Boston Flora

Tag: Country Life magazine

  • Tuesday, October 27, 2:00 pm – A Celebration of English Gardens, From the Archives of Country Life Magazine, Online

    “That the English are a nation of gardeners as well as weather-watchers is well known; the two national obsessions are as intertwined as the honey-suckle and the hedgerow,” writes Country Life Garden Editor Kathryn Bradley-Hole. Her October 27 online Royal Oak Foundation lecture, drawn from her new book, celebrates English gardens featured in Country Life, a pictorial weekly journal that launched in 1897, the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

    From picturesque cottage gardens to grand formal gardens; from kitchen gardens to water gardens; and from medieval monastery gardens to cutting-edge 21st century gardens, Kathryn will take a fresh look at horticultural treasures from across England. She will discuss those created by designers such as Capability Brown, Gertrude Jekyll, Rosemary Verey, Piet Oudolf and Arne Maynard among others.

    She will illustrate world famous gardens—Waddesdon Manor (NT), Hidcote (NT), and Great Dixter—alongside new and lesser-known places such as Woolbeding (NT), Warnell Hall, Cumbria, and Hauser & Wirth in Bruton. Using stunning photography from the archives of Country Life, Kathryn will distill the essence of what makes the British garden style so popular and celebrate English garden-making in all its astonishing variety, wit and inspiration.

    Kathryn Bradley-Hole’s distinguished career as a horticultural writer includes 18 years as Gardens Editor of the iconic English weekly magazine, Country Life, between 2000 and 2018. She has authored six books on a variety of garden subjects, including the bestselling BBC “Gardeners’ World” Garden Lovers’ Guide to Britain and Lost Gardens of England from the Archives of Country Life. Her most recent book, English Gardens from the Archives of Country Life Magazine, was just published by Rizzoli last October. Her own gardening interests have an organic approach, to support a diversity of wildlife.

    Thank you to our co-sponsors: The Colonial Dames of America; Washington Decorative Arts Forum; Rizzoli; Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, Southern California Chapter

    Online via Zoom Webinar – $15 for members of the Royal Oak Foundation, $15 for nonmembers. Register at www.royal-oak.org USE PROMO CODE BACKBAY20 at checkout for $5 off – thank you Royal Oak!

  • Tuesday, July 24, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Gertrude Jekyll and the Country House Garden

    Join author and landscape historian Judith Tankard on Tuesday, July 24 at 4 pm at the Polly Hill Arboretum for this talk about her latest book, Gertrude Jekyll and the Country House Garden. This is the first book in over two decades devoted to one of the most important garden designers of the twentieth century. Gertrude Jekyll laid the basis for modern garden design and is credited with popularizing an informal, naturalistic look in counterpoint to the rigid, formal landscapes of the Victorian era. Also known as a prolific and influential writer, Jekyll contributed more than one hundred articles to Country Life and designed three gardens for the publication’s founder, Edward Hudson. As a result, the Country Life archive has an unrivaled record of her work. Tankard, who has spoken twice in the past for The Garden Club of the Back Bay,  has mined this archive resulting in a treasure trove of text and images showcasing the more than 350 gardens created by Jekyll. Book signing and light refreshments to follow.  $20/$15 for PHA members. Generously sponsored by Donaroma’s Nursery.  Register at www.pollyhillarboretum.org.