THE GARDEN MUSEUM, the UK

New talk! Tom Massey: Resilient Garden Tom Massey is one of the leading designers of his generation and his new book, RHS Resilient Garden (published by DK in April) is a climate emergency call to action for us all to garden more sustainably. To celebrate the publication, hear Tom and some of the book’s expert contributors discuss the important issue of climate-resilient gardening. How can we design our gardens and green spaces to become more adaptable in a warming climate? How resilient are gardens, in the face of extreme weather events such as heatwaves and drought or excessive rainfall and flooding? Why should we be planting our own food forests, adopting green roof and swale planting, harvesting rainwater, or adding hügelkultur mounds? What are the best plants to cool the air and trap harmful pollutants? The evening will be chaired by Chris Young, who will welcome guests Tayshan Hayden-Smith, Dr Tijana Blanusa, Dr Hayley Jones, and Thomas Rainer on stage, joining Tom Massey for a panel discussion on resilient gardening. Tues 11 April, 7pm £15 Standard, £10 Friends/Young Fronds £10 Livestream Book tickets Jane Jacobs Day 2023 Join us for the Garden Museum’s inaugural Jane Jacobs Day, a day of activities celebrating the renowned urban theorist, writer, and activist Jane Jacobs, most famously known for her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961). The day will include a Jane Walk in our local neighbourhood, a community workshop, and an evening panel discussion on London’s future, to commemorate the outstanding contribution Jane Jacobs made to urban studies, sociology, economics, and activism. Full programme coming soon, but tickets are available now for the evening talk! Ideas for a Greener London Chaired by Evan Davis, this panel discussion will explore how to envision a brighter, greener, and better future for London. Speakers include Architect Alex Arestis on the development of an urban arboretum; academic Dr Morag Rose on walking together to shape the planet; Oli Mould on the futures of golf courses and writer George Hudson on why utilities are the problem… Thurs 4 May, 7pm £10 Adult, £8 Friend, £8 Student, £8 Unemployed £10 Livestream Book tickets Plant of the Week: Fritillaria verticillata By Matt Collins, Head Gardener As anyone who follows my Instagram account will know, my fixation with fritillaries began in earnest while living at Benton End in Suffolk, where the appearance of various species once grown by Benton’s renowned artist-gardener, Sir Cedric Morris, still appear sporadically in the rough grass, decades after his death. Going out in the dewy spring mornings to spot dainty, elegant and sometimes curious fritillaries half hidden in the walled garden there — during the strange quiet of the pandemic — will forever remain one of my most favourite gardening experiences. Not least as it tuned my eye to the nuances and natural appeal of species bulbs more generally. This week, while the cold weather creeps on into spring, stinging hands and stiffening boots, I have rejoiced at the indifference shown by our clumps of Fritillaria verticillata— a completely magnetising species fritillary from Japan whose multi-headed, cream-white blooms appear to have almost doubled in spread and size since last year, despite the chill temperatures. Planted in the Museum courtyard as a little drift last April, I staked the emerging shoots this winter with little berberis prunings (sturdily pronged and advantageously sharp), to give its slender, tendril-clad stems something to cling to. Here at the damper, partially sunny end of the garden they have now risen to well above two feet, dangling as many as five flowers each: qualities that make verticillata (which means ‘whorled’, in reference to the arrangement of its leaves around the stem) a fantastic garden plant for spring. Verticillata wasn’t among the fritillaries I encountered at Benton End, but I came to know it around the same time during a visit to a garden once owned by late garden writer Tony Venison. Venison died in 2019, but for many years was a frequent visitor to (and great chronicler of) Benton End. So there is a small chance the fritillary is linked; if not given by Morris (who was famously generous with plants) then perhaps discussed with him in the garden. Upon seeing it I was instantly charmed: if the height, floral abundance and butterfly antennae-like tendrils weren’t captivating enough, you lift the little pendent heads to reveal an exquisite, blood-red crosshatch beneath the petals. If you’re visiting the museum, I encourage you to wander out and look.

About our gardens Otros Vinos at the Garden Café Friday nights at the Garden Café are back from next week, and to celebrate we’ve invited one of our wine suppliers and good friends of the Café, the excellent Otros Vinos, to join us and pick the wine list for the evening. Focusing on low-intervention wine makers, Otros Vinos use lesser known grape varieties from some of the more obscure regions of France and Spain. Head chef Myles has put together a Mediterranean inspired menu for the evening to compliment the list. Spots are limited so please book online in advance. Friday 24 March, from 6pm Book a table Images: Tom Massey (c) Wax London; Jane Jacobs, chairman of the Comm. to save the West Village holds up documentary evidence at press conference at Lions Head Restaurant at Hudson & Charles Sts (1961), New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, Library of Congress; Fritillaria verticillata

Garden Museum 5 Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7LB gardenmuseum.org.uk

THE GARDEN MUSEUM News, the U.K.

