Boston Flora

Tag: Gardens Trust

  • Wednesday, November 1, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Eastern – Head Gardeners at Historic Sites: Frances Tophill at Sharpham, Online

    The Gardens Trust Wednesday webinar series this Autumn will focus on head gardeners working at historic sites. This is the first lecture of the second set of five talks, exploring how individual head gardeners are balancing the heritage of their site, the wishes of its owner(s) and their own interests and experience. We’ll hear about the role from both seasoned head gardeners and those more recently appointed. Learn about the challenges they face, including climate change, as well as the joys of horticulture and heritage. you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 5 sessions at a cost of £20 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.

    On November 1, meet Frances Tophill at Sharpham. On the banks of the river Dart in Devon, Sharpham has been a dwelling since the 14th century. The present Palladian mansion, designed by Sir Robert Taylor, was built in the 1760s. The gardens have been through many changes over the years and are set in a Grade II registered landscape attributed to Capability Brown. There are 19th century pleasure gardens around the house, formal terraced gardens designed by Percy Cane in the 1960s (recently replanted as a tea garden), a walled kitchen garden, woodland garden and two orchards planted since 2000.

    The house and gardens have been vested in the Sharpham Trust since 1982, an educational charity which aims to connect people with nature and foster mindfulness and well-being through a program of retreats, courses, events and the arts.

    Frances Tophill is currently Head Gardener and Grower at Sharpham Trust and she has also worked at Monet’s Garden and the Andromeda Botanical Garden in Barbados. On screen she is known for her work with Gardeners’ World and Love Your Garden. Her love affair with plants started with an NVQ and apprenticeship at The Salutation Garden in Kent, followed by a degree in Horticulture with Plantsmanship at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Passionate about conservation and sustainability, Frances has been involved in native tree planting and, in 2022, won ‘best show garden’ for a sustainable garden design and build at Gardeners’ World Live.

  • Tuesdays, October 31 & November 7, 6:00 am – 7:30 am Eastern – Hisui Sugiura, Online

    The Gardens Trust is back with a two part online series on Hisui Sugiura: Botanical Illustrator and Graphic Designer, on Tuesdays, October 31 and November 7, from 6 am – 7:30 Eastern, but don’t worry – a recording of the sessions will be made available soon after the live talk and is accessible for a week, to watch at your convenience. Tickets are available through Eventbrite, £8 for both or £5 each. Registration links are HERE

    In recent years, the work of Hisui Sugiura (1876-1965), a pioneering graphic designer, has been admired both within and outside Japan. In the 1920s and 1930s, his iconic poster designs and magazine covers for Mitsukoshi department store and the new Ginza subway seemed to capture the zeitgeist of a rapidly modernizing society. Less attention has been given to his highly accomplished botanical illustrations which closely reflected his own artistic development and remained a constant source of inspiration throughout a long and productive career. He successfully hybridized Japanese and Western techniques, filling numerous sketchbooks with realistic natural history and botanical illustrations, before offering more stylized depictions of plants in an album of woodblock prints known as Hisui Hyakkafu [One Hundred Flowers], and finally developing abstract floral motifs and designs which he incorporated skillfully into his graphic designs.

    Utilizing a recently discovered cache of preparatory studies for Hisui Hyakkafu, these two richly illustrated talks follow Hisui on his artistic journey: his approach to plants and art, his compositional techniques, and place within the broader botanical art traditions of Japan. Illustration is Hypericum monogynum, attrib. Hisui Sugiura (非水 杉浦), early 20th century. Ink and watercolour on washi. Reproduced courtesy of the Shadowlands Archive.

  • Tuesday, October 24, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Derwent Valley Mills

    The Gardens Trust has created a seven part series on Tuesdays, beginning September 12, to mark 50 years of UNESCO World Heritage, £5 each or all 7 for £28. Starting with an overview of World Heritage values and the changing nature of the UK list, the series will aim to enthuse people about individual sites around Great Britain, highlighting what makes each one exceptional, the advantages and challenges of being inscribed on the list, and the issues around sustainable future management of these global assets. 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. Register for the complete series HERE, or follow the links on that page to sign up for individual sessions. Since this is the final episode, you may wish to sign up for the single session.

    Derbyshire’s Derwent Valley is the birthplace of the factory system, where water power was first successfully harnessed for mass production, ushering in the modern industrial age. The need for people to come together to work in the mills resulted in the rapid creation of new communities, complete with infrastructure to provide for their educational and spiritual needs. Today those early mills, and their communities, can still be seen in their stunning valley landscape setting, some barely changed in over 200 years. Their significance was recognized in 2001 when they were inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

    Adrian Farmer has for 19 years been coordinating all heritage aspects relating to the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site – from planning responses to research, and engagement to promotion. He received the British Empire Medal in 2019 and was Highly Commended in the UK’s first Tourism Superstar Awards in 2012, for his work in this area. He has written eight local history books.

