Boston Flora

Tag: Unforgettable Gardens

  • Tuesdays, October 15 – 29, 5:00 am – 6:30 pm Eastern (but recorded) – Unforgettable Gardens Book Launch, Online

    Celebrate the launch of The Gardens Trust book on Unforgettable Gardens with online talks from three of its contributors. Ticketholders will receive a code for a 30% discount on pre-orders of the book from Batsford, the publishers.

    Unforgettable Gardens explores the history of British garden design through some of the most beautiful, intriguing, unusual and important gardens, parks and landscapes in the UK, with stunning photography accompanied by insightful profiles from leading garden historians and conservators.

    Arranged chronologically, Unforgettable Gardens covers over 50 individual gardens, most of which are open to the public, which have been carefully selected to give an overview of British garden design from the 16th to the 20th century. Each century opens with an illuminating essay, exploring the wider changes in social context, taste and style in each period.

    Curated by the Gardens Trust, the UK conservation charity dedicated to protecting, researching and celebrating historic gardens, this book is intended to inform, inspire and encourage everyone to enjoy, visit and support our national heritage of parks and gardens.

    This ticket is for the entire series of 3 talks, or you may purchase a ticket for individual talks, costing £8 via the links below. (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 3 for £15.75).

    Ticket holders can join each session live and/or view a recording for up to 2 weeks afterwards. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (if you do not receive this link please contact us) and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 2 weeks.

    Week 1. 15th October: the Bobarts and Oxford Botanic Garden with India Cole. First in a series of 3 online lectures, £8 each or all 3 for £21 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 3 for £15.75) Jacob Bobart the Elder (c.1599-1680) was the first keeper of the Oxford Physic Garden (as the Botanic Garden was originally known). Bobart’s early life is shrouded in mystery, and he is best remembered now for his supposed eccentricity, but he deserves recognition for establishing the garden’s original (impressive) plant collection with limited resources. His son, Jacob Bobart the Younger (1641-1719) later became the second superintendent of the garden and was crucial in its development and on-going success. Bobart the Elder’s other son, Tilleman (?-1735), gained a position working as a gardener at Blenheim Palace and then Hampton Court. This talk will give an overview of the Bobarts and their contributions to botany and horticulture, as well as considering how mercantile and commercial interests informed, influenced, and aligned with their pursuits of gardening and botany in the early-modern period.

    Week 2. 22nd October: Margery Fish and East Lambrook Manor with Catherine Horwood. Second in a series of 3 online lectures, £8 each or all 3 for £21 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 3 for £15.75) In 1980, John Sales, then Head of Gardens for the National Trust said of East Lambrook Manor, in Somerset, that ‘in the development of gardening in the second half of the twentieth century, no garden has yet had greater effect.’ This effect was to create a passion in Britain for ‘cottage garden’ planting brought to prominence through the enthusiasm and hard work of its creator, Margery Fish.

    In this talk, Dr Catherine Horwood will look at how Margery Fish was able to take cottage gardening forward into becoming a national movement by telling her life story, and the legacy she left behind. As well as describing Fish’s work at East Lambrook Manor, she will reveal how her books, starting with We Made A Garden published in 1956, show Fish’s knowledge of plant material having amassed over 2,000 different species and cultivars from a network of horticultural friendships and wayside finds.

    Week 3. 29th October: Castle Howard with Sally Jeffery. Last in a series of 3 online lectures, £8 each or all 3 for £21 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 3 for £15.75) The dramatic and varied landscape at Castle Howard was designed in the early eighteenth century by John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor with the active participation of the owner, Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, and is among the most memorable and innovative ever created. As Horace Walpole wrote: ‘Nobody had informed me that at one view I should see a palace, a town, a fortified city, temples on high places, woods worthy of being each a metropolis of the Druids, the noblest lawns in the world fenced by half the horizon, and a mausoleum that would tempt one to be buried alive…’. Its main lines survive today, and its history can be further illuminated by surviving drawings and documents.

