The richness of plants in Art Nouveau gardens

The turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries signified the appearance of a new trend in art called Art Nouveau in England, Stile floreale in Italy, and in Poland – secesja. It was an attempt to escape from the style that copied historical forms and set a new direction of development. The main inspiration for the creators of this period became nature, its asymmetry, variety of textures, subtle colors or smooth, and wavy lines. Artistic motifs were drawn from the richness of native flora and fauna. Flowering shrubs, perennials and creepers were especially inseparable decorative and compositional elements of a garden. Secession had a significant impact on painting, sculpture, architecture, and garden design. The space surrounding people was treated comprehensively by blurring the boundaries between different arts. A multitude of shrubs – especially roses and lots of perennials such as Lilium, Iris, and Phlox, gave the impression of architecture immersing in the surrounding garden. The aim of the paper was to briefly analyze the Art Nouveau style and present the diversity of species used in the gardens of that period.


Introduction
In the history of the European and American art, the turn of 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries was the arrival of a new style.It appeared in the 80s of the19th century out of a desire to break with the existing stylistics and create something new and unique.The years 1890-1910 are considered to be the period of its full flourish [1].This trend developed in many countries at the same time and was known under various names.In England a popular term was Art Nouveau or The New Style, The Wavy Line or The Neo-Floral Style.Similarly, in France the new direction of artistic activities was called Art Nouveau, "Modern style", while in Austria Sezessionsstil or Sezession.Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia adopted the transformed Austrian name -Secession.All of the names emphasized the diversity of the newly formed art and captured its main features [2].
What distinguished Art Nouveau were its decorative qualities, linear style [3] and a flowing, wavy and organically shaped line inspired by nature.The typical aim was to obtain slim, lightweight shapes, emphasizing the asymmetry and verticalism.Vivid, saturated colors used in the previous years were replaced with gentle pastel tones [2][3][4][5].European artists were inspired by the features of Far Eastern aesthetics, e.g. the asymmetric composition that gave a dynamic character to a work of art.
The world leading representatives of Art Nouveau artists were Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Gustave Klimt, Alfons Mucha [6] and the architects Victor Horta Joseph Maria Olbrich, Otto Wagner, and Hector Guimard [7].A remarkable contribution to the popularization of the new trend was made by Antonio Gaudi whose buildings (Casa Batllo, Casa Mila, Sagrada Familia in Barcelona), through the organic shape of facades and decorative elements, became the world's most recognizable symbol of Secession [8].In Poland appreciated creators included Józef Mehoffer or Stanisław Wyspiański.
The new style moves from painting and decorative art to architecture [2] and gardening art.Due to the short duration of Art Nouveau, it did not establish its influences in horticulture and the creation of specific arrangements [9].The gardening art of that time stood out mainly because of directing its interest towards nature.The great number of available plants was the result of a widening knowledge of botany, allowing acclimatization of exotic species, imported from, e.g.China or Japan, and rediscovering the diverse world of species so far considered to be common ones, e.g.flowering or meadow plants.

Aim and material
The main aim of the present article is to discuss the Art Nouveau stylistics of one of the styles in the European art which influenced the arrangement of the Secession park.The essence of the study is to present the specific species of Secession gardens which developed from the end of the 19th century until 1914.Apart from the simplicity, practicality and functionality, they also emphasized the variety of plants, especially creepers and perennials.The issues presented in this review article are based on the relevant literature, iconography and cartography.The spatial range concerns the examples from European countries, including Poland.