  • Wednesday, October 11, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – Head Gardeners at Historic Sites: Stephen Herrington at the Newt

    The Gardens Trust will focus on head gardeners working at historic sites. Split into two 5-week series on Wednesdays, the season will kick off with an exploration of the head gardener role over the past two centuries, followed by talks exploring how individual head gardeners are balancing the heritage of their site, the wishes of its owner(s) and their own interests and experience. We’ll hear about the role from both seasoned head gardeners and those more recently appointed. Join us to learn about the challenges they face, including climate change, as well as the joys of horticulture and heritage.

    At the end of the first series, we will also be offering a FREE roundtable discussion on the different career paths available to head gardeners, and ways of encouraging more people to enter or progress in the profession. Please register separately for this.

    You may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 5 sessions at a cost of £20 via the link here. [Gardens Trust members may use their promo code for a discount.] Please register separately for the roundtable discussion, or for individual sessions by following the links HERE. Ticket sales close 4 hours before the talk. 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.

    Stephen Herrington will discuss the joys and challenges of gardening at the Newt in Somerset on October 11. The Newt in Somerset is a working country estate with acres of farmland, woodland, orchards and gardens. The gardens are open daily for visitors to explore and enjoy the restaurants, farm shops, Cyder Cellar and The Story of Gardening experience. Nestled within the grounds lies Hadspen House – a Georgian family home, now a luxury hotel and spa offering guests a place to delight in country living.

  • Tuesday, October 10, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Online

    The Gardens Trust has created a seven part series on Tuesdays, beginning September 12, to mark 50 years of UNESCO World Heritage, £5 each or all 7 for £28. Starting with an overview of World Heritage values and the changing nature of the UK list, the series will aim to enthuse people about individual sites around Great Britain, highlighting what makes each one exceptional, the advantages and challenges of being inscribed on the list, and the issues around sustainable future management of these global assets. 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. Register for the complete series HERE, or follow the links on that page to sign up for individual sessions.

    The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew tells the story of our relationship with plants, from innovative landscape design to global exploration, scientific endeavor and conservation action. The resulting rich and diverse cultural landscape is of national and international significance, spanning over 260 years. Kew Gardens was inscribed onto the World Heritage List in July 2003, acknowledging the value of its unique history, diverse historic landscape, rich architectural legacy, botanic collections and its position as one of the world’s leading botanic gardens for scientific research and education.

    Since the botanic gardens were first established by Princess Augusta in 1759, the site and collections have continued to grow and evolve through the work of RBG Kew’s scientists, horticulturists, educators and many volunteers. Over this time, RBG Kew has remained faithful to its original purpose, with botanists continuing to collect specimens and exchange expertise internationally. RBG Kew’s landscape, buildings and plant collections combine to form a unique testimony to developments in garden design, horticulture and botanical science that have subsequently diffused around the world.

    Georgina Darroch is Kew Gardens World Heritage Site Manager. Georgina has worked at Kew for 10 years, starting out as a student on the Kew Diploma in Horticulture before going on to work in Kew Science and then on several high-profile projects including the Hive and the Temperate House restoration. Georgina took on the management of Kew’s World Heritage Site responsibilities in 2019, leading the development of Kew’s current WHS Management Plan and engaging in several Planning Inquiries. Georgina has a background in archaeology and heritage management.

    Simon Toomer is Kew Gardens Curator of Living Collections, a new role that he took on in 2022 to lead the delivery of Kew’s Living Collections Strategy and develop Kew’s Landscape Succession Plan. Simon has been a forester, arboriculturist and horticultural botanist with previous roles including Director of Westonbirt Arboretum, Senior Consultant for Plant Conservation with the National Trust and Chair of PlantNetwork, the primary support and advisory network for holders of living plant collections throughout Britain and Ireland. He is also the author of several books on topics about trees and plant collections, including Trees for the Small Garden (Timber Press, 2005) and Planting and Maintaining a Tree Collection (Timber Press, 2010).

  • Tuesday, October 3, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Blenheim Palace

    The Gardens Trust has created a seven part series on Tuesdays, beginning September 12, to mark 50 years of UNESCO World Heritage, £5 each or all 7 for £28. Starting with an overview of World Heritage values and the changing nature of the UK list, the series will aim to enthuse people about individual sites around Great Britain, highlighting what makes each one exceptional, the advantages and challenges of being inscribed on the list, and the issues around sustainable future management of these global assets. 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. Register for the complete series HERE, or follow the links on that page to sign up for individual sessions.

