Gardening in Britain

II. Main Part

I. Introduction

Plants are a major group of living things including familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, and ferns. About 350,000 species of plants have been estimated to exist. Since 2004, some 287,655 species have been identified, of which 258,650 are flowering.

Aristotle divided all living things between plants, which generally do not move or have sensory organs, and animals.

In Linnaeus' system, these became the Kingdoms Vegetabilia (later Plantae) and Animalia. Since then, it has become clear that the Plantae as originally defined included several unrelated groups, and the fungi and several groups of algae were removed to new kingdoms. However, these are still often considered plants in many contexts.

I think that the theme of this paper sounds interesting because flowers are characteristic features of the English-speaking countries. The topic help us to study the English culture and history. Such a study enables us to gain enough experience in understanding of the British, American, Canadian and Australian realia and the English language of today.

In this paper the problem under consideration is presented to the following manner. It opens with the description of the British way of life and their national hobby – gardening. Then we make an attempt to analyze the facts of the usage of flowers in the symbols and emblems of English-speaking countries and its influence on the development of the English language.

The humid and mild climate of Great Britain is good for plants and flowers. Some of them have become symbols in the UK. You probably know that the poppy is the symbol of peace, the red rose is the national emblem of England, and the thistle is the national emblem of Scotland and the Edinburgh International Festival. The daffodils and the leek are the emblems of Wales; the shamrock (a kind of clover) is the emblem of Ireland.
The UK was originally a land of vast forests, mainly oak and beech in the Lowlands and pine and birch in the Highlands, with great stretches of marshland and smaller areas of moors. In the course of time, much forest land was cleared and almost all the Lowlands outside the industrial areas were put under cultivation. Today only about 6 percent of the total land area remains wooded. Extensive forests remain in eastern and northern Scotland and in southeastern and western England. Oak, elm, ash, and beech are among the most common trees in England, while Scotland has much pine and birch. The Highlands, with thin soil, are largely moorland with heather and grasses. In the cultivated areas that make up most of Britain there are many wild flowers, flowering plants and grasses.

Much leisure is spent in individualistic pursuits, of which the most popular is gardening. Most English people love gardens, their own above all, and this is probably one reason why so many people prefer to live in houses rather than flats. Particularly in suburbian areas it is possible to pass row after row of ordinary small houses, each one with its neatly-kept patch of grass surrounded by a great variety of flowers and shrubs. Many people who have no gardens of their own have patches of land or “allotments” in specially reserved areas – though a group of allotment gardens, with its mixed-up collection of sheds for keeping the tools and the dull arrangement of the rectangular sections of land, is usually not a thing of beauty.

Although the task of keeping a garden is so essentially individual, for many people gardening is the foundation of social and competitive relationships. Flower-shows and vegetable-shows, with prizes for the best exhibits, are immensely popular, and to many gardeners the process of growing the plants seems more important than the merely aesthetic pleasure of looking at the flowers or the prospect of eating the vegetables. In many places a competitive gardener’s ambition is to grow the biggest cabbages or leeks or carrots, and the plain fact that the merits of most vegetables on the table are the inverse ratio to their size seems often to be forgotten.

Love to horticulture has brought about such phenomena even as garden city, garden suburb and garden village.

Garden city is a town laid out with carefully planned parks, gardens and open spaces, and surrounded by a green belt, near to an industrial city. The first such town was built (1903) at Letchworth, Hertfordshire, north of London. Many new towns are garden cities.

Garden suburb is the suburb of a town or city laid out on the same lines as a garden city. For example, Hampstead Garden Suburb.

Garden village is a new village laid out on the same lines as a garden city.

Chelsea flower show is the highlight of Britain’s gardening year. It is held in London every May in the grounds of Chelsea Hospital. It is the most famous flower show in the world.

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