The great English playwright William Shakespeare wrote plays and sonnets that were set in gorgeous gardens.   Anyone can have a Shakespearian inspired garden by recreating scenes and planting commonly found flowers and herbs that were referenced in his literary works.  Create a winding Shakespeare’s path with familiar flowers, a wooden fence and benches.  Plant a garden for all the seasons with flowers chosen for successive blooms, a pleasure in summer, with ferns roses and lavender, as well as in spring with crocuses, pansies, hellebores, and iris. Place plaques along the path with quotations from the great masterpieces.

What to Buy / Plant

The goal is to show the relationship of Shakespeare's literary art to the plants you select. Here's flowers for you; lavender, mints, savory, marjoram.  The marigold, that goes to bed wi' the sun and with him rises weeping: these are the flowers of the middle summer.  "There’s Rosemary that’s for Remembrance!"  A Shakespeare garden features flowers, such as aster, lily, daisy, iris, rose, columbine, narcissus, poppies, hyssop, violet, tulip, daffodil and pinks known as dianthus; and also herbs for example: nettle, thyme, lemon balm, parsley, fennel, rue mint, lettuce, mustard; and shrubs like honeysuckle, hemlock, ferns and ornamental grasses.  "I was seven of the nine days out of the wonder before you came; for look here what I found on a palm tree.  As You Like It.

Edibles

"And, most dear actors, eat no onions or garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; Midsummer Night’s Dream. "The strawberry grows underneath the nettle and wholesome berries thrive and best ripen neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality: Henry V I.  "The arm potent Mars, of lances the almighty, gave Hector a gift, a gilt nutmeg, a lemon stuck with cloves.  Love's Labors Lost

For Fun

It is fun to explore each plant mentioned in the plays.  The world of Shakespeare’s stories and poems seems made for children.  Through illustrations, riddles and even paper dolls, explore all the imaginative ways in which Shakespeare has been accessible to children over the centuries.

Written by :

purplemartin

 

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