, used by the king to reinforce his lineage. I quite fancy doing that in my garden, based on some family tree research! I’m just wondering what my heraldic devices might be…

The earliest examples of the garden gnome also appeared in the 16^th century. Called “Gobbi” meaning dwarf or hunchback in Italian, they were desgined by Jacques Callot who called them “grotesques.” By the late 18^th century, china gnomes were being created by companies such as Crown Derby and in1841 German ceramicists began mass producing them. Folklore suggested that the gnomes would bring good luck and even protect crops.

Many of the statuary that decorated 18^th century gardens was inspired by the Grand Tour. Ornaments were copied from casts of famous Greek and Roman masterpieces and were painted white to resemble the marble originals. At Priory House in Yorkshire there are white-painted, lead statues that are based on classical gods and nymphs but also pastoral sculptures like deer and other animals. The wealthiest landowners created ornaments from stone of marble and these were generally huge, including enormous stone vases obelisks, and temples. Lord Byron created a garden with castellated forts, sham castles and statues of satyrs. The grotto was also very popular in the 18^th century and the best ones contained a mid-Georgian garden essential: a live hermit, who would be employed full-time as a curiosity for visitors. The job of a hermit could be fairly lucrative but there were strict conditions attached to the job description – a hermit wasn’t allowed to speak and nor could he cut his hair or fingernails! "Garden ornament" is quite something to have on your CV.

It was in the Victorian period that gardening became a national obsession in England. The rise of the middle classes and the suburban garden led to a fashion for urns and containers overflowing with plants and curiosities, and garden sculptures that took the classical ideas a stage further with birdbaths and gazing balls as well as statues and sundials. Gazing balls had first been created in 13^th century Venice and like gnomes were considered to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck. They became hugely popular in 19^th century England where they were placed in gardens for decoration, but also used to spy on courting couples!

Not everyone could afford a landscape architect, or a gardener, or even a lawn, but by the 20^th century the appeal of wealthy and middle-class models of nature around the home spread throughout society. Cast aluminum animals became popular in the 1920s and by the 1930s concrete animals, especially DIY ones, were the rage.

In the US, Union Products started to make “plastics for the lawn” and in 1956, they hired a designer called Don Featherstone who created the famous pink flamingo. The flamingo was an instant hit: it was hot pink, which was a new and exciting colour; and it looked exotic. Actual flamingos had been hunted to extinction before the 20th century in Florida but as an icon they suggested that Florida was an exciting place and very exotic place.

Don Featherstone’s first product had been “Charlie the Duck,” which outsold the flamingo until the 1980s. But in the UK tastes were different. It was the grey heron that was the most popular garden ornament and I remember as a child my grandparents had a heron statue standing next to their pond.

These days there is a huge variety of garden ornamentation available for big or small gardens and even butterflies for window boxes. The garden gnome is still very popular after all these hundreds of years and there are sundials and wind chimes, statues and sculptures. It’s rather nice to think that this is a tradition that goes back thousands of years.

Do you have garden – or window box – ornaments? Are you a fan of the gnome or the pink flamingo?

Comments

[Mary T]

I have a huge back yard and I always thought that when I retired I would create a beautiful garden back there. However, by the time I retired my knees, hips, and back just wouldn't cooperate. So, my garden area is around my front porch which is large enough to accommodate several chairs and a whole bunch of planters. Around the porch I have some perennials (rose bushes, four-o-clocks, and day lilies), and several large planters with hibiscus flowers (which I love, love, love).

The area is not real large so I don't have too many ornamental objects out there. The largest is a statue of St. Anthony which I've had for many years. I have a couple of decorative rocks and a bird house. The area is really too small to have much else without it looking overdone.

I'm not a fan of gnomes or pink flamingos. However, when I sit on my porch, I sometimes have a couple of hummingbirds who like to visit. Occasionally one of them will hover directly in front of me for several seconds. I think they must think I'm just a great big old giant garden gnome just setting there (smile).

[Mary Jo Putney]

What fun, Nicola! My garden ornaments run heavily to cats and ducks. Luckily the cats are sleeping, not chasing the ducks. *G*

Where I live, Baltimore, is the spiritual home of pink flamingo because local cult film maker John Waters joyfully features them in his movies about eccentric Baltimore. *G*

[Nicola Cornick]

Mary, it sounds lovely and I don't think you need much space to make a really beautiful ornamental garden. I love planters and I love the thought of you sitting out there and being a part of the garden with your hummingbirds!

[Nicola Cornick]

Oh how fabulous that you have the pick flamingo connection, Mary Jo!

I still have the swallowtail butterfly you gave me which sits on one of our planters a little battered by the British weather but still very pretty!