  • Wednesday, February 8, 1:30 pm Eastern – Unforgettable Gardens – Ireland: Annes Grove, Online

    The Gardens Trust presents a series of 4 online talks on some of the well- and lesser known historic gardens of Ireland Wednesdays from 1 Feb £5 each or £16 for all. Register through Eventbrite HERE., or visit https://thegardenstrust.org for more details. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us). A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards. This second in the series on February 8 explores Annes Grove with Neil Porteous.

    Annes Grove in North Co. Cork has an international reputation as a plantsman’s garden. Ostensibly, the creation of Richard Grove Annesley (1879-1966), the garden is in part ‘Robinsonian’ and part a ‘Paradise Garden’. The talk details the garden’s history and its recent restoration.

    Neil Porteous is a free-lance historic garden consultant working in Ireland. He has an BSc. Hons in Horticulture and an MA in garden history. Neil worked for many years as a Head Gardener and Gardens & Parks Advisor for the National Trust, latterly, Head Gardener at Mount Stewart, Co. Down.

  • Wednesday, February 1, 1:30 pm Eastern – Unforgettable Gardens – Ireland, Mount Usher, Online

    The Gardens Trust presents a series of 4 online talks on some of the well- and lesser known historic gardens of Ireland Wednesdays from 1 Feb £5 each or £16 for all. Register through Eventbrite HERE., or visit https://thegardenstrust.org for more details. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us). A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards. The first in the series, on February 1, is on Mount Usher.

    William Robinson (1838 – 1935) who advocated a naturalistic style of gardening described Mount Usher as ‘a charming example of the gardens that might be made in river valleys’. Edward Walpole had purchased a mill house and land by the Vartry river at Ashford, Co. Wicklow. We examine how from the 1880s his sons, described as ‘Robinson’s disciples’ introduced his ideas as they and later generations planted an 8-ha site and created what remains an outstanding example of a Robinsonian garden in Ireland.

    For Dr Mary Forrest, horticulture has been her occupation and gardening her hobby for many years. After studies in amenity horticulture in the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin and commercial horticulture in University College Dublin, Mary was appointed A Taisce Heritage Gardens Fellow – preparing an inventory of trees and shrubs in private and public gardens in Ireland, published as Trees and Shrubs cultivated in Ireland (Carrageen Books, 1985) One of the gardens catalogued was Mount Usher, Co. Wicklow. Following three years as Horticultural Supervisor at Glenveagh National Park, Co. Donegal. Mary was appointed lecturer in UCD where she specialised in ornamental horticulture and garden history from 1986 until retirement in 2020. She has spoken on Irish garden history at the Northern Ireland Heritage Gardens Trust’s annual conferences and published papers on women’s horticultural colleges, school gardens, allotments and Arbor Day in 20th century Ireland. She holds an MSc in environmental sciences; a PhD in cut foliage studies and an MA in Carmelite Studies.

  • Wednesday, May 18, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Unforgettable Gardens: Edibles and the World Food Garden, Online

    The Gardens Trust is delighted to partner once again with London Gardens Trust, this time to look at some slightly more unusual Unforgettable Gardens which highlight the value of gardening with all the senses. This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5, through Eventbrite by clicking 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 one week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

    Paul Kettel invites you to join him for a taster tour of the RHS’s new World Food Garden – where you can immerse yourself in a palette of edible delights. The Garden, which opened in 2021 is already proving to be very popular with garden visitors. It demonstrates the cultivation of new and unusual vegetables, fruit, flowers and herbs, some of them exotic that will inspire the amateur gardener to grow at home. Paul will explore new tastes that can be found in the produce grown in the World Garden as some may become more commonly grown.

    Paul Kettell, formerly the Royal Horticultural Society’s School’s Development Officer, is now the Edibles Team Leader at the RHS Garden Wisley in charge of the new World Food Garden.

    Copyright: Oliver Dixon/RHS

  • Wednesdays, July 7, 14, and 21, 1:00 pm Eastern – Unforgettable Gardens of Northeast Britain, Online

    In this series of three talks sponsored by The Gardens Trust, the last before the summer break, The Gardens Trust are celebrating the glorious and unforgettable gardens of Northeast Britain.

    This ticket costs £12 for the entire course of 3 sessions or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £5 via the links below.

    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.

