Percy Stephen Cane

{{external links|date=January 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Percy Stephen Cane | image =  | alt =  | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date = 1881 | birth_place = Essex, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1976|1881}} | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Garden designer, writer | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} {{Use British English|date=December 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}

'''Percival Stephen Cane''' (1881–1976) was an English garden designer and writer.

==Biography==

Cane was born and educated in Essex, studying horticulture and architecture. He designed scores of gardens over a long and distinguished career, and won frequent medals for his gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show. As a writer, he published four books on gardening, and owned and published two horticulture magazines. His gardens were firmly in the Arts and Crafts style, and he was a particular admirer of Harold Peto's work.

== Selected gardens == Cane began designing gardens around 1919 and within a decade he had become one of the most sought-after designers of his day.<ref name=":0">{{Cite ODNB|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/46397|title = Cane, Stephen Percival [Percy]}}</ref> His gardens range from the grounds of the Jubilee Palace of Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, in Addis Ababa, to a tiny town garden in Taptonville Road, Sheffield.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Percy Cane, Garden Designer|last = Webber|first = Ronald|publisher = J. Bartholomew|year = 1975|isbn = 978-0-7028-1080-0|location = Edinburgh}}</ref> Other commissions included: * Caythorpe Court in Lincolnshire for Mrs Elma Yerburgh<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title = Cane, Percy|url = http://www.gardenvisit.com/biography/percy_cane|website = www.gardenvisit.com|access-date = 2016-02-09}}</ref> * Ivy House, Hampstead, for Anna Pavlova in 1926<ref name=":0" /> * Llannerch Hall St Asaph, North Wales, 1927–29<ref name=":0" /> * Hascombe Court, Godalming, 1928–29<ref name=":0" /> * Boden's Rise, Ascot, in 1929<ref name=":0" /> * the King's House, Burhill in 1935 for the [https://www.royalwarrant.org/ Royal Warrant Holders' Association]<ref name=":0" /> * the grounds of the British Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair<ref name=":0" /> * Dartington Hall for Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst, from 1945 to 1971<ref>{{Cite web|title = Percy Cane – Dartington|url = https://www.dartington.org/about/our-history/dartington-whos-who/percy-cane/|website = Dartington|access-date = 2016-02-08|language = en-US}}</ref> * Hungerdown House, Seagry, Wiltshire, 1945–46<ref name=":0" /> * Seales Court, Seagry, Wiltshire, 1957 <ref>{{Cite web|title = RHS Archive Plans for Colonel R.B. Moseley|url = https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/43d231d7-0e3c-3288-90e0-96ced4464b3a?component=03a682cc-b36c-3c89-89e7-d74cc57ffa69}}</ref> * Falkland Palace, Fife from 1946<ref>{{Cite web|title = Falkland Palace Garden|url = http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden/falkland_palace_garden|website = www.gardenvisit.com|access-date = 2016-02-08}}</ref> * Westfields, Oakley, Bedfordshire, 1953–64<ref name=":0" /> * Sutton Park, Yorkshire in 1962<ref>{{Cite web|title = Sutton Park Garden|url = http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden/sutton_park_garden|website = www.gardenvisit.com|access-date = 2016-02-08}}</ref> * Mellerstain House, Scottish borders<ref name=":2"/> * Moundsmere Manor, Basingstoke<ref name=":2" /> * Sulgrave Manor, Oxfordshire<ref name=":2" />

== Awards and designations == Cane's contributions to important gardens in England are noted in nine entries in the Historic England Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England, which aims to "celebrate designed landscapes of note." They are: the 1927 terrace on the hilltop at [http://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1001527 St Ann's Hill] in Chertsey; his embellishments and extensions in the late 1920s to designs by Gertrude Jekyll at Hascombe Court in Godalming; the gardens at [http://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1390592 Seven Stones House] in Kent; advice on the gardens at [http://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000225 Ditchingham Hall] in Norfolk; 1930s developments to the gardens at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire; formal terraced gardens from the 1930s (no longer extant) at Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire; the 1940s Priory gardens at Hedsor House, Buckinghamshire; the tiltyard, hydrangea walk, glade, stone bastion, monumental flight of steps, and other features at Dartington Hall, Devon; and formal terraced gardens installed in 1960 at [http://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000701 Sharpham House], Devon.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Search the List {{!}} Historic England|url = http://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/|website = historicengland.org.uk|access-date = 2016-02-09|first = Historic|last = England}}</ref>

