April Guest Speaker Report
Our speaker this month was Anthea Guthrie, a garden designer, botanical guide and a speaker on cruise ships. Anthea`s topic was `Extreme Gardening including topiary` and we`d been told a herd of elephants was involved!
Extreme gardening goes way back in history. In the 1600s it was believed that tartery lambs grew on stems and the weight of the lamb would eventually bring it down to ground level to graze. It was also thought that barnacle geese hatched out of huge seed pods!
The first slide Anthea showed was of a lily pad at Kew Gardens, so big that you could walk on it! Incidentally the flowers are large and fragrant but only last for 48 hrs before sinking beneath the surface of the water. Keukenhof in Holland is hailed as the most beautiful spring garden in the world and showcases the industry of bulbs. It is only open for 6 weeks and successional planting must be carried out within this time period to replace flowers as they fade. Very high maintenance but stunningly beautiful.
Another example of extreme gardening is planting vertically up walls, sometimes to a great height, and mainly in containers, but this is very difficult to irrigate and maintain. Pebbles are often used on walls to create a mosaic effect, or they can be included with stones and rocks to make a dry riverbed running through a garden. Many gardens open to the public include follies where hermits were paid to live, with no windows or doors, and where food was passed through small gaps. Other gardens may include eyecatcher features such as a replica of Stonehenge, or a banqueting bridge with a tunnel to the big house for the servants to bring food without being seen. There could be huge sculptures of animals or gargoyles, or very random colourful structures of varying sizes and shapes.
Miniature gardens can also be classed as extreme gardening and the attention to detail in these creations is truly amazing. The plants are tiny, as are any accessories such as buildings and people, and the work involved in keeping these maintained is huge. Another slide showed branches of dead trees painted in bright colours, and one even had a colourful wooden bird sitting on a branch. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, are described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing shrubs, trees and vines. Extreme gardening at its best!
So where did this herd of elephants come into it? Topiary.Topiary is the practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees and shrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes and as an art form it is a type of living sculpture. Just about any shape can be created, from animals to people, and hedges of all shapes and sizes can be found in many gardens open to the public in the UK. The herd of elephants can be found in a private garden just outside of Brecon, and in Keukenhof you will find The Beatles!
The talk was very well attended, thankyou to everyone who came. A big thankyou to Anthea for a very interesting and varied talk, with lovely photos to support it.
Our next speaker, on 28th May, is the ever popular Kevin Thomas with a talk entitled `Summer in the Garden`.