Joy Larkcom: The Queen of Vegetables Vegetable growing pioneer and writer Joy Larkcom is affectionately known by many as ‘The Queen of Vegetables’, as she introduced so many varieties to the UK that we know and love today. These include Lollo Rosso lettuce, Chioggia beetroot, and Perella lettuce, which she first encountered on her “Grand Vegetable Tour” around Europe in 1976. Her most well-known contribution is the introduction of the cut-and-come-again harvesting method, which provides the ‘baby leaves’ in bags which are so ubiquitous today. So if you’ve ever bought a bag of mixed baby salad leaves from the supermarket, you’ve got Joy to thank! Joy also had a fascination with Chinese vegetables, experimenting with them in her own garden for many years before visiting China, Japan, and Taiwan on research trips in the 1980s. In a new archive display, we’ve delved into Joy’s personal archives (which are held at the Garden Museum) for highlights from her Asian vegetable research, including photographs, correspondence, research notes, gardening tools and seed catalogues. Find out more Talk | Rachel Siegfried: The Cut Flower Sourcebook Flower grower Rachel Siegfried is joined in conversation by Clare Foster, editor of House & Garden, to celebrate the launch of Rachel’s new book The Cut Flower Sourcebook. Growing your own flowers for cutting brings the pleasures of the season indoors and cuts out the air miles associated with many shop-bought flowers. Founder of Green and Gorgeous, a flower farm and floral design studio in Oxfordshire, Rachel will be sharing her recommendations for the best perennials and woody plants for arranging – whether your goal is to have something to pick from your garden each week of the year or start a cut flower business! Tues 4 April, 7pm £20 Standard, £15 Friends / Young Fronds £10 Livestream Book tickets Lucian Freud Raffle Thank you to everyone who entered our fundraising Lucian Freud raffle! The raffle is now closed, and we are delighted to have raised over £6500 thanks to all your entries! This week our front of house volunteer Jenny helped us pick the random winners, with one lucky entrant winning an exclusive private tour of Lucian Freud’s art studio. Second place won a zimmerlinde cut from Freud’s own plant (pictured here with Jenny), and third place won a framed photograph taken by Howard Sooley in Freud’s studio. All funds raised from the raffle will help us continue our exhibitions, education and community programmes.  Support the Garden Museum Plant of the Week: Sweet violet (Viola odorata) By Matt Collins, Head Gardener Next up among the garden weeds I feel compelled to pot and display alongside the more showy cultivated varieties — particularly those boasting a high tolerance of shade — is the sweet violet, Viola odorata. Who doesn’t love violets? And who would consider them undeserving of a pot, however commonplace? The foliage is surprisingly evergreen, and the flowers, when they arrive to conclusively declare spring, are true to both their common and botanical names: sweetly odorous, and also somehow intricately beautiful yet unassuming and discrete. But there is an aura of the ancient in the presence of violets that seems to endear them further and almost stop you in your tracks, whether encountered in the garden, in woodland or below the rural hedgerow. Violets have a magnetism, and have for centuries been woven into European culture and tradition, from almanacs, folklore and nursery rhymes to perfumes, cosmetics and wine. Consequently, you weed them in the garden with more reverence — or superstitious caution — than you might a bittercress or dandelion. In advance of a new garden project beginning at the Museum relating to herbal and homeopathic plants, I have been reading John Gerard again recently, the Elizabethan physician whose illustrated plants catalogue of 1597 became the most revered of all herbals, historic and modern. Gerard’s writing was essentially the root of all future garden writing, in its blending of scientific and horticultural observation with rich, near-hyperbolic description (sound familiar?). Turning to his page on violets, this winning combination can be seen in full flare: while the author touches on distribution and seasonality (‘floures for the most part appeare in March, at the farthest in Aprill’), and on the medicinal applications of the day (as an anti-inflammatory for the lungs and for treating ‘hoarsenesse of the chest’), his description really goes to town(e), praising them ‘…not only because the mind conceiveth a certain pleasure and recreation by smelling and handling those most odoriferous floures, but also … gardens themselves receive by these the greatest ornament of all, chiefest beauty, and most excellent grace…’. Getting excited, he continues: ‘…they admonish and stirre up a man to that which is comely and honest; for through their beauty and colour, and exquisit forme, do bring the remembrance of honestie and all kindes of virtues: for it would be an unseemly and filthy thing for him that doth look upon and handle faire and beautiful things to have his mind not faire, but filthy and deformed’. So perhaps I am right in registering a sense of venerability about the otherwise humble sweet violet, and right to elevate it from uninvited guest to potted display status. Naturally, ‘odoriferous’ has now entered my ‘must use’ list of garden writer’s adjectives…

