Hidden Gems

Pamela Smith 

National Trust Consultant to Wales and the Midlands

SEEDS OF THOUGHT

The Glory of Welsh Gardens 

Royal Oak Foundation

April 23, 2013   /    The Colony Club

Hidden Gems

Any garden billed as a hidden gem gets my attention, especially ones whose names I cannot pronounce:  Dyffryn, Erdigg, Plast Newydd, and Llanerchaeron.  There are well-known Welsh gardens:  Powis Castle (which we all know from the plant named after the castle) and Bodnant.

Pamela Smith did her best to open our minds to gardens that go as far back as the 14th century. 

"Wales is slightly damp.  You don't get good gardens without the rain."  Pamela Smith

Peppered with the history of each house, the peculiarities of its owners and the evolution of its gardens, Pamela Smith gave a workman-like presentation. For example, Penrhyn Castle, 600 ft. long, contains  a one-ton bed made of slate built for a visit by Queen Victoria, as well as a garden full of fuchsias;  Erddig Hall, owned by the same family for generations, composed poems about all their servants;  Llanerchaeron (pictured above) where the Head Gardener, a "tidy person" has trouble balancing the self-seeding meadow that surrounds the house with the English tendency to create order. 

I want to go to Wales, but not for the gardens.  It's the unspoiled landscape: the hidden lanes, the remnants of the Celts/Vikings and the challenge of pronouncing Welsh names.

Bryn Cader Faner

Pamela Smith

Pamela Smith is the National Trust's Garden and Parks Consultant to Wales and the Midlands. She works with gardens across Wales, including the gardens at Powis Castle, Erddig and Bodnant, and those in the Midlands region.

Smith advises on restoration, new acquisitions, and design and innovation within the historic landscapes. She is particularly interested in the historic significance of the plant collections within National Trust Gardens

Ms. Smith trained in horticulture in York and before joining the NT worked in public parks, historic landscapes and botanic gardens. For eight years she was the Director of the University of Birmingham Botanic Garden. She is Vice Chair of PlantNetwork, the national network promoting botanical collections in Britain and Ireland as a national resource for research, conservation and education.

In 2009, Ms. Smith was awarded a CABE Space scholarship and visited the United States and Canada to research community gardens.        

WANTED DEAD and ALIVE

Simon JENKINS

Chair of the
National Trust
of England, Wales and Northern Ireland

RESURRECTING
the English Country House
Royal Oak Foundation
April 18, 2012 - Gracie Mansion

My playhouse was built in the colonial style.  With pitched roof, mullioned windows and a brass knob. I spent many happy hours imitating the life I thought I would live. 

Simon Jenkins wants us to play house in the 330 structures the National Trust owns. We've all seen that sign "PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH."  If Jenkins has anything to say about it, that graphic will change to PLEASE ENTER!  We will be invited to sit, cook, lounge, dance and even play the piano.  A game of billards at Upton House is within your reach.

The dining room at Kingston Lacey

Is this the disneyfication of historic houses?  Jenkins argues that houses are expressions of family dreams, vulnerabilities, marriages, aspirations and careers.  It's the difference between being a participant or a spectator. "We are taking the past and reinterpreting it for the present.  In a recent survey, National Trust members were asked how many times they returned to a great house.  The answer:  seen it once, seen it all.  Jenkins wants people to come back and back again. 

How is he going to accomplish this?  By making these great houses "talk" to us.  Inviting visitors to experience the life owners and servants once lived:  sitting at the dining table, reading the diary of Lady X at her dressing table, playing croquet on the great lawn or hitting a tennis ball with a vintage wood racquet.

Hardwick Hall

This philosophy is controversial, especially in a venerable old institution like the National Trust.  Jenkins says "it's the stick-in-the-muds vs. the progressives."  His vision is a post-twitter prophecy. But I suggest using twitter to accomplish his mission.

Changing things up is my speciality.  I live for reinvention.  I will try to embrace Jenkins ideas.  I see myself at Knole, the inspiration for Virginia's Woolf's novel, Orlando, pruning lemon trees in the orangery.

