“England hath contrived to make the adopted foreigners her own,” wrote American horticulturist, businessman and the co-author of
the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Robert Henry Foster, of the plants obtained from around the world to fill such borders.
It is said the first herbaceous borders were designed at Arley Hall & Gardens in Cheshire, England, in 1845: “Amongst the finest in Europe the Gardens have been created over the last 250 years by successive generations of the same family.” In fact, right from the start they were always a reflection of a family or a person’s unique style, be it exuberant and colourful or quiet and constrained.