[Nancy Haddock]

I read The Word Wenches regularly, but don't comment often. I had to say, though, that I have vintage pink flamingos in my container garden. I also have a gazing ball, an outside fairy garden, and an inside fairy garden. I love wind chimes, too, and have at least 5 of those - one in my office.

Thanks for a fun blog, Nicola, and enjoy all the sunshine you can! I can send some from Florida! :)

Light,
Nancy

[Nicola Cornick]

Thank you so much for commenting, Nancy! it's lovely to hear from you and I am so thrilled you are in Florida with vintage pink flamingos. That is so cool!

[Sue McCormick]

When I was young enough to garden, I worked hard to have a pleasing grouping of plants. I would mix my food plants with the vegetables, and border them with herbs for the look of the plants.

But I never thought of ornaments. Probably because I don't like the look of the flamingos and the gnomes as we see them. (I might have latched onto you badger though!. He's much more my style.)

Now that I'm reduced to three indoor posts of African violets, they ARE the ornaments.

[Anne]

Here in central New Jersey, I have seen [twice] a lawn almost covered with pink flamingos and at the edge of the lawn a sign saying "you have been flocked". Once was on my street around graduation time, and several years prior on a street near the development I live in. I have no idea what the meaning of it is or who is responsible. It is kinda pretty and silly, and I'm glad not to have it done to me.

[Vicki L.]

Oh yes...LOVE garden art/ornaments/clutter! (Grin). Love flowering plants too. Luckily I planted quite a few shrubs and perennials that bloom at various times of the year since now I mainly do annual "pretties" in maybe 14 pots. Much easier to maintain and plant each year.

As for my ornaments...well...currently I have 8 gazing globes, 5 ornamental ceramic balls, 4 hangers for my 12.5" x 18" garden flags, 2 windsock, windchimes, birdhouses and all kinds of other "things" scattered here and there in the yard.

I especially appreciate the windsocks and garden flags in the winter because they add lots of color and movement to a blah winter scene.

We painted 3 benches to add a bit of pop to the view also...one is "plink" which is a bright pinky rose purple. One is a baby blue but a bit darker and the other is a brightish yellow. Sounds awful but amazingly enough the colors don't yell and jump out at you from where the benches have been placed.

The screened porch is decorated with all kinds of birdhouses (up near the roof line), little "things" in various cubbies, colored glass bottles sitting on the ledges for the light to shine through.

The ceiling of the porch has several painted pieces of trellis that I've got at least 20 butterflies stuck on - very cheap but very bright so they glitter up there.

I really don't know what I have because it is scattered everywhere. I've got several pieces that my Grama gave me back in the woods sitting on old tree stumps.

We mustn't forget that I have a small bottle tree - though it needs to be moved so I see it better. Currently it is buried in a bush.

Oh and pinwheels.....grin. Dollar Tree carries those in the spring and I always get some to scatter here and there. Plus there is a really nice sunflower "spinner" up in the woods so that I see it from the bathroom window in the winter. Another nice "pop" of color.

Umm.......some would say I have a tacky yard but I have so much greenery that it is easy to have lots and yet you can't really tell because it is scattered here and there.

Oh and I have a sandhill crane bobbing bird. My parents found it on one of their travels and it is really nifty. It moves (bobs and swivels) when the wind blows.

However...I do not have a single gnome or pink flamingo... My sister has the pink flamingoes.

[Vicki L.]

My sisters "flocked" my parents yard one time...except I think it was Halloween Flaminges. Black with the bird bones painted on..

[Vicki L.]

sigh...flamingos.

[Quantum]

Every year I visit the Showborough House Sculpture Garden, located near Tewkesbury in Worcestershire.
http://showborough.com/

They host an exhibition of modern sculpture displayed among the plants in a large garden. Most of the pieces can be purchased. Well worth a visit if you are in the area when it is open.

I do have a sizeable garden and am on the lookout for a large gorilla to locate among the pampas grass ... not keen on gnomes or flamingo though.

[Nicola Cornick]

You sound very much to be in the style of the Victorian gardeners, Sue, with their love of planting. I think garden ornaments aren't to everyone's taste although the badger is cute!

[Nicola Cornick]

LOL, Anneand Vicki, I have never heard of being "flocked"! That's funny although I think the halloween ones must have looked quite frightening!

[Nicola Cornick]

Wow! Vicki you are quite the expert. I had not thought of adding flags or wind socks but you are so right about them adding colour at dull times of the year. I love hearing wind chimes and now that I have discovered gazing balls I'm going to get some of them too. Thank you for all the great ideas - and your garden sounds lovely!

