About

GERTRUDE JEKYLL (1843-1932)

Miss Jekyll designed and commissioned the Munstead Flower Glasses when she failed to find vases that met her exacting standards. She used them to display the flowers grown in her garden at Munstead Wood, Surrey, and they feature in many of her photographs.

In 1903, Miss Jekyll’s designs were rewarded with silver and bronze medals from The Royal Horticultural Society and National Rose Society. 

Over a century later, we’ve reintroduced the Munstead Flower Glasses so your own arrangements may benefit from their uncluttered lines.

Artist, Gardener, Craftswoman

One of the most influential garden designers of the twentieth century, Miss Jekyll created some 400 gardens across the British Isles, Europe and America. More than 100 of them, including her own at Munstead Wood in Surrey, were in partnership with the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.

Born in London in 1843, the young Gertrude spent her childhood in Bramley, amid the rural heaths and woods of Surrey.

In 1861 she enrolled at the South Kensington Schools (later the Royal College of Art) and went on to become a talented artist, craftswoman and interior decorator. She later turned to gardening due to deteriorating eyesight.

Miss Jekyll thought of the garden as a palette, arranging and grouping plants according to colour, texture and shape. She followed these principles in her own garden at Munstead Wood (purchased by the National Trust in 2023), where she also established a plant nursery.

From 1881, Miss Jekyll contributed copious gardening articles to The Garden and other publications including The Guardian and Country Life. She also wrote fourteen books, illustrated with her own photographs. Though she didn’t court publicity, Munstead Wood become well known and many visitors called.

‘Artist, Gardener, Craftswoman’ is inscribed on Miss Jekyll’s grave at St John the Baptist, Busbridge, Surrey. Designed by her friend and collaborator Sir Edwin Lutyens, it is a simple testament to a formidably accomplished woman.

Miss Jekyll said: ‘The love of gardening is a seed that, once sown, never dies but always grows’. And so it goes with our Munstead Flower Glasses.

For biographical details about Gertrude Jekyll visit: https://gertrudejekyll.co.uk/ 

Gertrude Jekyll Designs is founded and run by Gertrude Jekyll’s great, great niece Christina, with lots of help and advice from her immediate family and good friends. Originally a journalist, for the last twenty-five years, Christina has worked in communications and marketing, specialising in the design and arts world. This is her first entrepreneurial adventure.