    Week four is an exploration of Blenheim Palace. Blenheim Palace was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. Situated in Oxfordshire, this magnificent palace is a masterpiece of English Baroque architecture.

    Designed by the esteemed architect Sir John Vanbrugh, Blenheim Palace showcases a harmonious blend of grandeur, elegance, and intricate detailing. Its commanding facade, adorned with majestic columns and intricate sculptures, captivates visitors from the moment they set eyes upon it.

    Beyond its architectural splendour, Blenheim Palace holds immense historical value. It is the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, one of the most influential figures in British history. The palace has witnessed significant events and played a pivotal role in shaping the course of the nation. Surrounded by vast parklands, including Capability Brown designed lakes and meticulously landscaped gardens, Blenheim Palace offers a glimpse back in time.

    As a World Heritage Site, Blenheim Palace stands as a testament to human ingenuity, cultural significance, and the enduring beauty of architectural achievements. Today it welcomes over a million visitors through its gates.

    Roy Cox is Managing Director of the Estates at Blenheim Palace. He has overall responsibility for the Estates sector covering rural, farming, forestry, shooting, gardens, World Heritage Parkland, let agricultural portfolio, renewables and their outdoor events. Roy has been at Blenheim for nearly ten years having joined from a career at Smiths Gore, a Chartered Surveying practice where he specialised in private client management.

  • Wednesday, September 27, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – Head Gardeners at Historic Sites: Katy Merrington at the Hepworth Wakefield Garden, Online

    The Gardens Trust will focus on head gardeners working at historic sites. Split into two 5-week series on Wednesdays, the season will kick off with an exploration of the head gardener role over the past two centuries, followed by talks exploring how individual head gardeners are balancing the heritage of their site, the wishes of its owner(s) and their own interests and experience. We’ll hear about the role from both seasoned head gardeners and those more recently appointed. Join us to learn about the challenges they face, including climate change, as well as the joys of horticulture and heritage.

    At the end of the first series, we will also be offering a FREE roundtable discussion on the different career paths available to head gardeners, and ways of encouraging more people to enter or progress in the profession. Please register separately for this.

    You may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 5 sessions at a cost of £20 via the link here. [Gardens Trust members may use their promo code for a discount.] Please register separately for the roundtable discussion, or for individual sessions by following the links HERE. Ticket sales close 4 hours before the talk. 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.

    At The Hepworth Wakefield, an art gallery and creative space in the heart of Yorkshire, an unused acre of land has recently been transformed into a beautiful, free, public garden, designed by internationally acclaimed landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith. His design draws inspiration from its unusual setting between 19th-century red-brick mills and a 21st-century art gallery, edged by the River Calder. It echoes the striking, angular shapes of the David Chipperfield-designed gallery while harnessing a naturalism that reflects Barbara Hepworth’s deep connection to the landscape. As well as Stuart-Smith’s distinctive planting, there are outdoor sculptures by Sir Michael Craig-Martin, Barbara Hepworth and Kim Lim.

    The garden is cared for by Cultural Gardener Katy Merrington and a team of volunteers and is a much-cherished urban oasis, providing space for events and activities, as well as being rich in biodiversity. Katy will be the September 27 speaker in this series.

    Katy Merrington studied fine art before training as a horticulturist and has previously worked in beautiful gardens across the UK and USA, including the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh at Logan, Dumfries & Galloway, Tresco Abbey Gardens, Isles of Scilly and Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania, USA. Photo credit: Jason Ingram.

  • Tuesday, September 26, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Birkenhead Park, Online

    The Gardens Trust has created a seven part series on Tuesdays, beginning September 12, to mark 50 years of UNESCO World Heritage, £5 each or all 7 for £28. Starting with an overview of World Heritage values and the changing nature of the UK list, the series will aim to enthuse people about individual sites around Great Britain, highlighting what makes each one exceptional, the advantages and challenges of being inscribed on the list, and the issues around sustainable future management of these global assets. 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. Register for the complete series HERE, or follow the links on that page to sign up for individual sessions.

    Week Three features Marie le Devehat and Rob Belcher speaking on Birkenhead Park. Birkenhead Park is widely acknowledged to be the earliest purpose-built and publicly funded urban public park in the UK. Designed in 1844 by Joseph Paxton, it was laid out in the picturesque manner, in response to the rapid growth of the urban population. The way its landscape was designed stirs the emotions and provides a feeling of countryside in an urban conurbation. Today, Birkenhead Park’s undulating parkland still provides a green oasis for everyone to enjoy. In April 2023, “Birkenhead the People’s Park” was officially included on the UK’s Tentative List as a potential future nomination for the UNESCO World Heritage List. It has exceptional value as an innovative and influential model for local authority funded urban parks and has continued to serve the social purpose for which it was created.

