SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006
Even when there’s a drought on, the gardens of England are still a sight to be savored.
Although we arrived in England in the midst of a “hosepipe ban,” (no watering with a hose, only what you have the stamina to carry by hand), the gardens we saw during Chicagoland Gardening’s 3rd European garden tour nevertheless had much to offer. There were England’s greatest hits—Hidcote, Sissinghurst, Great Dixter, Blenheim, Wisley, Wakehurst, Penshurst, Rousham, Oxford and its colleges—but probably what we all enjoyed as much as anything were our four visits to private gardens, especially the ones where we were able to take tea and chat with the owners.
One host and his wife live in a manor house that had its origins in the 14th century. Two inhabit houses that were converted from antique barns. On another occasion, we ate lunch in a restaurant that had been created out of the crypt of a 13th century church on Oxford’s main street. Our hotel in Tonbridge, in the county of Kent, dated back to the 17th century. So just how do you install a modern bathroom or even such a thing as a doorbell in a stone building that’s 300 to 600 years old? The architects and interior designers in England are clearly a different breed from their American counterparts. Over there, ingenuity is always the name of the game.
And what about the plants? There were vibrant pink and red hollyhocks everywhere, walls solidly covered with purple clematis, and frequent large clumps of multi-colored penstemon. The wisteria vines were lush and green, with the Chinese species still in bloom in mid-July. (One wisteria I saw later in London had climbed to the top of a 4-story building.) The ornamental grass display at Wisley was a masterful demonstration of how these plants can be used, and the roses that hadn’t yet “gone over” put forth fragrance like you can’t imagine. All of the gardens were highly structured, using walls, hedges and hardscape to define boundaries and provide a framework in which the often blowzy, overflowing plantings could flourish.
Our driver/guide Derek Tarr was excellent and provided detailed informative commentary as we tooled about the countryside, eyes peeled for thatched roof cottages, sheep, and medieval church towers, each scene more picturesque than the last. The tea, of course, was first rate.
For those of you who missed this tour, Chicagoland Gardening will be offering others—Hawaii is scheduled for January, 2007, with the magazine’s publisher Bill Aldrich. He will reprise his tour of Holland in April. The Pacific Northwest, including Bainbridge Island, is planned for early May with Mike Nowak, our writer and WGN radio host. Although at this moment it’s little more than a gleam in my eye, I’m thinking up a trip to northern France at the end of May to be led by yours truly. (Giverny, the chateaus of the Loire Valley, Versailles, and the glorious Parisian rose garden of Bagatelle will surely be included.) For further information, visit our website at www.chicagolandgardening.com and watch for ads in the magazine. Happy trails to us all.