About our gardens Opening soon! Private & Public: Finding the Modern British Garden Our next exhibition opens Weds 22 March! Private & Public: Finding the Modern British Garden will bring together over thirty works by Modern British artists who found inspiration in green spaces at a time when many artists were retreating to planting and painting in their gardens. Celebrating the art of both private sanctuaries and public green spaces of London, the exhibition will explore intimate depictions of gardens, greenhouses, parks and city squares by artists of the interwar era including Charles Mahoney, Evelyn Dunbar, Eric Ravilious and Ithell Colquhoun. This exhibition is presented in partnership with Liss Llewellyn, and the works will be available for purchase, in aid of the Museum’s educational and community programmes. 22 March – 4 June Friends go free Book your visit Images: Greens in a field photo courtesy Joy Larkcom, taken research trip around China, Japan and Taiwan, Joy Larkcom typing at Capo Caccia, Sardinia, Italy (24 April 1977); Cut flowers, The Cut Flower Sourcebook photo (c) Eva Nemeth; Sweet violet (c) Matt Collins; Evelyn Dunbar (1906-1960), Invitation to the Garden, c. 1938, image courtesy of Liss Llewellyn

Garden Museum 5 Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7LB gardenmuseum.org.uk

THE GARDEN MUSEUM, the U.K.

A Q&A with garden designer Sean Pritchard Ahead of his talk with fellow gardeners Jo Thompson and Steve Lannin on 14 March, we spoke with Somerset-based Sean Pritchard to find out how he got started in garden design, where he finds inspiration and his favourite garden to visit:When did you realise you wanted to pursue a career in garden design? I suppose, quite organically, I grew into a garden design career off the back of a love of plants and how they are displayed. What drives me is a sense of telling stories with plants and creating little moments of tension that elevate outdoor spaces into dramatic performances – almost like a set designer might, only I’m working with nature. I consider myself to have the best job in the world and I wake up every day feeling very lucky to be doing what I do. You’re now an RHS medal winning garden designer. What did that career journey look like to get from studying to where you are now? I studied at the Garden Design School in Bristol under the brilliant Robin Templar-Williams, which gave me a solid foundation in design principles and the construction of gardens. Of course, nothing quite compares to getting out into the world and trying it for yourself, so since then I’ve been developing my style and ways of working with clients – it’s constant learning and exploration, every day… Keep reading Talk | Instagarden: Social Media’s Impact on Gardens and Gardening Thanks to social media we can visit beautiful gardens all over the world and learn from gardening experts all from the comfort of our phones. The ways we find inspiration have changed, but is the experience of visiting a garden in-person irreplaceable? What can some of our favourite garden-insta follows tell us about social media’s power and influence? We’re exploring the online garden world in this talk with garden designer Jo Thompson, garden designer and writer Sean Pritchard, and Iford Manor Head Gardener Steve Lannin. Tues 14 March, 7pm – join us in person, or fittingly, watch online! £15 Standard, £10 Friends / Young Fronds £10 Livestream Book tickets The Wild Escape: Easter Holidays Family Workshops There’s a worm at the bottom of the garden… what else can we find outside? Join us to create paper garden flowers, plants and creatures inspired by the wildlife we find in our gardens. These will be displayed as part of a collaborative artwork for Earth Day on 22 April, and the display will be up until the end of May. Using paper, collage, paint and glue, we will explore and create flowers and animals for our collaborative artwork. What plants and flowers might grow at the bottom of the garden? Daisies, dandelions, tulips, daffodils? And from wildlife to pets, what animals live at the bottom of the garden? Foxes, squirrels, tortoises, cats? £2 per child, suitable for ages 3-10 Mon 3 April: What’s growing in the garden? (plants and flowers) Book tickets Weds 5 April: Who lives at the bottom of the garden? (animals) Book tickets These workshops are part of Art Fund’s The Wild Escape project uniting museums with schools and families in a celebration of UK wildlife and creativity. More about The Wild Escape Plant of the Week: “Ming fern” (Asparagus retrofractus) By Matt Collins, Head Gardener Without question, asparagus ferns are among the big hitters of the houseplant resurgence of this last decade — South African members of the Asparagusgenus, whose bold yet delicate fern-like foliage stretches, twines and creeps through living-rooms the country over. Chief among them is Asparagus setaceus, the common asparagus fern, which, despite its ubiquitousness remains popular for more than a few good reasons: unfussy and super easy to grow (or, hard to kill, depending on your take); excellent figure, effortlessly chic etc. A close second is probably the foxtail fern (Asparagus densiflorus) with its stouter, more compact bushy plumes. But the real gem, for me, is A. retrofractus — the ‘Ming fern’ — a less compliant yet totally captivating species with the star quality of silver-white stems and a springtime flush of acid-green foliage. I acquired our retrofractus at one of the early houseplant festivals held at the Museum, advised by the seller that the seasonal contrast between its new and old needle-like leaves is something quite spectacular, which it is. This might have been about four years ago, and since then the plant has been bumped up and up pot sizes until at last filling the largest terracotta we have to offer it. Repotting just before Christmas, I tied the stronger of its attractive though viciously thorn-clad stems to a discrete stake, and folded in the other stems to form a kind of lifted bird’s nest structure. Under the pressure of continued rapid growth, the ‘nest’ is already falling over itself, but the effect is just lovely: a tumbledown, feathery creature with a bright skeleton of questing branches.