[Nicola Cornick]

Thank you very much for the link, Quantum. I hadn't heard of Showborough and will try to visit. Some of the pieces are stunning. Your comment about the gorilla reminds me of a garden up the road where they have a zebra grazing on the lawn. It's quite startling...

[Mary M.]

I have lots of miniature fauna in an open atrium by my front door that give me a warm fuzzy when I come in from my carport. But my favorite flamingos were a live pair at an arboretum in Vancouver, Canada. They stood next to each other and constantly spiraled their necks together, bottom to top, unwound, and spiraled up in the other direction. They did this continually, but every so often would stop while one pecked at an itch as the other waited patiently. Then they started again. They were so dignified and devoted! I must have watched them for at least 45 minutes, it was mesmerizing.

[Karen H near Tampa]

My mother had a pair of plaster pink flamingos in their yard in Central Florida from the 1960s. She repainted them every couple of years since they got bleached out by the sun. When my parents downsized to an apartment in a senior living community, my next youngest sister got them because I didn't have a house at the time. Unfortunately, they were stolen from her yard within the first year (they had been in my parents' front yard safely for almost 40 years and supposedly my sister lived in a "better" neighborhood). I still miss those flamingos but I'm not the type to decorate my yard.

[Kathy K]

I'm not sure what significance "flocking" has in your area, but one of the local high schools used that as a fund raiser for the band. You had to pay a fee to get the flamingos removed.

[Vicki L.]

I don't have these but I do see lots of Canada Geese and Deer (QAdult & fawn) figures down here in the south. I know they sell outfits so you can seasonally dress your Canada Geese.

Never felt the need to go down those roads...though the zebra and gorilla sound like fun. I like the idea of a situationally appropriate and punny gorilla.

Occasionally I see Coyote figures but that is when a homeowner is having issues with real live Canada Geese. They move them around in the yard to scare the geese off.

[Vicki L.]

I think they were playing a joke. I think some friends did the Halloween flamingoes to my sister since she is such a flamingo fan.

If my memory is correct, she just saved them and flocked my parents house the next year. Then the following year she "flocked" somebody else as a surprise.

[Michelle H]

What a fun piece. And what amazing research! I had no idea some of the ornaments we've been seeing all our lives weren't invented in our grandparents lives but hundreds of years ago. Will this show up in one of your books? :)

I have also seen yards filled with flamingos and they were charity events. The one time I ever appreciated the plastic flamingo. :/

My gardening styles have changed so much over the decades, as many above alluded to; age. And in my case multiple location changes. When we moved to NY state, I bemoaned the much longer winters but that made growing flowers all the more important. During those years I learned tons pouring over the best catalogues that gave the most plant info as I could not afford those beautiful hardcover plant books. I worked hard on achieving the NY state version of an English perennial border.

When we moved to Texas a couple decades ago, it took me years to relearn which plants would grow there, what those plants were, and more or less resigned myself to some landscaping and lots of container gardening. And boy oh boy did I ever ever miss the four distinct seasons.

Now we're back in the Midwest. And so many new plant varieties have been introduced since we lived here nearly 40 years ago, I'll have some relearning again. Not as much though given my above statement regarding age. But we are downsizing too. Best overall, but that pull is ever there.

Not a fan of using lawn ornamentation myself, but but enjoy what others do. I'm more of a natural looking stone animal hiding in the undergrowth type.

[Jenny]

I live in Tasmania and received a phone call from you son a week or so ago. He is bringing me a garden ornament. I can't wait to see what a 20something son thinks will make a good garden ornament.

[Nicola Cornick]

That should be interesting, Jenny!

[Nicola Cornick]

Those flamingos sound lovely, Mary. So devoted I do love seeing them in the wild. They are exotic to me, of course, but also very beautiful.

[Nicola Cornick]

Oh no! How mean of someone to steal the flamingos. After so long they become like pets! That happened with our heron as well. Someone left a note to say it has "flown off"!

[Nicola Cornick]

Seasonal outfits of Canada Geese??? We're missing an opportunity over here with lack of appropriate dressing for garden ornaments! When we first got the Peregrine Falcon it was intended to deter all the pigeons that gather around here but they seemed to know he wasn't real!

[Nicola Cornick]

That was one of the things I loved about it too, Michelle, the fact that garden decoration has been a tradition for so many hundreds of years. I really couldn't believe that garden gnomes dated from the 15th century! It's great that gardening is an interest that can change and develop over so many years and that the developments in plant varieties give you constant things to learn and re-learn.

I remember as a child thinking I'd never be interested in gardening and yet somehow it happened... My grandparents and parents were all keen gardeners with so much knowledge. I admire them for it - and you too!