William Robinson (gardener)

William Robinson (5 July 1838 – 17 May 1935) was an Irish practical gardener and journalist whose ideas about wild gardening spurred the movement that led to the popularising of the English cottage garden, a parallel to the search for honest simplicity and vernacular style of the British Arts and Crafts movement. Robinson is credited as an early practitioner of the mixed herbaceous border of hardy perennial plants, a champion too of the "wild garden", who vanquished the high Victorian pattern garden of planted-out bedding schemes. Robinson's new approach to gardening gained popularity through his magazines and several books—particularly The Wild Garden, illustrated by Alfred Parsons, and The English Flower Garden.

Robinson advocated more natural and less formal-looking plantings of hardy perennials, shrubs, and climbers, and reacted against the High Victorian patterned gardening, which used tropical materials grown in greenhouses. He railed against standard roses, statuary, sham Italian gardens, and other artifices common in gardening at the time. Modern gardening practices first introduced by Robinson include: using alpine plants in rock gardens; dense plantings of perennials and groundcovers that expose no bare soil; use of hardy perennials and native plants; and large plantings of perennials in natural-looking drifts.

William Robinson

William, Will or Bill Robinson may refer to:

People

Historical

William Robinson (Tasmanian politician)

William Robinson (17 July 1879 – 16 September 1960) was an Australian politician.

He was born in Lefroy, Tasmania. In 1942 he was elected to the Tasmanian Legislative Council as one of the independent members for Launceston. In 1946 the two-member seat was split and Robinson became the member for Cornwall. He held the seat until his defeat in 1948. Robinson died in Latrobe in 1960.

References

William Robinson (murder victim)

William Robinson was murdered in March 1868.

Life and murder

William Robinson, along with a few other African-Americans, immigrated to Salt Spring Island, British Columbia in Canada in the mid-1860s. He lived peacefully by himself in an isolated cabin and often attended church. Within a few years of his immigration he was murdered. Evidence suggests that he was shot in the back while eating dinner. His murder was one of a string of murders that plagued this small community during the mid to late 1860s. An investigation was launched to discover who had committed the gruesome killing.

Investigation and trial

The investigation soon concluded that a local Chemainus Indian, Tshuanahusset, was responsible for William's murder. A trial quickly found Tshuanahusset guilty and sentenced him to death shortly after. Unfortunately for the community, Tshuanahusset's execution did not prevent another African-American settler, Giles Curtis, from being murdered.

The case against Tshuanahusset was questionable at best and historians have wondered whether or not he was the actual murderer. Certain evidence does point to Tshuanahusset murdering William Robinson. A local resident, John Norton, was told by an anonymous Indian fishing near his house that Tshuanahusset had killed William Robinson and the murder weapon was hidden in a box in his house. Furthermore, Sue Tas, a member of Tshuanahusset's tribe, claims to have been with Tshuanahusset when he murdered William Robinson and testified to this in court.