About our gardens Object of the Week: Suttons Seeds Photographic Slides (1910) These photos showing flowers including marigolds, arctotis, begonias and snapdragons were taken to illustrate a Suttons Seeds catalogue in 1910. Suttons Seeds was founded in 1806 in Reading, and these items were one of many ‘rescued’ from disposal by an employee when the company was sold and relocated in the 1970s. They were gifted to the Garden Museum Collection in his memory. Explore our collection Images: “Ming Fern” Asparagus retrofractus (c) Matt Collins; School poster of children gardening (c.1955), Garden Museum Collection

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THE GARDEN MUSEUM, the U. K

The most sustainable Chelsea Flower Show garden ever? Joanna Fortnam explores how Sarah Price and her team for the Nurture Landscape Garden are pushing the boundaries of how sustainable a show garden can be. A forgotten garden in Hadleigh, Suffolk, has provided the creative inspiration for a show garden at Chelsea this year by designer Sarah Price (who won Chelsea gold in 2012 and 2018). “It’s very rare for me to be inspired by gardens,” she says. “I prefer the spontaneous planting I see in nature and on roadsides,” but in this case she was lucky enough to “turn up at the right moment and see something fresh and fleeting”. Her interpretation of a “ghost of a garden” will showcase traditional crafts and she aims to make her project as sustainable as possible. The abandoned garden that provided Sarah’s starting point is not your average plot of brambles, collapsed fence panels and a rusty bike. This is Benton End, a manor house with 16th century origins, once the home of the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing run by the plantsman-artist Sir Cedric Morris and his partner Arthur Lett Haines in the Fifties. In its heyday Benton was a legendary bohemian hub, visited by a constant stream of leading writers, artists and creatives…. Keep reading Cooking Masterclass Borough Market: The Knowledge with Angela Clutton If you follow the Thames path northwards from the Garden Museum, you will eventually find yourself at London’s premier food market – the world renowned Borough Market. Angela Clutton is responsible for their latest cookbook Borough Market: The Knowledge which explores the wide variety of traders at the market, along with recipes for their produce. During the class you’ll learn recipes that showcase the joy of shopping and cooking seasonally and hear from Angela on why markets and seasonality matter, explore what spring / summer produce might be and ways to enjoy it. Sample Menu Black rice and feta stuffed chard with spiced yoghurt Roasted asparagus with tarragon mayonnaise / hollandaise Watercress soup with lemon & thyme breadcrumb Sun 30 April, 10.45am – 2pm £90, includes includes a sit down lunch and a recipe pack to take home Book tickets Online talk this week! Alice Vincent: Why Women Grow This week we are delighted to host the official launch of Alice Vincent’s new book Why Women Grow, a major narrative exploration of the relationship between women and the soil. Over the course of two, largely locked-down years, Alice visited the gardens and growing spaces of 45 women from all walks of life. Why Women Grow is a collection of these conversations. Alice will be in conversation with Sui Searle (@decolonisethegarden), herbologist Maya Thomas and Ayurvedic Practitioner Anne McIntyre. Tues 28 Feb, 7pm In-person tickets are sold out, livestream still available! £10 Book tickets Plant of the Week: Juniperus ‘Grey Owl’ By Matt Collins, Head Gardener I have a soft spot for junipers — that beleaguered evergreen of the yesteryear shrubbery — developed almost entirely from encounters with their amorphous, ancient, often scruffy yet always remarkably resilient wild forms. I’ve found them creeping over ruined chapels in the Scottish highlands and spiking the narrow footpaths of Pyrenean woodlands; on Greek islands their bushy habit has harboured little pools of fragrant Mediterranean herbs, and in baking Oregon I walked among whole forests of juniper heady with their own intoxicating aroma (in the drought-ridden high desert there I met a 1,600 year old veteran Western juniper — Juniperus occidentalis — its branches shaped and smoothed by sand and wind, a survivor of centuries of forest fires). Juniper forest in western Oregon The domesticated exception was a visit to Chanticleer Garden in Pennsylvania, where, along with tumbling Michaelmas daisies and golden nassella grass, glaucous agaves and yuccas, gorgeous columnar junipers punctuated the stone steps of the gravel garden. The effect in autumn was strikingly bold, the little statement trees contrasting brilliantly with the softer perennials.

Juniper on Naxos in Greece For our own developing gravel garden at the museum, I wanted to find a juniper that embodied the best of all these qualities — the resilience, the drought and cold tolerance, the berries, fragrance and the contrasting evergreen statement — and landed upon J. ‘Grey Owl’. It’s foliage veers towards the blue-green end of the spectrum (the other end is silver), yet its habit remains full and bushy: it creeps but it also bulks. I took a risk in planting larger specimens — a risk because our soil there is so dry — on account of how slow growing junipers can be, but already after two years in the ground they have put on impressive growth: a cultivar highly recommended. About our gardens Images: Sarah Price; Ben Boscence; Borough Market: The Knowledge image courtesy of Hodder & Stoughton (c) Kim Lightbody; Juniper photos (c) Matt Collins

