One November, we made the mistake of going to Norfolk.
OK, before all you Fen-o-philes take umbrage, the mistake was (mostly) in the timing, rather than the place. Everything, but everything, was shut - Sandringham, National Trust houses, you name it, they'd all closed their doors three days earlier at the end of October. When we ended up in Walsingham to see the abbey, the eeriness of the deserted streets reminded us of nothing so much as The Town of No Return, the Avengers episode where the church reverberates with the singing of a non-existent choir, and the baying of bloodhounds floats across the Fens at night.
Things have moved on and stately homes are now less likely to shut up tight with leaf fall. This year English Heritage have special events aimed at gardeners at four of their properties, beginning next week at Walmer Castle, Kent, and continuing through December till March at Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight, Brodsworth Hall, South Yorks, and Witley Court, Worcs. English Heritage members have other events to choose from, too.
The events comprise a nice mix of the practical and the recreational, with head gardeners offering talks and tips on everything from hanging baskets and plant propagation, to walks focussing on wildlife management and (the one that tempts me most) historic trees.
This weekend I bought twenty-five seed potatoes, a bottle of Armillatox, 400g of shallot bulbs and 5lbs of bird seed, and still had change from a tenner. How come? Because my local horticultural society runs a shop with very advantageous prices. Membership costs £3 a year, so, given that small packets of seed potatoes at the local garden centre cost around £3 each, I'm quids in already.
Horticultural societies are much overlooked by people starting out in gardening. Perhaps it's because they picture turgid lectures on growing orchids, and fussy, cloth-capped fellows entering the produce show.
The sound of clanging garden gates seems to be reverberating around Britain. Chesters Walled Garden is now closed for good, and from the end of this month, Leonardslee in West Sussex will be closed, according to the press releases, “for the foreseeable future”.
News broke in February that the Grade I listed garden had been bought by a businessman from Eastern Europe (more detail at The Telegraph). This is a terribly sad loss. Just how sad was brought home to me when I visited last week.
At this time of year, the gardens are ablaze with rhododendrons and azaleas, brought from all over the world. Huge R. loderi, first bred at Leonardslee by Sir Edmund Loder in 1900, tower over little woodland paths and the air is thick with a jasmine scent. Soon the only opportunity to catch a glimpse of these historic gardens will be to watch the feverishly intense Powell and Pressburger film, Black Narcissus.
How many hearts were a-flutter at my local horticultural society recently? Impossible to tell. With our — how shall I put it? — well seasoned membership, enthusiasm is shown by attendance, rather than demeanour. But, going by numbers, it was regarded as quite a coup to land a talk by Tom Hart Dyke.
Tom, renowned plant collector, shot to national prominence in 2000 when he finally emerged from nine months’ captivity in the Columbian jungle. To this day, he and his travelling companion, Paul Winder, have no idea who their captors were, nor what they wanted.
But it was certainly terrifying. Informed one day that they would be executed the coming evening, Winder spent the day in prayer, while Tom — “I wasn’t going to bother Him upstairs” — distracted himself by planning his ideal garden. And it’s this garden, changed very little from the original plan, which now supports the family estate at Lullingstone Castle in Kent. The whole experience, though, has had a deep and lasting effect on the family, and The Times has a a touching interview with Tom and his mother, Sarah.
Tom caught the gardening bug when he was three and his granny (much revered and often mentioned) gave him a packet of carrot seed and a trowel. His passion for his subject is immense and one is left in no doubt of how “amazing” and “fascinating” he finds the plant world. Such is Tom’s eagerness that occasionally one fears that he’ll run out of breath before running out of sentence. Occasionally he does.
The World Garden — “my Columbian dream” — aims to show the origins of many familiar plants. Wild varieties make up the central displays, in beds shaped like the continents, while corresponding cultivated varieties are ranged around the edges of the two-acre walled garden. Every winter a fifth of the garden is dug up and moved into shelter.
This year it wasn’t enough. While I was mourning the loss of a single potted myrtle, our cold, wet February wiped out over 1000 of Tom's plants, including (as he alarmingly put it) the entire Canary Islands. Tom seemed sanguine. It all contributes to our knowledge of the plants and over the years he’s made interesting discoveries of what is and isn’t hardy and, with his seven volunteer helpers, lost plants are quickly replaced.
And transplanting isn't all that's been happening. Last weekend, not content with one World Garden, Tom unveiled the World Garden in Miniature, very cute and featuring alpines. You can read more on his entertaining blog.
