The guardians of the gardens

The World of Garden Gnomes

Garden gnomes are usually loved or loathed, while some people consider them to be features solely of amusement. Nevertheless, they can be seen in many gardens, either singly or in family groups. And that they are here to stay is not in doubt.

Paracelsus

The “birth” of the gnome is not clear, although gnome aficionados point out that they appeared early in the sixteenth century in the writings of the Swiss-German physician, botanist, alchemist and astrologer Paracelsus (1493–1541). He classified them as “Earth elements,” describing them as two spans high, reluctant to associate with people and able to move through solid earth as easily as humans pass through air.

Ancestry

The heritage of gnomes is much debated, with speculation that they are descendants of the Graeco-Roman fertility god Priapus, sometimes Priapos, protector of fruit plants, livestock and gardens.

French developments

In about 1616, Jacques Callot (1592–1635) engraved and printed figures of a gobbi (dwarf). These images must have had great appeal: by the late eighteenth century, porcelain gnomes, known as house dwarfs, were being produced.

German influence

The date of the manufacture of early garden gnomes (also known as lawn gnomes) is disputed, but the company Baehr and Maresch of Dresden, Germany, had produced ceramic outdoor gnomes by 1841. And from about 1860, gnomes were made in Thuringia, an area christened in the late nineteenth century as the “green heart of Germany.”

English adventure

Gnomes were introduced into Britain in 1847 by Sir Charles Edmund Isham (1819–1903), a landowner and gardener, with 21 terracotta figures brought back from a trip to Germany. He was a bonsai enthusiast and made an early collection of these dwarfed plants, populating them with his “little people.”

Storybook gnomes

These colourful creatures have often been portrayed in fantasy literature, where a wide range of characters have appeared, for instance, in the following books:

• “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C. S. Lewis (1898–1963). Here gnomes are known as Earthmen, living in the Underland, and are used as slaves by the Lady of the Green Kirtle, also known as Queen of the Underland.
• “The Father Christmas Letters” by J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) tells of the adventures and misadventures of Father Christmas and his helpers, including Red Gnomes who travelled from Norway to the North Pole to assist him.
• The Harry Potter stories by J. K. Rowling (b. 1965) feature mischievous but harmless gnomes who inhabit the gardens of witches and wizards.
• “The Little Grey Men,” written and illustrated under the nom de plume “BB” (Denys James Watkins-Pitchford, 1905–90), tells of the exploits of four gnomes named after flowers: Baldmoney, Sneezewort, Dodder and Cloudberry.
• The Oz series of books, which began with “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” (1900), were written by an American author of children’s books, Lyman Frank Baum (1856–1919). These books were populated with many invented characters – “Kabumpo in Oz” (1922) featured Ruggedo the gnome king (originally spelled ‘nome’ by Baum), who turns into a giant while tunnelling under the Emerald City.

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Fame and establishment

Loved, hated or just tolerated, ceramic gnomes have, for many people, become the guardians of gardens. For some devotees, their garden is more of a gnome theme park. Ann Atkin, founder of the world-famous Gnome Reserve in Devon, south-west England, may have the world’s largest known population of these characters, where they inhabit woodland glades and sit by flowery paths. Visitors are often offered the loan of a pointed gnome’s cap to wear so that “the gnomes think you are one of them.”

Gnomes blackballed

Gnomes pop up in many gardens, tastefully positioned in grottoes or near water features to add character and fun, but you will not see them at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show in London, an annual event in the gardening calendar.

Much to the chagrin of gnome enthusiasts, the RHS considers gnomes to detract from flower displays and attractive garden designs, and has banned them.

Gnomes’ evolution

During the late 1800s, the underground and tunnelling nature of the gnome began to change in children’s stories and they became more associated with the ‘little people’, including goblins, elves, leprechauns and brownies.

Illustrations of gnomes in storybooks usually depicted them as bearded males, with red hats and often a smoking pipe. In more recent times, female gnomes have been introduced.