Garden Museum 5 Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7LB gardenmuseum.org.uk

The Garden Museum News

Spring Plant Fair: New stalls and programme announced! This year we are delighted to welcome both Great Dixter and Beth Chatto’s Plants & Gardens as Spring Plant Fair stallholders! This will be a rare opportunity for Londoners to buy garden plants in person grown by the beloved and historic nurseries. The fair will also feature bite-size talks covering growing flowery annuals, seed sowing and increasing wildlife and biodiversity in small spaces, as well as a cookery demo and tasting in our studio kitchen. Programme curated by Susanna Grant, founder of Hackney-based shade specialist plant shop Hello There Linda. Sun 16 April, 10am – 4pm £5 Standard, £4 Friends Book tickets Meet Benton End’s new Head Gardener, James Horner The Garden Museum and trustees of Benton End are delighted to announce the appointment of James Horner as Head Gardener of Benton End. An accomplished plantsman, garden designer and former Great Dixter scholar, James takes up the post next month to lead the revival of Cedric Morris’s once renowned and pioneering garden. Garden Museum Head Gardener Matt Collins visited James recently at the Victorian walled garden he rents in East Sussex. James showed Matt around the 3/4 acre site — which he describes as his ‘plant den’ — and discussed the horticultural journey that has led him to this appointment. Matt: I love the sense of both privacy and playfulness that this space has, from the informal stock arrangement to its position in one corner of a wider, wilder walled garden. How did you come to garden here? James: I first came here in January 2014, the winter I left Great Dixter. I was growing annuals and cut flowers for a best friend’s wedding and I was really fortunate that one of the people I was working for offered me the opportunity to rent what was once a very lively productive walled garden. It was a 55 minute drive from my house, the rent was peppercorn and there were no constraints. I didn’t own a place to garden and I knew I needed a space to discover my fashion with plants and flowers. My intention [for the garden] probably did start out as a cut flower enterprise — somewhere to grow cut flowers for events and weddings — but then I was amassing plants, too, so it became like a stash or stock yard, a place to acquire plants, put them in the ground and see what happens. The biggest pressure really is my own standards and expectations! Keep reading New Talk! Rachel Siegfried: The Cut Flower Sourcebook Growing your own flowers for cutting brings the pleasures of the season indoors and cuts out the air miles associated with many shop-bought flowers. Founder of Green and Gorgeous, a flower farm and floral design studio in Oxfordshire, Rachel Siegfried is joined in conversation by House & Garden editor Clare Foster to turn the spotlight on the best perennials and woody plants for cutting and arranging. Whether your goal is to have something to pick from your garden every week or start a cut flower business, Rachel and Clare will discuss some of Rachel’s tried and tested favourites as featured in her new book The Cut Flower Sourcebook and will offer advice on how to lay out and maintain these garden plants for cutting. Tues 4 April, 7pm £20 Standard, £15 Friends/Young Fronds/Students £10 Livestream Book tickets The Puzzle of Lucian Freud’s Zimmerlinde Christopher Woodward, Garden Museum Director ‘This plant escaped the Nazis’ I said to my mother on the platform of Ampthill railway station. My mother, a psychotherapist, has volunteered to join the expedition to the greenhouse of the designer Todd Longstaffe-Gowan to collect a cutting from a zimmerlinde descended from the one which grew in Sigmund Freud’s apartment from Vienna. It was inherited by his grandson Lucian Freud, who left it to David Dawson, the painter who worked as Freud’s studio assistant and who inherited his house in Kensington. That zimmerlinde grows tall at the entrance to Freud’s garden, re-designed by Longstaffe-Gowan. Dawson gave him a cutting. And Todd, in turn, gave us the cutting which we transported to London. It is now a statuesque plant, second prize in our raffle in support of the Freud exhibition. It has, perhaps, one of the most distinguished provenances of any houseplant in the world. And if you enter our raffle by Sunday 5 March you have a chance to win the plant grown from this newest cutting….

Keep reading We recommend: Artscapades Lucian Freud Talk Garden Museum Director Christopher Woodward will be introducing an online talk by curator Giovanni Aloi for Artscapades on Monday 20 February. Giovanni will explore the importance of gardens and domestic spaces as opportunities to rethink our relationships with plants. Mon 20 February, 6pm £10 Book tickets We’re recruiting our next Horticultural Trainee! Now in its tenth year, the Garden Museum’s annual Horticultural Traineeship has been designed to give a gardener of particular talent and ambition the opportunity to explore possibilities for their professional future by placing them at the centre of a busy gardening hub. Previous trainees have gone on to roles as independent garden professionals, in media, parks management and tree surgery, and include Matt Collins, our Head Gardener. Working alongside Matt in the museum gardens, the appeal of this programme is in its diversity of experiences, in facilitating introductions to the stars of the gardening world, and involvement in the Museum’s public programme. This is a part time, four days a week year-long role generously funded by the National Gardens Scheme. Find out more and apply Images: Spring Plant Fair illustration by Lizzy Stewart; James Horner (c) Jessica MacCormick; Rachel Siegfried (c) Eva Nemeth; Still Life with Zimmerlinde, c.1950 Freud, Lucian (1922-2011) Credit: Private Collection. Photo © Christie’s Images/© The Lucian Freud Archive. All Rights Reserved 2022/Bridgeman Images

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The Garden Museum….MONDAY News…the U.K.