    Marie Le Devehat is the World Heritage Project Officer for Birkenhead Park. Since joining Wirral Council in November 2019, she has been working on the application to UNESCO for the Park. Before she embarked on this journey, Marie has held various roles with a focus on World Heritage sites, heritage management, and has personal research interests in ‘heritage & memory’ studies.

    Rob Belcher is currently supporting Wirral Council’s ambitions for Birkenhead Park. His background is in town planning and landscape design. For the majority of Rob’s 35-year career he has worked in the sphere of public parks management and development, finding himself increasingly focused on the restoration and improvement of historic landscapes. Prior to starting work at Birkenhead Park in 2018, Rob was fortunate to lead the comprehensive restoration of Burslem and Hanley Parks in Stoke-on-Trent.

  • Tuesday, September 19, 5:00 am – 6:30 am (but recorded) – The Lake District, Online

    The Gardens Trust has created a seven part series on Tuesdays, beginning September 12, to mark 50 years of UNESCO World Heritage, £5 each or all 7 for £28. Starting with an overview of World Heritage values and the changing nature of the UK list, the series will aim to enthuse people about individual sites around Great Britain, highlighting what makes each one exceptional, the advantages and challenges of being inscribed on the list, and the issues around sustainable future management of these global assets. 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. Register for the complete series HERE, or follow the links on that page to sign up for individual sessions.

    Week Two on September 19 is The Lake District with Harvey Wilkinson. The English Lake District is a self-contained mountain area whose narrow, radiating glaciated valleys, steep fells and slender lakes exhibit an extraordinary beauty and harmony. This landscape reflects an outstanding fusion between a distinctive communal farming system that has persisted for a millennium with improvements of villas, and designed landscapes during the 18th and 19th centuries. This combination has attracted and inspired writers and artists of global stature. The landscape also manifests the success of the conservation movement that it stimulated; a movement based on the idea of landscape as a human response to our environment. This cultural force has had world-wide ramifications.

    Added to the World Heritage list in 2017, the complex nature of the Lake District inscription, based on three areas of outstanding universal value, led to the creation of the category Cultural Landscape, of which the Lakes is one of the first.

    This talk will focus on the significance and role of the Lakes villas, gardens and designed landscapes.

    With a background as an art gallery curator in historic buildings, Harvey Wilkinson has worked for the National Trust for ten years, acting as Cultural Heritage Curator for the largest land asset in the National Trust, which amounts to 25 percent of the Lakes total area. He works at a landscape scale, covering all the Trust’s built assets and significant early land acquisitions.

  • Wednesday, September 20, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – Head Gardeners at Historic Sites: Graham Dillamore at Hampton Court and Kensington Palace

    The Gardens Trust will focus on head gardeners working at historic sites. Split into two 5-week series on Wednesdays, the season will kick off with an exploration of the head gardener role over the past two centuries, followed by talks exploring how individual head gardeners are balancing the heritage of their site, the wishes of its owner(s) and their own interests and experience. We’ll hear about the role from both seasoned head gardeners and those more recently appointed. Join us to learn about the challenges they face, including climate change, as well as the joys of horticulture and heritage.

    At the end of the first series, we will also be offering a FREE roundtable discussion on the different career paths available to head gardeners, and ways of encouraging more people to enter or progress in the profession. Please register separately for this.

    You may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 5 sessions at a cost of £20 via the link here. [Gardens Trust members may use their promo code for a discount.] Please register separately for the roundtable discussion, or for individual sessions by following the links HERE. Ticket sales close 4 hours before the talk. 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.

    On September 20 we will hear from Graham Dillamore. Hampton Court and Kensington Palace are two of the six sites run today by the charity Historic Royal Palaces. Hampton Court Palace’s world-famous gardens include 60 acres of spectacular formal gardens and 750 acres (304 hectares) of parkland, all set within a loop of the River Thames. Kensington Gardens began life as a King’s playground; for over 100 years, the gardens were part of Hyde Park and hosted Henry VIII’s huge deer chase. Shaped by successive monarchs, highlights of the 107-hectare site today include Bridgeman’s Serpentine, the Long Water, Italian Garden, the Edwardian sunken garden, and a new wildflower meadow.

    Graham Dillamore is head gardener at Hampton Court and Kensington Palace and has cared for royal gardens for over 40 years. He started his career as an apprentice gardener at London’s Royal Parks, before becoming head gardener at Kensington Palace, and then joining the Royal Household to maintain the private gardens of the Prince and Princess of Wales in the 1980s. After transferring his skills to Hampton Court, Graham worked on several major landscape restoration projects including the recreation of William III’s Privy Garden (below), Home Parks tree avenues, the Royal Kitchen Gardens and more recently, the transformation of the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales.