The term gardenesque was introduced by John Claudius Loudon

John Claudius Loudon

John Claudius Loudon was a Scottish botanist, garden and cemetery designer, author and garden magazine editor.-Background:...

 (1783-1843) to describe a style of planting design in accordance with his 'Principle of Recognition'.

Definitions

Loudon was worried that picturesque

Picturesque

Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...

 planting could be mistaken for natural growth and argued that for a planting design to be recognizable as a work of art only exotic plants should be used. Later in his career Loudon accepted several other ways of making planting recognizable as art (1) by removing surrounding plants so that a perfect form of the plant was grown (2) by 'high keeping' (intensive maintenance) in a garden (3) by planting in geometrical beds.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines this word somewhat differently:

Partaking of the character of a garden; somewhat resembling a garden or what belongs to a garden.

The OED then gives several quotes illustrating various usages of the term:

1838 Loudon. Arboretium Brit., The expression of gardenesque beauty, in individual trees differs from the picturesque, in being . . at all times regular or symmetrical

1839 — Repton's Landsc. Garden (1840) Introd. 8 This change has given rise to a school we call Gardenesque; the characteristic feature of which is the display of the beauty of trees, and other plants individually.

1880-1 Libr. Univ. Knowl. (N.Y.) XI. 306 [Boston Common 'public garden'] is kept in gardenesque style as an arboretum

Arboretum

An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...

 and botanical garden

Botanical garden

A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

.

1881 Gard. Chron No. 417.816 An attempt to give a sort of gardenesque character to a slope within view of the Castle by planting dwarf hardy shrubs in a formal arrangement of beds.

1896 Punch 29 Aug. 100/2 No, by heavens, let the gardenesque perish Ere ever I axe that familiar old thorn!

See also

• Planting design
• Picturesque
  Picturesque
  Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
  
  
• John Claudius Loudon
  John Claudius Loudon
  John Claudius Loudon was a Scottish botanist, garden and cemetery designer, author and garden magazine editor.-Background:...
  
  
• History of gardening
  History of gardening
  The history of ornamental gardening may be considered as aesthetic expressions of beauty through art and nature, a display of taste or style in civilized life, an expression of an individual's or culture's philosophy, and sometimes as a display of private status or national pride—in private...