South Wood Farm (c) Jason Ingram Garden Visits 2023 We are delighted to announce this year’s Garden Visits! The programme takes us to some of the country’s most exquisite and inspiring gardens, with exclusive tours and talks hosted by some of the owners and designers. Our Garden Visits always sell quickly – so don’t hesitate if one catches your eye! All our visits outside London offer transport from a local train station to the gardens, as well as lunch and refreshments all included in the ticket price. Become a Friend to enjoy discounted tickets and priority booking for next year’s garden visits.  See all Garden Visits Outstanding gardens in the High Sussex Weald Highlands and Brightling Down Farm This morning we visit Highlands, a beautiful country garden with commanding views across the Sussex Weald to the Ashdown Forest. This eight-acre garden wraps around a 15th century Wealden hall house with a 17th century threshing barn. The owners have a wildlife-friendly approach, with areas of wildflower meadow and a natural pond, plus hot beds, a dry bed and a woodland garden. Our guide will be head gardener Chris Brown. After a seasonal lunch at a local inn, we will drive to Brightling Down Farm (pictured above), where the garden has been designed for owners Val and Peter Stephens by talented design duo Ian Smith and Debbie Roberts of Acres Wild. The brief was to “make a garden that looks as though it has always been here” and that has been completely fulfilled: the sculpted landscape design, interconnected ponds and waterfalls, tranquil planting and use of reclaimed materials make it look timeless. Tues 30 May £175 Standard, £160 Friends Book tickets Contrasting country gardens in Devon Silver Street Farm and South Wood Farm This visit takes us to Silver Street Farm (pictured above), the beautiful three-acre country garden of landscape designer Alasdair Cameron and his wife Tor on the edge of the Blackdown Hills, featured in magazines including House & Garden and Country Living. Ranged around a beautifully restored Georgian farmhouse and characterful outbuildings, the garden is designed as a space in which to experiment with plant combinations and as a relaxed family garden. We then drive the short distance to South Wood Farm, a very special five-acre country garden designed by Arne Maynard. We will be hosted by the owner, Professor Clive Potter and guided by head gardener Lewis O’Brien. Wrapped around an ancient thatched yeoman’s farmhouse, this is a garden of great atmosphere, bringing together ingenious herbaceous planting with topiary, wildflower meadows, orchard and kitchen garden. The result is an unforgettable sense of place. Tues 6 June £175 Standard, £160 Friends Book tickets Creative, sustainable flower arranging with Lucy Vail Floriston Hall Flower Farm and Tinkers Green Farm This morning we will be the guests of mother and daughter Amanda and Lucy Vail at Floriston Flower Farm (pictured above) on the Suffolk/Essex borders. Acclaimed floral designer Lucy specialises in seasonal, sustainable installations for weddings and events using predominantly British flowers grown by Amanda in a one-acre flower farm she started in lockdown in 2020. We will enjoy an exclusive floristry demonstration by Lucy, and explore the rest of the gardens at Floriston Hall, where the roses should be at their peak. After lunch we will travel the short distance to Tinkers Green Farm, home of Peter and Denny Swete, where garden designer Denny, one of our Garden Visit organisers for the museum, has kindly agreed to open her own garden for us. There is a mix of exuberance and formality in the borders, as well as a verdant decorative potager and Denny is passionate about encouraging wildlife so uses no sprays to control pests. Behind the 16th century cottage, Denny has created long herbaceous borders that ripple with strong colour and there is a shady and restful courtyard garden, planted with cool greens and creams. Weds 14 June £175 Standard, £160 Friends Book tickets Delightful town gardens in Oxfordshire The Lodge, Waynes Close and The Old Vicarage and the Burford Garden Company Today we will visit three private town gardens in the heart of Burford. Our first stop is Sue Ashton’s country-house garden at The Lodge (pictured above). Walled on two sides behind an elegant 18th century Cotswold stone house, Sue’s half-acre garden – with