Two gardens wholly or partly designed by Cane in Scotland are designated "of national importance" and are thus included on the Historic Scotland Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes. His work at Falkland Palace in the late 1940s "gives Falkland Palace gardens outstanding value as a Work of Art."<ref>{{Cite web|title = FALKLAND PALACE|url = http://portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk/designation/GDL00176|website = portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk|access-date = 2016-02-10}}</ref> The river garden he designed for Monteviot, Jedburgh, in the 1960s contributes to the garden's designation as "outstanding."<ref>{{Cite web|title = MONTEVIOT|url = http://portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk/designation/GDL00288|website = portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk|access-date = 2016-02-10}}</ref> In addition, the gardens designed by Cane are mentioned in the Statement of Special Interest for the listed building at Ardencraig, Rothesay.<ref>{{Cite web|title = ARDENCRAIG ROAD, ARDENCRAIG HOUSE, INCLUDING GATEPIERS|url = http://portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk/designation/LB40467|website = portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk|access-date = 2016-02-10}}</ref>

Cane exhibited show gardens at the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show over a number of years, winning eight gold medals (in 1936, 1937, 1938, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1952) and three silver-gilt (1934, 1935 and 1950). In 1963 he was awarded the RHS's Veitch Memorial Medal,<ref name=":0" /> an international prize awarded to "persons of any nationality who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of the art, science or practice of horticulture."<ref>{{Cite web|title = RHS Council - how to nominate people for RHS awards / RHS Gardening|url = https://www.rhs.org.uk/about-the-rhs/our-structure/rhs-council/rhs-awards|website = www.rhs.org.uk|access-date = 2016-02-10}}</ref>

== Selected writings == Cane published four books on horticulture during his career: * ''Modern Gardens British and Foreign'', Special Winter Number of "The Studio", 1926–27, London : The Studio, 1927. * ''Garden design of to-day'', London : Methuen, 1934. * ''The Earth Is My Canvas'', London : Methuen, 1956. * ''The creative art of garden design'', London : Country Life, 1967. He also owned and edited the horticultural magazines ''My Garden, Illustrated'' (1918–20) and ''Garden Design'' (1930–38).

A full-length biography, ''Percy Cane, Garden Designer'', was written by Ronald Webber and published in 1975.

== Gallery == <gallery> File:Falkland Palace Garden - geograph.org.uk - 952544.jpg|Falkland Palace Garden File:Falkland Palace - geograph.org.uk - 703512.jpg|Falkland Palace Garden File:Falkland Palace - geograph.org.uk - 703518.jpg|Falkland Palace Garden File:The Glade, Dartington Hall Gardens - geograph.org.uk - 827466.jpg|The Glade, Dartington Hall Gardens File:The Glade, Dartington Hall Gardens - geograph.org.uk - 1401688.jpg|The Glade, Dartington Hall Gardens File:Steps up Heath Bank, Dartington - geograph.org.uk - 827477.jpg|Flight of Steps, Dartington Hall Gardens File:The Tiltyard, Dartington - geograph.org.uk - 497464.jpg|The Tiltyard, Dartington Hall Gardens File:Azalea Dell, Dartington, in autumn - geograph.org.uk - 270267.jpg|Azalea Dell, Dartington Hall Gardens File:George Henry Paulin (1888-1962) - Anna Pavlova (after 1931 -q-) left, garden of Ivy House, Golders Green, London (now the Jewish Cultural Centre) May 2013 (10811092933).png|A Paulin statue in the garden at Ivy House File:1939britishpavilion.jpg|British Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair File:Sutton Park Sutton on the Forest.jpg|Sutton Park, Yorkshire File:Trees on St.Ann's Hill - geograph.org.uk - 1224325.jpg|St Ann's Hill, Chertsey </gallery>

== References == {{Reflist}} * Ronald Webber, ''Percy Cane, garden designer'', Edinburgh : J. Bartholomew, 1975. {{ISBN|0-7028-1080-0}}. * [http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101046397/ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography] * [http://www.gardenvisit.com/biography/percy_cane Garden Visit biography] * [http://www.plantsgalore.com/people/plant-people-C.htm Plants Galore biography] * [http://www.parksandgardens.org/places-and-people/person/257 Parks and Gardens UK]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cane, Percy Stephen}} Category:1881 births Category:1976 deaths Category:English gardeners Category:Landscape and garden designers Category:British garden writers Category:Veitch Memorial Medal recipients Category:People of Falkland Palace