Renowned plant expert and garden designer, Adrian Bloom invites Massachusetts Horticultural Society members and friends to join this outstanding trip June 20 – June 28 highlighted by two days at his magnificent Bressingham Gardens. It will be a remarkable opportunity to learn design techniques, plant selection, etc. from one of the foremost horticulturists in the world.
Adrian, his wife Rosemary, and the Bressingham staff will be providing unprecedented access and inspiring insight into the 17 acres of gardens at Bressingham, England. They are eager for their guests to gain greater understanding of what lies behind the Elm Bank Bressingham garden, and how important its future can be to MassHort’s success. It will be an unforgettable experience, and the visit will be a landmark in the development of the gardens at Elm Bank.
In addition to Bressingham, other highlights are visits to Beth Chatto’s garden and nursery; the historic city of Cambridge and the Cambridge Botanic Garden; one of the premier plant fairs in the world at Cottesbrooke Hall (pictured below); the Royal Horticultural Society’s flagship garden at Wisley; and Savill Gardens in Windsor. Joe Kunkel and Barbara Emerson are making the arrangements for the tour.
PRICING DETAILS:
The tour is priced in English Pounds and is £1300 double occupancy. (As of early December that was about $2000.) The Single Supplement is £267. Air travel is on your own. Breakfast is provided every day in the hotel as well as other meals as described in the itinerary. All tips, garden entry fees, and land travel are included.
Initial deposit is $250/person and the deadline has been extended to January 31, 2011. Final payment due March 1, 2011. If final payment is not received by March 1, 2011 deposits are forfeited. Deposits will be returned in the unlikely case the minimum number of participants is not reached.
Checks should be made out to Have Green Thumb and sent to PO Box 304, Manchester, MA 01944. Credit cards will be accepted and processed by the American company, Blooms of Bressingham, NA. If you would like more information, please contact Barbara Emerson at Barbara@HaveGreenthumb.com.
Widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost horticulturists, Armitage is a professor at the University of Georgia, Athens, where he teaches, conducts research on new garden plants, and runs the University of Georgia Horticulture Gardens. He is generally credited with creating the concept of the independent trial garden, the first one of which opened in Athens in 1982. He is the author of ten books, including Armitage’s Native Plants for North American Gardens and Armitage’s Garden Annuals. He has been cited as one of the ten most influential people or organizations in the floriculture industry.
Armitage is not the only distinguished honoree. The Jackson Dawson Award will go to Pierre Bennerup, president of Sunny Border Nurseries, one of the leading producers of perennial plants for the northeast. Sunny Border, headquartered in Kensington, Connecticut, is known around the world for being on the cutting edge of new plant development. Pierre, the second generation Bennerup in the industry, is an integral part of the global horticulture community and has been instrumental in searching out new plants suitable for North American gardens.
Also to be honored is Holly Shimizu, Executive Director of the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. Ms. Shimizu, who will receive the Thomas Roland Medal, has been responsible for the overall operation of the USBG for the past nine years and, under her leadership, the widely acclaimed new National Garden opened 2006. Ms. Shimizu is well known through her work as one of the hosts of The Victory Garden and as a frequent commentator on horticultural topics for National Public Radio.
Adrian Bloom starts things off by talking about the practical and inspirational factors for success in a garden. His thesis is that we all know that perennials and grasses have a changing role to play through the seasons but how often do we consider their placing and potential impact in combination with other plants? Elm Bank’s Bressingham Garden is a study in how to make the a garden’s impact greater than the sum total of its plants.
Award-willing author and garden designer Stephanie Cohen will focus on the autumn garden. The lushness of summer need not be followed by a whimper in the fall. Ms. Cohen will show examples of perennials and grasses that peak in autumn, berries and fruits, bark, and glorious color adorning trees and shrubs. You’ll walk away with an understanding that ‘Fallscaping’ ought to be a part of every garden’s design.
In the afternoon, horticulturalist Roger Swain will address the subject of garden tools. His view is that hand tools – the trowels, spades and other implements that extend our reach and power – may have evolved for evolution’s sake rather than for the benefit of the user. His presentation will be a tour through the evolution of familiar garden tools emphasizing the importance of matching not only the tool to the task, but fitting it to the user’s hand and body.
The day’s final speaker will be veteran nurseryman and MassHort executive director Joe Kunkel, who will speak on plant evaluations at Elm Bank. Commercial plant breeders from around the world send Elm Bank hundreds of cultivars for evaluation. Kunkel will highlight the plants that have stood out among their peers in the New England Trial Garden and the Bressingham Garden. He’ll talk about how homeowners can use regional trial gardens to narrow the list of attractive cultivars to a group that not only looks good in a pot at a garden center, but that will thrive in a back yard.