Young Horticulturists of the Year Bursary Reports

Winners of the IoH Young Horticulturist of the Year competition receive The Percy Thrower Bursary for travel and are asked to prepare for publication a report on their travels.1999 winner Mike Smith sent his report of horticultural observations from a number of garden and botanic destinations at home and abroad.

Tour de Switzerland, Italy, France (and Cornwall!)

By Mike Smith 1999 winner

Mike Smith is currently working at Glebe Garden Centre in Leicestershire as a Plant Supervisor, and is about to start an Open University computing course with which he hopes to further his career whilst still in the field of horticulture.

During last year, I used the Percy Thrower Travel Bursary to tour western Europe by rail, visiting gardens and other horticultural sites in Switzerland and France. I also visited Cornwall at the end of my tour, to see a few of the gardens there.

The Schynige Platte Alpine Botanic Garden, Interlaken

Situated on a flat-topped mountain in the Berner Oberland, the climate provides the most natural growing conditions for the select range of alpine plants featured there.

Of interest at the time were swathes of deep blue Delphinium elatum and Eryngium alpinum, tall yellow spires of Aconitum vulparium and Gentiana lutea. Patches of mauve Salix retusa were fast colonising the rocky ground, and nearby the white of Androsace lactea was planted next to blue Oxytropis jaquinii. Medicinal alpine plants are also a speciality of the gardens, often contained in enclosed specimin beds. With the vast collection of unusual alpines on show, it is quite a refreshing change to see what the category ‘alpine’ can be applied to, very different from the range of sedums and saxifrages that I sell to my customers.

The gardens and parkland of Villa Borghese, Rome

The largest green space in Rome originally started in the grounds of what is now a large art gallery. I came to see: just one small part of this oasis The Pincio Gardens.

Formally laid out, the shady pathways are watched over by a plethora of pedestalled busts of Italian notaries, some in better shape than others, whilst an Hieroglyphed Egyptian obelisk stands in a square in the central part of the gardens. Trees include Robinia Pseudoacacia, Aesculus hippocastanum and Cedrus Atlantica, with Ficus, Vitis, and Howea species closer to ground, and oleanders and bougainvilleas lining the pathways with colour. Separate projects are also to be found, including a chronometer garden created around an island with a clock tower.

Boboli Gardens, Florence

Located at the rear of the Pitti Palace, these Renaissance gardens are laid out on a hillside overlooking the city. Starting from an obelisk garden in the rear grounds of the Palace, steps lead up to a succession of fountains, shaded by neat hedges of bay, fir and holly. A large Cedrus deodara is situated on the topmost level of the steps, and to either side walkways lead off to different parts of the garden. A belvedere offers a fine view of the gardens below, as well as the contrasting cityscape of Florence. At the very back of the gardens, a formal terrace has been planted with a parterre of peony and rose, with rambling white roses creeping up the walls. Statuary features highly in the gardens, from a flying horse, to a giant crumbling face at the entrance to a tree lined avenue. Certainly I was able to appreciate this green oasis, though I personally find the style a little bland.

Jardin des Plantes, Paris

Set in the grounds of the Natural History Museum of France, the Jardin des Plantes houses several interesting collections, as well as an Alpine Garden, a labyrinth, a menagerie and assorted glasshouses. The pelargonium collection includes P. denticulatum, and the unusual leaved ‘Mabel Grey’, while the salvia collection shows off the intense dark blue of Salvia ianthina. Despite best efforts, the ipomea bed looked rather sparse against the lush miscanthus, stipa and carex display. Extensive herbaceous beds and borders provide a sea of colour, from the subtle rusty orange of Leonotis leonurus, to the rather garish Amaranthus tricolor ‘Splendens Perfecta’, with its red, yellow and green foliage. Sadly, many parts of the garden were closed to the public, including the barrel shaped glasshouses, and alpine gardens.

Gardens of Claude Monet, Giverny

Spreading out from the typically French country house, the gardens that Monet both tended and painted have been kept as the artist intended them to be. From the sprawling herbaceous beds to the blocks of pelargoniums that form a neat barrier between house and garden, it is clear to see that contrasting colour in this part of the garden was of primary importance.

Coming up into the second garden, a completely different view awaits you: the famous water lily pond with its Japanese bridge takes centre stage, and the textures of foliage with dappled light and shade gives an altogether calmer, more serene picture of nature that reflected so well in the artists work.

Chateau de Versailles, Versailles

Possibly the most famous garden on my journey, Versailles is also the most vast. The Domain of Versailles is split into five separate areas: I came to see the main gardens. Emerging from the chateau, flanked by the North and South Parterres, the view that awaited me was quite breathtaking, stretching through the centre of the gardens and out to the park, where the central, cross shaped canal stretched westwards to the horizon. I was lucky enough to be able to view the numerous fountains and other waterworks in action, as they were turned on for a special day of ‘Grandes Eaux Musicales’. One of the most spectacular was the Enceladus Grove, built by Louis XIV as his final embellishment to the grounds, depicting the titan, defeated by the Greek Gods, being buried under Mount Etna.

St Michael’s Mount, Marazion

Possibly one of the most unlikely places for plants to flourish, under the care of head gardener Roy Powell, the Mount has extensive terraced gardens around the foot of the castle. These have become a haven for sub-tropical flowers, alongside the agapanthus that bloom so profusely in Cornwall, as even in winter, the grounds are mostly untouched by frost. Around the lower slopes, Geranium maderense and knipofia species have established well, and numerous hebes are have taken hold in the steep, rocky soil around the pilgrims steps.

Tregnwainton, Penzance

Within view of Mounts Bay, Penzance, Tregnwainton Gardens is a National Trust property perhaps best known for its established dicksonias, but also for the tender plants such as the Chatham Island Forget-me-nots (Brunnera). Different habitats are to be found around the garden, from damp and shady, where skunk cabbages and arums abound not far from the vividly contrasting foliage of Podocarpus salignus, to the Hydrangea Walk with every shade from deepest blue to white, to the impressive walled gardens with banks of scrambling echeverias, agaves, musas and abutilons.

Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Gardens, St Ives

Preserved as the artist kept it until her death, this garden also takes on the role of a museum, as many sculptures have a permanent place amongst the planting. A lean to conservatory houses more of these art works, with a back wall of climbing abutilon, plumbago and eccremocarpos, with potted cacti as living sculptures placed about the room. Outside, architectural yuccas and phormiums contrast sharply with the mainly curved and worn-edged sculptures.

Pine Lodge Gardens, St Austell

From humble beginnings as a mere two acre plot in 1976, to a thirty acre garden today, Pine Lodge is still growing and maturing with the newest venture, a Japanese garden, still under construction, planted with rhododendrons, bamboos, grasses and liriope. The original Cottage gardens surrounding the lodge were decked with mounds of Rudbeckia fulgida speciosa and Anemone hupehensis, and the Pinetum planted in 1993 was just starting to look established.

The Lost Gardens of Heligan, Mevagissey

One of the most widely publicised ventures in British horticulture of the last decade, Heligan has become as much a working museum of past times as a garden. Particularly as the team in the productive gardens are introducing more traditional vegetable varieties to the visitors, as well as the exotic fruits grown in the original glasshouses and pineapple pits they are well known for. The lost valley is once more being managed as at the turn of the century, with charcoal as the core export.