Back of the Mirror: Archibald Knox

Archibald Knox:

In the Ministry of the Beautiful

Liam O'Neil
Royal Oak Foundation
Grolier Club, NYC
September 29, 2011

Isle of Man, home to Archibald Knox

Thursday night at The Grolier Club, I was waiting for that golden nugget of information to fall.  It never did.  When I attend a lecture, a tidbit, no matter how small, can make the whole thing worthwhile.  I had no such luck listening to Liam O'Neil, founder of the Archibald Knox Society.  His talk did not prove enlightening, but it confirmed something I am more and more convinced of as I grow older:  childhood is everything.

Gravestone Ireland

Garden Pot designed by Knox

Jardiniere

Knox's designs for jewelery, silver, pewter, books, and even garden pots were based on his Celtic origins.  He worked for Liberty of London and is associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement in England, but his deep love of everything Celtic permeated his aesthetic.  His genuis was his ability to transform these iconic forms into something new.

From Cheerio to Chiao! ANNA PAVORD

The Flowering of Tuscany:
British Gardens in Italy
1900-1930

Bernard Berenson and Geoffrey Scott in the recently completed garden (1913)

Seed for Thought Lecture
Royal Oak Foundation
New York

ANNA PAVORD tells a good story.  You can see why she is in demand.   She delivers a riveting presentation punctuated by humor and knowledge.  She has done her research; found the interesting tidbit and overarching meaning of her subject.  Pavord began her lecture Tuesday night with this fact:

  At the beginning of the twentieth century,
one in six people living in Florence spoke English as their native tongue.

And then asked the question why?
1.  It was cheaper to live in a grand style
2.  Expats could reinvent themselves 

3.  Liaisons were tolerated, even indulged
4.  Sons could be sent to Italy,  if they proved unsatisfactory
5.  Industrialization had transformed the British countryside and some felt it was blighted
6.  The retreat to Florence represented a sense of "backwaterdom"
7.  Journals, diaries, sketches could be written
8.  Women found considerably more freedom in Florence than at home

The staircase at Villa le Balze

What exactly did the English bring to Italian gardens?  Pavord put it in the most lovely way, 

"... they laid on a muslin veil of flowers."

This story of the making of these gardens is greatly enhanced by the amount of hanky panky that went on between neighbors.  Homosexual, heterosexual, intramarital; it made no difference.  Sex was as much part of their lives as garden making. The actors:  Bernard Berenson, Lady Paget, Lady Sybil Cutting, Alice Keppel, Sir George Sitwell, Sir Arthur Acton,Vita Sackville-West, Charles Strong. 

But the guy who plays a pivotal role is the guy you haven't heard of:  Cecil Pinsent (1884-1963).  He arrived in Florence at age 24, joining his friend Geoffrey Scott on a study-tour of Tuscan architecture.  He designed 8 major gardens between 1921-1928.  Pinsent met the right people: each owned a large property and wanted a garden.  He understood the architecture of the Renaissance and the settecento.  This was his genius.  He made Italian gardens for British expats.  He used the Italian garden idioms and elements; creating designs more Italian than their ancestors'. 

Pavord took us through Pinsent's gardens, describing his landscapes, peppering her stories with the personal histories of the occupants of the houses and doing it all with a dose of British humor.

La Foce
Benedetta Origo
"...And then three years later, after my American great-grandmother had given my parents
enough money for a water pipe from a spirng six miles away,
he(Pinsent) was able to start this first little garden."

In passing, Pavord mentioned Torre di Bellosguardo.  Her husband had taken her there on holiday after a bout with cancer.  "Today, Torre di Bellosguardo is still surrounded by the silence of the garden and the hills, a haven of ancient and noble history that it shares with its guests everyday as a hotel of rare comfort and atmosphere".  She recommended a stay.  I googled it and decided this little piece of heaven would take a few more pennies in the piggy bank to become a reality.

Torre di Bellosguardo

Anna Pavord:  Author of nine books including:  The Tulip, Bulbs, The Naming of Names, The Curious Gardener.  She contributes to a number of magazines and regularly fronts programs for BBC Radio.  In addition to her role on the Natinal Trust's Gardens Panel, she also sits on the Parks and Gardens Panel of English Heritage.

Home Is Where...

HOME IS WHERE...

              my laptop is

In many ways I am a homebody.  And yet, I am the first person to whip out a suitcase and get on a plane. I love to travel and wherever I am, I have a habit of trying to make, even a hotel room, a little bit more like a home.

