Subtropical gardening did not continue to develop during the 20th century the way it had in the Victorian Era. A series of events, and especially two world wars, slowed its development significantly.
The "golden age" of plant collecting and subtropical gardening may have been slowing down slightly even before its abrupt halt in 1914. Around 1900, political strife in the Orient was making access to that region more difficult. Many of the people who helped establish the first subtropical gardens were growing old, becoming satisfied with the spectrum of plant material they had already, or losing enthusiasm. A return to a more traditional style of gardening was gaining popularity once again, especially in cooler parts of Britain where it was deemed more impractical to maintain a subtropical garden (Huxley, Griffiths, Levy, 1992).
Then in 1914, World War 1 turned Britain's attention away from gardening entirely. All of their economic resources were now put towards fighting the Germans. They could no longer afford time and resources to fund plant-collecting expeditions or continue building plant collections. This continued until some time after the end of World War 2.
As the younger generations were now more accustomed to being concerned with war and other matters than gardening, no one bothered to keep up the Victorian Era subtropical gardens, and most of them became overgrown and fell into disrepair (Reynolds, 2001). One exception was Tresco, which had the fortune of surviving the war without serious detrimental effects (Nehlams, 2000).
Subtropical gardening was not completely dead, however. Most of the European gardens established in the tropics continued to be maintained and remain as an inspiration for travelers. Some French, Spanish and Italian gardens also endured less neglect than British gardens (Huxley, Griffiths, Levy, 1992).
The United States, which had endured less damage from the war and was less directly occupied with it, still kept an interest in gardening which continued to grow gradually. In the early to mid-20th century (even around the turn of the century, in a few cases), some collectors, arboreta and botanic gardens in the New World followed in Britain's stead of collecting exotic plants, though on a much smaller and more localized scale. These collectors mostly lacked the vision and drive the English had for obtaining new plant material and creating subtropical gardens, but they did serve to preserve much of the work of the English in the United States, and provide us today with propagation material for some of our more interesting ornamental plants (Reynolds, 2001). Such gardens as Quail Botanic Gardens and The Huntington in California remain from this era. Arboreta such as Strybing in San Francisco, the Arnold Arboretum in Massachusetts, and the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle were also clearly influenced during this time.
Some interest in subtropical gardening also remained in Britain. It would take a while to re-awaken it, but as Britain got back on its feet and finished cleaning up after the war, the work of the 19th century plant collectors and subtropical gardeners could not be ignored for long. Gradually people began to relearn and recover much of what had been lost in the early 20th century. Especially in the last 20 years, increasing efforts have been made to continue introducing new plant material and restore old collections, and attention has been paid to the restoration of the older subtropical gardens. Although much has been accomplished in the last 50 years, the movement to recover plant collecting and subtropical gardening is still a far cry from its popularity in the 19th century (Reynolds, 2001).
Still more recently, subtropical gardening has gained popularity in some areas among a small fraction of mostly middle class gardeners in the United States and Europe. In 1984 the Pacific Northwest Palm and Exotic Plant Society was founded in Vancouver, BC (PNWPEPS, 2001). At about the same time, the European Palm Society and Southeast (USA) Palm and Exotic Plant Society were formed also (SPEPS, EPS, 2001). These societies and others like it have increased the rate of public recognition for subtropical gardening in some local areas on a small scale.
The Internet has been an important tool in the sharing of information about subtropical gardening within the last five years. It is largely because of the Internet that subtropical gardening has developed less on a regional basis than in the past. The accelerated rate of information exchange on the Internet has also served to provide people with the ability to share experiences, advice, plants and seeds on a global scale (EPS, 2001).
So although there has been some development in subtropical gardening during the 20th century, it was certainly nothing as dramatic as what occurred in Victorian England (Reynolds, 2001). But subtropical gardening has remained very much alive and most of the work of the plant hunters and collectors and subtropical gardeners of the 19th century has been preserved.
