The last edition of The English Flower Garden was edited and revised by Roy Hay, Editor of Gardener's Chronicle in 1956. Robinson's work was a guide to real gardeners from the time of its publication in 1883 for more than 30 years. Actually the 16th and last edition revised and edited by Hay contains an excellent discussion of gardens and various species and cultivars of plants grown in English gardens. Robinson's teachings are more appropriate today than they ever have been. There is less money available for garden maintenance than ever.
Laborers are more difficult to get.
Thoroughly trained gardeners are becoming scarcer as that the elaborate bedding schemes of the Victorians are even further out of our reach than they were when Robinson began to present his famous doctrines. No student of British or American horticulture is well-informed unless he knows something of the life and times of William Robinson and his influences of changing English horticulture. Robinson's translation of a vegetable gardening book entitled The Vegetable Garden is also a very interesting textbook. Additional information about William Robinson may be found on the Internet.