During my time in the UK, the cottage known as #6 (across the street from Nymans, the National Trust Garden, I worked in) was my home, but not quite.  The cottage, devoid of personality,  is an accommodation for students and visitors.  There are no pictures on the walls, the colors are neutral, the furniture anonymous.  It's a place to "hang your hat" and no more. 

After three months out of the country, my own apartment was eerily familiar. Every piece of furniture  painstakingly chosen, every glass and plate selected for its color and shape.  It's home in the city.  It was a curious and surprising feeling, not to feel at home in the cottage and not yet feeling at home in my own apartment.

I did find the one place I felt at home:  my little laptop.  As horrifying a thought as this is, my laptop was the place I was connected to.  That silver rectangle with the apple on top was my bridge between two worlds.  There is no place like home, but sometimes home can take on a whole new meaning.
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This is the last blog in a series that started on June 18th when I arrived in the UK to begin my 

Royal Oak Foundation Fellowship in Sustainable Gardening.

Cheerio!

Odd Man Out: James Hitchmough

A meadow in the City of Sheffield

Odd Man Out

Professor James Hitchmough

Department of Landscape

University of Sheffield

"Fertility is the enemy,

Infertility is the friend."

James Hitchmough likes to think about things differently.  And these things are not limited to horticulture.  His world view includes how people interact, their social context, cultural norms and the role of green space in their lives.

"What is meaningful to people 
is what is familiar, comfortable...
I try to build on that vernacular."

I had a chance to meet James in Sheffield and talk about his research into meadow communities.  I talked to James about his education and how he got interested in urban space and horticulture.

"I am interested in making connections

between

horticulture, 

culture,

design, 

and

ecology." 

" I was lucky to be in  horticulture school at a time when some individuals were beginning to see things differently.  The British were slow to get into the growing connection between wildlife and ecology.  The Germans, Dutch and Scandinavians were dealing wtih these questions as early as the 1920's. 

"Complexity in time and space

is what drives biodiversity."

I started thinking about how to balance the competing interests - how urban areas could meet the needs of people and of wildlife.  We needed to let go of some things and take on some new things.  I wanted to remake the landscape. 

"I make stuff that
looks like weeds"

I moved to Australia for 10 years.  Australian public parks were based on the British model... including the rainfall and temperatures of Great Britain.  We needed to remake this landscape for the Australian climate.  We needed plants that would tolerate drier and hotter conditions.  We collected seed and begin to create grassland communities with lots of flowers.  In a sense we manipulated people by making color the key to their acceptance of an unfamiliar landscape.

"We interview people to find out how their values change as the vegetation changes."

In Britain people expect parks to be interesting and colorful Spring through late Summer.  We know that our native flora will not flower in late summer.  We have used North American asters, which flower late in the season and are a bonus for native invertebrates.  

In Britain we have had plant explorers bringing back plants from all over the world.  Many of these plants have naturalized in Britain.  We need native and exotic species to create a dynamic biodiversity in our gardens. 

At Wisley, Piet Oudolf, and Tom Stuart Smith have both designed gardens, close to the the wildflower meadow created by James.  I asked James to describe the differences in terms of design.  

Both Smith and Piet have different plant palettes.  But both work with repeating blocks which stitch the garden together.  In Piet's case, the edges of garden dribble into one another. 

In my meadow, every plant has a different neighbor on all sides.

"In wildness is the preservation
of the world"

Henry David Thoreau

FOR MORE INFORMATON:

www.shef.ac.uk/landscape/staff_minisites/james/index.html

ALSO:
The Dynamic Landscape: 
Design, Ecology and Management of Naturalistic Urban Plant

            by Nigel Dunnett and James Hitchmough

A story behind every plant:GREAT DIXTER

A STORY BEHIND EVERY PLANT:

Great Dixter

I met Klaus when we were both working at Hidcote as part of the garden team.  I came from Nymans and Klaus from Great Dixter.

We had a chance to compare notes and I asked Klaus to give me an idea of what it was like to work at Dixter.

Dixter is a working garden.  You can see evidence of this everywhere. 
Above:  The gate to the veg garden.

PO:  Can you describe what it was like to work at Dixter on a day to day basis?

