On November 1 enjoy the second in the Gardens Trust series on gardens of the French Riviera. This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 4 sessions at a cost of £16 via the link here. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

Famed for Hidcote Manor, from the 1920s Johnston spent his winters near Menton creating gardens at La Serre de la Madone (below) which he bought in 1924. He experimented with plantings of flower drifts in single colours to contrast with brightly coloured leaved shrubs that he introduced from around the world. Plants from South Africa and China were acclimatised here before being introduced to Hidcote. At its height he employed 12 gardeners for the 7ha of terraces. In 1948 he donated Hidcote Manor to the National Trust and spent his last ten years permanently at La Serre de la Madone. His long-standing friendships included the garden designer Norah Lindsay as well as Charles de Noailles whose Hyères gardens proved too dry, he acquired l’Ermitage de Saint Francois in Grasse, renaming it Villa Noailles. We will explore his plantsman’s garden through the seasons.

Caroline Holmes is an experienced and accomplished lecturer working for a wide range of organizations including leading tour and cruise operators. She is an Accredited Lecturer of The Arts Society and is also a Course Director for the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. Her own gardens are open to the public and have featured in many magazine articles and on television in both Britain and Japan. Since the 1990s she has been researching, writing about and lecturing on the Riviera. Caroline is author of 12 books, her latest being Where the wildness pleases – the English garden celebrated (2021).