Plant motifs in art
Many ornamental plants fully reflected the main lines of the new artistic style and were an important source of inspiration.Trees, perennials, bulbs and so far underestimated herbaceous plants, their stems, leaves, inflorescences and fruit, had an important place among the most widely used motifs.Plants, animals and human beings, apart from the direct, decorative meaning, in most works of art had a symbolic meaning and they were interpreted individually.
One of favorite tree species was Aesculus hippocastanum.Due to the characteristic structure of its leaves, which consists of 5 to 7 obovate leaflets and the pyramidal inflorescence, it was readily planted in the gardens of the turn of the century and used as a decorative theme.It appeared on facades, metalwork (the staircase balustrade designed by Wyspiański, 4 Radziwiłłowska Street, Kraków), murals (the villa at 31/33 Wólczańska Street, Łódź), painting, and applied arts.Many Art Nouveau buildings were decorated with elements in the shape of various tree species, e.g.Quercus robur [the building facade at 17 Narutowicza Street or 9 Szopena Street in Lublin (Fig. 1)].
Equally popular was Tropaeolum majus with its flexible, procumbent stem, characteristic oval leaves, and delicate flowers.Thanks to these features, it gained importance, despite the fact that it had been cultivated in the gardens since the 17th century.In the company of Iris, Lilium and Helianthus, it appears on murals (the house at 3 Maja Street in Lublin), as part of the facades of numerous buildings (e.g.70 Grunwalda Street, Sopot).Papaver rhoeas (similar to Tropaeolum in its slenderness and softness) was also frequently used as a decorative element (Fig. 2).
Rosa and Lilium won great popularity due to their decorative qualities and various symbolic meanings.These motifs appear in painting and drawing (armfuls of flowers consisting of Rosa, Lilium, Papaver, Iris, Dianthus, and Campanula are present in posters and a series of large-format canvas by Alfons Mucha), in applied arts (a part of the fencing in Schopp Villa in Vienna, Austria), and architecture (Helianthus, Lilium, Rosa, Tulipa, and Papaver decorate the Art Nouveau buildings at 3 Maja Street; Fig. 2-Fig.4).
Iris was an equally popular theme in Art Nouveau.Its erected stems and leaves as well as original flowers decorate many buildings (e.g. the house at 17 Wielkie Garbary Street in Toruń, or at 10 Jagiellońska Street in Bydgoszcz) and everyday objects.They appear in paintings and drawings.Iris can be found in Art Nouveau polychromies and stained glass windows by Stanisław Wyspiański, decorating the chancel and transept of the Franciscan church in Kraków [10].In Lublin what draws attention is a large number of buildings decorated with a sunflower motif, which as Iris represented verticalism of interior doors [e.g.staircase railings or tenements at 12 and 14 Okopowa Street, 10 3 Maja Street, 12 Szopena Street, 57 Krakowskie Przedmieście Street (Fig. 3)].

Secession elements and motifs of gardens at the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries
The Secession garden "comprises mainly of Secession elements and motifs, it rarely constitutes a holistic spatial system" [1].The main element of the composition is a line, mostly long, flexible, twinning, giving impression of the plant's growth, because as Secessionists claimed it reflected life [2,4].Such a natural shape was marked by roads, paths, river banks, water, hedges, constructions, or borders of plants.Their sigmoid, parabolic shape symbolized freedom and made the composition look light.
However, vertical lines emphasized by high trees, towering plants' stems, walls, constructions of trellis and pergolas were to show the growth and climbing of plants.Towering long stems, such as in foxglove, iris, lilies and sunflowers, reflected the love of Secession artists for verticalism.However, some of the species, those with flexible stems moving in the wind (e.g.cane -Phragmites australis, a popular water plant in Secession), were eagerly used in the arrangement of the garden.Their slender stems moving in the wind symbolized the changeability of life.
Secession art used organic motifs, i.e. decorative elements (plants, animals or anthropomorphic elements; Tab. 1).The most frequently used were the decorations based on smooth plant patterns.Apart from flora, the animal world was equally interesting.Special attention was paid to insects, birds, small amphibians or reptiles.Butterflies, dragonflies, grasshoppers, swans or flamingos were the main source of colors and decorations [2,3].
The free arrangement of the Secession garden, inspired by Far Eastern art (asymmetric composition, motifs from nature) consists of interiors with large planes of organic shapes, different textures of the plant material or aggregate and permeating colors.Favorite species of pastel colors dominate.The creators of gardens -architects, landscape architects or gardeners, eagerly used flora familiar to them (Willy Lange, Karl Foerster, Frederick Law Olmsted, John Muir, Jens Jensen, Warren Manning or Andrew Downing).The native species were popular both in village gardens (sunflower, carnation) and in fields and meadows (milkweed, poppy, thistle, species from the Nymphaeaceae or Typhaceae family), but foreign species were also suggested (e.g.palms, nasturtium).Antonio Gaudi or William Robinson advised to plant not only native species but also "exotic flowers".The shape of plants following the rules of the new artistic trend was important.Flowers of radial symmetry (sunflower, thistle, field rose), bilaterally symmetrical (cyclamen, pansy, plants from the Fabaceae or Lamiaceae family), or asymmetrical (Calla) [2].The garden with Secession motifs was full of different senses -eyesight, touch or smell, which allowed one to have close contact with nature.