Tom's engaging writing style also gets an airing in his weekly column for the Gravesend Reporter, which has a nifty e-edition, although their page counts are a bit off and you might have to turn the pages, rather than use the search facility, to find him.
The next event at Lullingstone is the Flower Festival on 6th June, but you can visit Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays until 26th September. For more, see Visitor Information. In the meantime, the slide show below gives a flavour of the World Garden, and the video a preview of Tom's Hot and Spiky Cactus House.
This week, the Duchess of Northumberland has written in the Financial Times about her current and future plans. Alnwick has not grown any more attractive to me with longer hindsight, but I do admire her focus on promoting the gardens.
A lot of thought is going into keeping Alnwick firmly on the map and other garden owners might benefit from taking note on how she is attracting visitors.
The problem with going away to visit a distant garden is that you’re hostage to the weather. Which is why, last May, my husband and I found ourselves soaking up water like sponges as we took in the gardens of Morville Dower House in a downpour.
Morville is a very special place, despite the vagaries of Shropshire weather. Created by Dr Katherine Swift over twenty years, it marries the history of gardening with the history of the people who lived there, taking you through different historical periods and recognising different influences. Here’s what she says about it:
“Although the garden is divided into separate areas by high hedges, it is less a succession of garden ’rooms’, each leading into the next in an orderly sequence, than like a medieval church, with nave, transepts and aisles, choir and apse, little side-chapels and chantries, glimpsed sideways through arches and arcades in an ever-shifting perspective. There’s a transparency about it—the way an overture before an opera introduces all the themes that will be elaborated later—yet it retains its secrets, its ability to surprise.”
If Boxwood Garden Tours mentioned earlier this month seemed too much, then one company that you might not have thought of for gardens is HF Holidays who, as well as their well known guided walking tours, offer fifteen different garden tours.
[NB: This post was written in 2010. Most of the following tours are still run by HF Holidays, but the links change from year to year. So, click on HF Holiday link above for a list of current garden tours.]
HF Holidays, in business since 1913, pride themselves on friendly, easy-going hols for all: singles, friends and families. Their garden tours include a mix of public and private gardens and are led by experts.
One expert you might recognise is writer and broadcaster Christine Walkden. She’ll be leading the Welsh Border Tour in May, and the Devon Garden Tour in June. I'll be posting more about Christine in the next couple of weeks.
Holidays: anyone really organised is leafing through brochures as we speak. I’m not good at this. Usually I’m on the phone, trying to book a room about two hours before we leave.
Boxwood Tours were quick off the mark with their brochure this year. And if I had the money, they would be top of my list for a garden holiday. Even their brochure is a delight, dotted with picturesque illustrations. With only four short holidays available in the year, they offer total garden immersion, with a packed itinerary led by experienced horticulturalists and in which you meet garden owners and head gardeners of the properties you visit. This year they are visiting: Gardens of the Languedoc, the Kingdom of Dyfed (their cheapest, at £1398 for five days), Venice and the Veneto and the Green Heart of Ireland.
The Eden Project, Cornwall, grasped technology with both hands earlier this year and took its own channel, Eden Project TV on myCornwall.tv, which aims to unite all things Cornish on the internet, using video and social media.
Five-minute programmes are regularly added, featuring events at Eden, local designers, seasonal gardening ideas and showing what’s blooming and fruiting with the help of Eden’s horticulturalist Catherine Cutler. CEO and co-founder Tim Smit, champion of sustainability and eco-campaigns, rants monthly in What’s Eating Tim Smit?
Other films make it on to the Eden Project blog, where a bit of lateral thinking has the Plant Records Manager, Chris Bisson, recommending a favourite plant “record” each Friday. So far we’ve had The Who’s Pictures of Lily and, in festive fun this week alt rock group Weezer's Buddy Holly (groan. But a must for fans of Happy Days).
Eden’s very busy this month with Christmas workshops, Cornish choirs, skating and curling (featured on West Country Tonight), late openings and a display of Christmas trees. Get a flavour in the Eden Project's Time for Gifts Video.
Sometimes you want to give a Christmas present with real quality and originality. Sheila Holness makes gorgeous miniature garden equipment, such as shears, rakes, pots and spades, in sterling silver. Each piece is based on a real tool; some have been passed down through the family since the 1930s, some found in a neighbour’s shed, some in the Rural Life Museum at Tilford,Surrey.
...Landscape Juice Network
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