Robinson, William (1838–1935)

British gardener. He moved to England in 1859, was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society at the age of 29, and revolutionized British gardening by his advocacy of natural informal design and planting. He published Gleanings from French Gardens (1868) and his masterpiece The English Flower Garden (1883).

Robinson was born in Ireland. He travelled widely, and established a garden at Gravetye Manor, East Grinstead, where he died. Among his other publications are Alpine Flowers for English Gardens (1870), and The Wild Garden (1870). He also founded the weekly papers The Garden in 1871, Gardening (later Gardening Illustrated) in 1879, and Flora and Sylva in 1903.