Greenery of Art Nouveau gardens
Art Nouveau gardens were usually confined to small areas, where a building and the surrounding lush vegetation blended well.Often it took the form of a winter garden or "flowery loggias" [11].The new style manifested itself mostly in newly created urban spaces and suburban villas.Despite the small space, gardens were characterized by a large number of various species of vines, perennials, trees, and shrubs [9,[12][13][14].

Vines
In gardening art, plants characterized by a wavy, sigmoidal structure of stems gained a great respect [2,15].Especially creepers such as Convolvulus, Parthenocissus, Wisteria, Vitis, and Hedera perfectly reflected the main ideas of the new trend [5,16].Twining around supports, forming twisted tendrils, thanks to which they climbed upwards, these plants were the essence of Art Nouveau.They were used to cover various structures, spread on arbors, pergolas or on the walls of buildings.The species that appeared in Poland in the mid-nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries came from North America, China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula, inter alia Vitis riparia, Wisteria floribunda or Actinidia kolomikta (Tab.2) [17].
In a dense urban area, a limited space as well as the fascination with creepers led to the creation of vertical gardens, an example of which is the "Pod Pająkiem" bulding in Kraków.
A minimalist composition was created by special niches in the walls where plants could grow, which was to link the building with its surrounding space [18].

Perennials
William Robinson had a significant impact on the character of plantings in Art Nouveau gardens.In his books The Wild Garden (1870) and The English Flower Garden (1983), this Irish gardener and writer popularized at the end of the nineteenth century a wide range of plants in compositions of a more natural look.Moreover, he advocated the use of native species as well as exotic plants, carefully selected according to their habitat.He created the concept of "a wild garden" in which flowering perennials, bulbs, and tubers, such as Narcissus, Galanthus nivalis, Anemone, and Crocus, played an important role [13].The planting schemes in a garden in Bexleyheath (now south-east London) reflect the trends in English gardening of that time -the garden and the house form an integral unit.The former mansion of William Morris, one of the major contributors to the English Arts and Crafts movement (who had a great impact on Secession gardens in Europe), is an example of the new trend [19].There one can find plenty of species from different groups: trees, shrubs, and especially perennial plants.Along with the design for a building, a concept of linking the particular architecture with its surrounding space was successfully developed.The main goal of the design was to create walls covered with vines such as Jasminum, Lonicera and climbing roses, which would harmonize with a brick facade and unite the house with the garden."Green rooms" of a garden, following the rules of the contemporary designers, i.e.Gertrude Jekyll and Willy Lange, were marked out by hedges, trees, and grassy paths.In the garden there were apple trees growing -a remnant of the old orchard -along with Lavandula, Rosmarinus, Helianthus, and Lilium [19].The garden was connected with the house through a flowered terrace, flowered constructions, a winter garden or the flowerbeds.It was to give an impression of a more spacious building and architecture, and the formal arrangement of the garden was filled with mixed plants, bushes, perennials, annual plants, and often with self-seedlings.Plants blurred the lines of strongly marked forms.
English gardens of Gertrude Jekyll or American gardens of Beatrix Farrand are the examples of introducing lush "mix" of plants, mostly perennials, of different textures of leaves, flowers or tree bark.These pictorial arrangements interacted in the harmony of colors and values of plants.The effect of picturesqueness and the naturalness of composition was the result of very good knowledge of plants, their structure, preferences and habitat conditions as well as the ability to use the right color [13].
Among plants, those with high straight stems, which were well suited to the trend to create vertical arrangements, held a distinctive place.Gertrude Jekyll's favorites were Alcea and Delphinium.The gardens were eagerly planted with Gladiolus, Digitalis, Verbascum, and Iris.Species with bilaterally symmetric flowers [2,20], for example Viola tricolor, Lamium album and Cytisus, attracted growing attention and interest.Due to the link with Far Eastern art, which became an inspiration during the turn of the centuries, many plants stirred up people's curiosity, e.g.Narcissus, Paeonia and Chrysanthemum [2,17,20] (Tab.2).
Willy Lange and Jens Jansen belonged to the landscape architects who, by introducing only native species adequate to a certain place in the garden, propagated the idea of preserving the character of the local landscape in the park or in the garden.Around the house, a formal arrangement was used and it opened out into vast meadows bordering with orchards, e.g.wild apple trees, forests or lakes [13,14].
In Poland native species, such as Bellis perennis, Delphinium elatum, Galanthus nivalis, Crocus vernus, Convallaria majalis, Campanula or Ranunculus repens, were used in newly established gardens.Among the newly introduced bedding plants used in gardens, there were species from South and Central America, Canna indica valued for its large number of hybrids with various colors of flowers and leaves, large-flowered Viola tricolor maxima hort., Salvia splendens and its cultivars.Large-flowered Chrysanthemum originated from Japan (introduced into Polish gardens in 1897) and Lilium regale imported from China [17] were highly appreciated.New cultivars of Iris, Hemerocallis, Lilium, Phlox, Aquilegia, Delphinium [21], Nymphaea, and Lupinus [22] were continuously bred.
An example of usage of various species of trees is a Secession garden in La Pobla de Lillet in Spain designed by Antonio Gaudi for Joan Artigas.It is situated on the two banks of the Llobregat River, next to a textile factory [23].The main attraction of the garden is water and the species characteristic of this mountainous region -Pinus, Abies, Quercus, Fagus, Juniperus and Rhododendron [24,25].To diversify the range of plants, Antonio Gaudi brought palm trees from Park Güell.They became a part of the garden after acclimatization [26].
Trees could be densely planted in small private gardens.They were to create a "slightly dim" impression, adequate for the "melancholic autumn-winter atmosphere" that characterized Art Nouveau [9] (Fig. 6).As a result, in the garden at 25 Studencka Street in Kraków trees such as Platanus ×hispanica, two Tilia and one Fraxinus were planted on a plot of 400 m 2 (Fig. 7).Trees appear in city squares, parks and along streets.The best example is Aesculus hippocastanum trees growing along Washington Avenue in Kraków, which links the Art Nouveau housing estate Salwator with Kosciuszko Mound [27], or Tilia trees in Henryk Sienkiewicz Avenue and Polish Army Street in Słupsk.Due to their abundant flowering and reference to the art of the Far East many fruit trees, like apple, pear and cherry trees, were in demand [2,16].

