SHAKESPEARE HERBSCAPE

April 23rd is the birthday of William Shakespeare and this spring you can plan to create a Shakespeare garden rooted in centuries past and based on the references to the more than eighty flowers and herbs that can be found in the Bard’s writings.

Select a basic Elizabethan design – a formal knotted garden arrangement outlined with boxwood, germander, santolina or lavender with a central sculptural component or ornamental rosemary or bay laurel topiary. Use unique plant labels or homemade signs quoting lines that include mention of the following herbs:

LEMON BALM – “As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as gentle,--O Antony!--Nay, I will take thee too.”
Antony and Cleopatra, Act V, Scene 2

BAY LAUREL- “'Tis thought the King is dead. He will not stay. The Bay trees in our country are all withered.”
King Richard II, Act II, Scene 4

SALAD BURNET - “The even mead that erst brought forth, the freckled Cowslip, Burnet, and Sweet Clover.”
King Henry V, Act V, Scene 2

CHAMOMILE— “Though the chamomile, the more it is trodden on the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted the sooner it wears.”
King Henry IV, Part 1, Act II, Scene 4.

FENNEL— “There’s fennel for you and columbines.“
Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5.

HYSSOP— “We will plant nettles or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme.“
Othello, Act I, Scene 3.

LAVENDER, MARJORAM, MINT, WINTER SAVORY — “Here’s flowers for you; hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram.”
The Winter’s Tale, Act IV, Scene 4.

PARSLEY— “I knew a wench married in an afternoon as she went to the garden for parsley to stuff a rabbit.”
The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene 4.

ROSEMARY— “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray you, love, remember.“
Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5.

RUE – “Here did she fall a tear; here in this place I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace. Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen, In the remembrance of a weeping queen.”
King Richard II, Act IV, Scene 1

THYME— “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Act II, Scene 1.

WORMWOOD – “To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain, And therewithal to win me, if you please, Without the which I am not to be won.”
Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act V, Scene 2

 

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world and all who live in it”Psalm 24:1