a beautiful Victorian glasshouse at its heart – has something new to admire at every turn. A short walk will bring us to Shirley Russell’s small secluded town garden of Waynes Close. From a paved terrace behind the house – which dates from the late 1600s and was modernised in 1910 in the Arts and Crafts style – the lawn sweeps upwards to join a loggia, surrounded by flowering climbers and wall shrubs. In the afternoon we visit Jean Gray’s equally secluded one-acre walled garden at The Old Vicarage, which dates from the 1400s with an elegant Georgian façade, followed by a visit to meet the team at the Burford Garden Company. Weds 21 June £175 Standard, £160 Friends Book tickets A magical, wildlife friendly garden on the Thames Terraces At the home of garden designer John Little This very special day has been devised for Garden Museum guests who are looking to attract more wildlife into their garden. John Little is a maverick garden designer, brimming with groundbreaking ideas, who will show us how anyone can incorporate his concepts in a beautiful, design-led way into any garden setting. In Hilldrop, his own garden in Laindon, Essex, he will show us how to create a low-maintenance, flower-filled garden that not only brings pleasure to people but also embraces and encourages biodiversity. Features include green roofs, ponds and skilfully designed habitat panels and planters. Hilldrop was recently cited by Nigel Dunnett as “a new iconic garden that people would still be talking about in 20 years”. John is well-known for his incredibly inspiring low-impact landscapes, demonstrating how even the most unpromising soils – stony, arid and low in fertility – can be turned to advantage. We will be joined by entomologist James McGill and we will also visit the community gardens at the nearby Essex Wildlife Trust nature discovery park. Fri 30 June £220 Standard, £200 Friends Book tickets A fascinating tour of The Newt in Somerset Hadspen, Castle Cary, Somerset Join us for an exclusive guided tour of the gardens and many features at The Newt in Somerset, arguably one of the most exciting horticultural projects to have emerged in the UK in the last decade. The horticultural heritage of the gardens is well known, thanks in no small part to garden guru Penelope Hobhouse, who gardened here at Hadspen House for over a decade until 1979.  We will be in the capable hands of Arthur Cole, Head of Programmes, who will introduce us to the parabola walled garden, cascade ponds, colour gardens, cottage fernery, produce area and woodland. We will also have time to visit the interactive exhibition space The Story of Gardening, explore the fascinating life of bees in the Beezantium, and visit the marl pit with its naturalistic planting and grotto. Our day includes lunch in the Garden Café. Thurs 7 September £175 Standard, £160 Friends Book tickets Splendid old hall gardens in Cheshire Stretton Old Hall and Broxton Old Hall Today we are in Cheshire to visit two splendid gardens surrounding quintessential old hall houses. Our first stop is Stretton Old Hall, Tilston (pictured above), where the garden covers just over five acres. The creation of owner Ken Roscoe, an architectural designer, it has been described as contemporary classic in style and “a masterpiece of considered design”. After lunch at a local restaurant, we will travel to Broxton Old Hall, a ten acre garden which has been compared to a mini Highgrove. There are formal parterres, an ornamental lake, cut flower and vegetable gardens, a wildflower meadow and woodland. It beautifully combines both formal and fun elements such as a multi-storey treehouse made from timber milled on site and a hobbit house with a living roof. We will be met by head gardener Andrew Woolley, and Riccardo Armitage, head of Produce and Formal, will show us the walled kitchen garden and cutting garden, plus the herb garden designed by Jekka McVicar. Weds 13 September £175 Standard, £160 Friends Book tickets Images: Brightling Down Farm walled garden © Acres Wild; Silver Street Farm © Jason Ingram; Lucy and Amanda Vail at Floriston Hall Flower Farm © Mark Crick; The Lodge © Clive Nichols; John Little’s garden © Sarah Cuttle; The Newt formal garden aerial view © The Newt in Somerset; Stretton Old Hall © Joe Wainwright Garden Museum 5 Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7LB gardenmuseum.org.uk