Shrubs
Shrubs were as important plant material in gardens as trees.In the early twentieth century, new species were introduced.They were characterized by their distinctive Fig. 6 City square in Puck planted with lindens -postcard from 1903 [35].
A constant search for new cultivars resulted in introducing many new species of roses.In 1910 a large-flowered rose (Rosa hybrida Polyantha) and in 1904 a new cultivar of Lambert's rose (Rosa lambertiana) were developed.Both species were characteristic of that period [17].
An example of a typical Art Nouveau garden next to a suburban villa is the one in Kraków at 18 Batory Street.The garden is filled with a large number of Syringa vulgaris shrubs.They surround a small terrace connecting the building with the garden.Planted in a row, right next to the fence, they create a "green wall" that shields the space, while further from the building they are planted in groups.The representative space on the axis of the building is occupied by a rose bed and large groups of Hydrangea and Corylus grow among fruit trees (Fig. 7).

Summary
Despite its short duration, Art Nouveau is remembered as a time of increased interest in nature.In those days, many species gained in popularity and became an inspiration in painting, graphics, applied arts, architecture, and the garden art.Plants with flexible corrugated shapes, straight stems or original flowers enjoyed a special interest.Vines were widely appreciated and broadly implemented, especially in urban spaces.Buildings, terraces, and balconies covered with creepers became a symbol of Art Nouveau.The new trend drew the public's attention to perennials, bulbous plants, and tubers.In gardens, in addition to already known species, new ones were imported from different parts of the world.Efforts were focused on the popularization of plants with extraordinary features such as shape, length of flowering, and color.Trees played a significant part in garden arrangements.The unique light and shadow effects created by their foliage were recognized by the Art Nouveau artists.They were used in small gardens as well as in creating urban parks and alleys.Shrubs were characterized by a variety of species.They were often planted in large groups, which enhanced their decorative values and emphasized the intimate character of the gardens.
The Art Nouveau period did not lead to adopting any specific composition by the next generations, but it left many interesting examples of gardens where the richness of plants can be seen.In Europe and the USA regional variations of Secession developed.In Poland its influence can be found among the tenements, shaded alleys or suburban villas "immersed in the greenery".These are also examples of Edwardian gardens of the later period -a combination of plants growing inside the "architectural" garden with an axial arrangement.