    Week 1. July 7: Belsay Hall: John Hawley will lead us on a virtual tour of the Grade 1 listed gardens of Belsay Hall in Northumberland, famed for its nationally important picturesque landscapes and gardens as well as its diverse plant collection. The garden is part way through a major restoration project, currently the largest of its kind in English Heritage. Find out more about these exciting works which will rejuvenate Belsay Hall Gardens for years to come. John has worked in historic gardens for over twenty-five years, having worked for the National Trust for much of my career. These include Clumber Park, Cragside, Lyme Park and Hardwick Hall before becoming Head Gardener at Sizergh Castle in Cumbria. He led the restoration of the walled garden at Gordon Castle in Moray, where he was head gardener. Currently he is Head Gardener at Belsay Hall , a post he has held for the past three years.Part of a series of 3 online lectures, £5 each or all 3 for £12.

    Week 2. July 14: Cragside: Lord and Lady Armstrong transformed a bare moorside into a man-made paradise. They drove the development of the expansive gardens, which were intended to form a series of outdoor rooms inspired by landscapes from around the world. The couple understood horticultural science and had already experimented with the dramatic potential of artificially formed landscapes at Jesmond Dene, their Newcastle home. Millions of trees and shrubs were planted. Swathes of rhododendrons and pines created the fantasy mountain scenery of the Debdon Valley. Tumbling cascades and engineered waterfalls enlivened the Burn. In the Formal Garden, a vast complex of heated glass houses displayed palms, ferns and succulents from the southern hemisphere. As well as lighting the house with hydroelectricity, Lord Armstrong continued his experiments with hydraulic power, damming the Debdon Burn to create Tumbleton Lake and installing a hydraulic ram to irrigate the gardens and remarkable revolving flowerpots in the Orchard House. The whole estate was a Victorian playground of experimentation, and it continues to be a site of invention and imagination today. Presenter Clara Woolford has been the Property Curator at Cragside for two years. She is responsible for the care and presentation of the site’s heritage assets, including its Grade I listed Parks and Gardens. Clara has worked as a curator in the heritage sector for over a decade, specialising in 18th and 19th century architectural history and managing large-scale conservation projects.Part of a series of 3 online lectures, £5 each or all 3 for £12.

    Week 3. July 21: Alnwick Garden: The brainchild of The Duchess of Northumberland, The Alnwick Garden is 12 acres of meandering and magnificent Gardens based in Alnwick, Northumberland. The Cherry Orchard at The Alnwick Garden has the largest collection of ‘Taihaku’ in the world. Comprising of 329 trees, they all bloom together for up to two weeks around the end of April/beginning of May. In June and July, the Rose Garden comes into its own with 300 highly scented roses. The Alnwick Garden also plays host to the small but deadly Poison Garden—filled exclusively with around 100 toxic, intoxicating, and narcotic plants. Robert Ternent will give a behind the scenes account of caring for a visitor attraction and explain the history and future plans for the garden. Robert Ternent has worked his entire career at Alnwick and has recently been promoted to Head Gardener. Part of a series of 3 online lectures, £5 each or all 3 for £12.

  • Wednesday, April 28, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm – Unforgettable Gardens, Wales: National Botanic Garden of Wales, Online

    Over the last five years, the National Botanic Garden of Wales has been restoring the features of a Regency period landscape, created in the late 18th and early 19th century for William Paxton, in what is now Waun Las National Nature Reserve. This complex ecological, archaeological and engineering project has undertaken the restoration of two lakes, the iconic waterfall, cascades, installation of six new bridges, creation of new paths and the planting of thousands of trees.

    The parklands were an early example of Picturesque ideals being utilised in landscape design, characterised by the contrasts that nature can show – at one moment, beautiful tranquillity, and at the next the drama of tumbling water over cascades, a weir, and waterfall. The Garden has access to six of the fifteen paintings by Thomas Hornor who was invited by William Paxton to paint a series of viewpoints throughout the estate in 1815. The intricate details in these paintings of the parkland and lakes have provided the designers and engineers with a wealth of information on which plans for the restoration were based.

    This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions , or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 4 sessions at a cost of £16 via the link here.

    Angharad Phillips, Heritage Marketing Officer at the Botanic Garden has worked on this project for the last four years and will be revealing more about this very exciting restoration project.