K:  It was an amazing journey, from day one I was given interesting and challenging things to do.  I never felt I was given lesser work, just because I was a student.  Very often we work in little groups of two or three, but for big stuff all of us would work together.  The work was incredibly varied, not only did I learn how to dig or how to mulch, how to mix soil or how to propagate, but also how to choose plants and how to lay them out, the secrets of succession planting and much more.

A Dixter trademark:  Expect the unexpected.

Every job was explained properly, and there was always a very open atmosphere, critical questions or suggestions were always welcomed and answered.

A little "green roof" at Dixter. 

Unexpected combination of plants grown in pots is an indication of the quirky, surprising plantings at Dixter.

PO:  Can you talk about your impressions of the garden? 

The way it is planted?  To many people it looks like chaos.

K:  Great Dixter is a plantsman garden. There is a story behind every plant. Christopher Lloyd always wanted to have an exciting garden, full of unusual plants and plant combinations, surprising, highly experimental and full of contrast.  We are constantly trying out new combinations in many parts of the garden and some are replanted every year.

The paths at Dixter are narrow.  You feel enveloped in the garden.

There are lots of bedding areas and succession planting is very elaborate.  At the same time we rely a lot on self-seeding annuals, which, carefully edited, give the garden a very casual, wild look.  I think I really appreciate the complexity of the planting.  It is necessary to see how it changes during the seasons.

PO:  If you like Dixter, why?  What about the garden itself? or is it the people? or both?

K:  I like Dixter for many reasons.  The people are just amazing and it is an incredibly busy place, things are changing, projects are launched, changes are made.  It is buzzing with people that come to see what we are doing or just pop in, because they are friends. the garden is wonderfully varied: there are meadows, orchards, exotics, vegetables, and then all those fantastic plants that have been collected for almost a century.

Then of course, the feeling of experimentation, the constant trying of new things.

The exuberance at Dixter is overwhelming. The paths are narrow, you feel like you are almost part of the garden.

PO: Do you think Dixter is an "English" garden?

K:  This is a difficult question. 
What is a typical English garden?  
Are the rooms created by Lawrence Johnson at Hidcote typical of English gardens?  
The mixed border at Dixter is a feature of lots of English gardens, but at the same time it has a very contemporary feel, with all its wildness and meadows coming right up into the garden.

Maybe it's English, in its individuality and its independence of fashion, in the amount of love and work that has been put into it and the respect for its heritage.

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A word about the education of gardeners

Klaus, like many fellow gardeners, is a "career changer."   He started attending lectures at the Koenigliche Gartenakademie in Berlin.  He worked in Isabelle van Groennigen's nursery.  This lead him to lectures for Llndscapearchitects at the University.  He worked in the studio of Gabriella Pape and then applied to Dixter.  As many of us have found, working in a garden is a great education.

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All photographs copyright Phyllis Odessey.  No usage without permission.

If You Can Do It In Five Months...Hidcote

If You Can Do It
In Five Months...

HEDGE CUTTING AT HIDCOTE

August 2010

"If you can do it in five months, I will take you all out to lunch."

Glyn Jones, Head Gardener, Hidcote

to the gardening staff, July 26, 2010

If they can cut all those hedges in that amount of time, I think it will be a minor miracle.

I don't know if anyone has calculated how many miles of hedges exist at Hidcote, but no matter the number, it's a task that takes 7 to 8 people, half a year to accomplish.

What if these great historic gardens abandoned hedge cutting?

At Hidcote the hedges define the garden rooms. Without the hedges, the gardens would be a collection of plants in various areas, but they would not have definition and architecture.

These labor intensive gardens are in one sense UNSUSTAINABLE.  They rely on minimum staff and maximum volunteers.  These gardens were created for and by ladies and gentlemen who had a never-ending budget and an inexhaustible amount of people power.

In 2010, can these gardens survive, when none of these conditions exist?

Before

The Process

After

The National Trust, English Heritage and other organizations (as well as English people) are devoted to sustaining these gardens. The gardeners, whose task it is to do the work, recognize the necessity and the people who enjoy it, appreciate the immensity of the feat. Hats off to Queen and Country!

When it comes to gardening, occasionally, there are some advantages to being an American. 

We have to reap what WE sow and NO MORE.

my window at Hidcote... from which I observe all.


Sustainable Gardening Fellowship
Royal Oak Foundation
National Trust
2010

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COPYRIGHT PHYLLIS ODESSEY.  USAGE WITH PERMISSION ONLY.