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THE GARDEN MUSUEM…the U.K…..”special attention to…”the blue silk sash”

Private & Public: Finding the Modern British Garden New exhibition coming soon! Our next exhibition, Private & Public: Finding the Modern British Garden, will bring together over thirty works by Modern British artists who found inspiration in green spaces at a time when many artists were retreating to planting and painting in their gardens. Celebrating the art of both private sanctuaries and public green spaces of London, the exhibition will explore intimate depictions of gardens, greenhouses, parks and city squares by artists of the interwar era including Charles Mahoney, Evelyn Dunbar, Eric Ravilious and Ithell Colquhoun. This exhibition is presented in partnership with Liss Llewellyn, and the works will be available for purchase, in aid of the Museum’s educational and community programmes. 22 March – 4 June Friends go free Find out more and book Alice Vincent: Why Women Grow Book Extract We are delighted to be hosting the official launch of garden writer Alice Vincent’s new book ‘Why Women Grow’, a major narrative exploration of the relationship between women and the soil. Tickets to attend in-person are almost sold out, but livestream tickets are still available. Ahead of the event on Tues 28 February, this week we are sharing an exclusive extract from the book: “In the middle of this stuck year [2020], I opened a green notebook and wrote down a list of names. I listed the women I wanted to speak to – strangers, most of them – about their gardens and about their lives; women whose work had interested me. Because women have always gardened, but our stories have been buried with our work. For centuries we have learned the soil’s secrets. We have ushered herbs from the ground and dried them for healing; we have braided seeds into our hair to preserve legacies even when the future looks bloody and uncertain; we have silently made the world more beautiful, too often without acknowledgement. I wanted to try and change that. I wanted to see the gardens that women made. I wanted to know what had encouraged them to go out, work the soil, plant seeds and nurture them, even when so many other responsibilities sat upon their shoulders. I wanted to know how their lives had taken them to this place, and what it brought them now they were here…” Keep reading Job Opportunity: Family Learning Officer Our Learning Team is recruiting for a part-time Family Learning Officer, a new role made possible thanks to our new Arts Council funding as a National Portfolio Organisation. The successful candidate will become the fourth member of our Learning team, in a role created to develop our learning programme for both local families and those from further afield. Our aim is to engage and inspire children and adults of different ages and backgrounds to enjoy, participate and experience the Garden Museum through hands-on and sensory activities, stories, play and digital, all with a common theme linked to gardening and the natural world. Apply by Monday 13 March Find out more Plant of the Week: Fatsia polycarpa By Matt Collins, Head Gardener Three endearing qualities set Fatsia polycarpa aside from its near ubiquitous cousin, F. japonica. Four, in fact, if you include a slightly more robust hardiness. Unlike japonica, whose coastal origin bestowed its leaves with a waxy, leather-like texture, polycarpa’s foliage is by contrast relatively sheen-free; the mat option, in place of gloss. It is also enormously variable, the highly decorative palmate lobes by turns elongated, narrow and curvaceous. The plant is remarkably shade-tolerant, too: it is a natural born woodlander, at home in the dim of the understory. For us this comes in handy, considering our gardens for the most part lie in the shadow of tall buildings and towering London plane trees. Growing at the foot of a large mulberry tree, our polycarpa is positioned in perhaps the most shady (and dry!) spot of all, and yet it thrives. In fact, in late spring each year I saw off a good 2-3 weighty stems, just to reduce the congestion that results from the plant’s immense vigour. Fatsia polycarpa came to us from Crûg Farm nursery in North Wales, home to Sue and Bleddyn Wynn-Jones — beef farmers turned globetrotting, modern-day plant collectors — and many other weird and wonderful plants. Landscape designer Dan Pearson had approached Crûg Farm while seeking interesting additions to his design for the Museum courtyard (a ‘garden of treasures’, in the spirit of the Tradescants entombed within the courtyard itself). Among the offerings came this beautiful, multi-stemmed evergreen shrub grown from seed gathered by the Wynn-Joneses in mountainous Taiwan; one of numerous trips they have made to the island as licensed plant collectors. Sue told me they now have a sizable polycarpa colony in the garden at Crûg Farm, growing under oak trees, and that these differ from the mass produced form in the distinct curvaceousness of their leaves. For the sense of calm this evergreen instills when sat beneath it on the courtyard bench, Fatsia polycarpa could be ‘plant of the week’ year round. It is at this moment in late winter, however, that the magnificent inflorescences appear: tall spikes of clustered white flowers held bright and glowing just above the dark foliage. For enthusiasts so inclined, the Crûg Farm website is an enchanted forest of spectacular foliage; the nursery itself is, I’m told, pure joy for the horticulturally inquisitive. I’m still eagerly awaiting my first visit. About our gardens Object of the Week: Sash for the Order of the Free Gardeners (c.1850-1900) The first societies to protect the secret knowledge of gardeners, and individual welfare, were founded in the 17th century. By the 19th century the Order had incorporated many of the rituals of Freemasonry but continued to be independent. The blue silk moire ceremonial sash of the Ancient Order of Free Gardeners is edged in red and trimmed with gold filigree wire tassels and braid. The sash is embellished at the wearer’s shoulder with a gold and dark blue star, with a set square, compass and gardening knife design at its centre. Also attached to the sash is a black and white lithographed silk panel depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden which is considered to be a central symbol of their Order. The letters A, N and S are the initials of Adam, Noah, Solomon who were considered to be founding ‘Gardeners’. O probably represents the symbol of the olive tree. The panel contains many other symbols of the Order, including the set square, compass and grafting or pruning knife at the base of the left-hand column and the bee hive at the base of the right. The Order shares many symbols in common with the Order of Freemasonry, though it is older. The panel was made in Glasgow by Charles Lang who was also a supplier of Masonic regalia. It is thought to date from the end of the 19th century. Explore our collection online Three weeks left! Lucian Freud: Plant Portraits Only three weeks remain to see Lucian Freud: Plant Portraits, the first exhibition to explore Freud’s frequent yet lesser-known paintings of plants. Freud was not a gardener but had a close and respectful relationship with plants, from rarely-seen drawings from his childhood in Berlin to his garden in Notting Hill, and the straggly potted plants that followed him from home to home throughout his life. This exhibition explores why and when he chose to paint plants, and not people; yet how he granted them the same gritty realness as his human subjects. Open until 5 March Buy the catalogue Book your visit Images: Evelyn Dunbar (1906-1960), Conservatory at the Cedars, image courtesy of Liss Llewellyn; Alice Vincent (c) Giles Smith; Children’s gardening workshop at the Garden Museum photo by Graham Lacdao; Fatsia polycarpa (c) Matt Collins; Museum visitors in Lucian Freud: Plant Portraits photo by Graham Lacdao Garden Museum 5 Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7LB gardenmuseum.org.uk

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