The Planthunter by Georgina Reed was recommended by Loree of The Danger Garden.
It is about gardeners, not actual plant hunters. The name comes from the author’s website.
I was a bit concerned at the size of the type at the beginning.
It soon settled down into normal size, but the book is anything but a normal book of garden tours. The photos do not try to pretty up the gardens. The gardeners are eccentric and impassioned. Because many of the gardens are in Australia, they were completely new to me, as were the ones from this country.
Here are my favourite takeaways.
Ron Finley’s public garden in LA inspired me and when he said this, he had me in tears. He expressed exactly what I feel when people mess up a picture I’ve created in a public garden. “I don’t like people taking my flowers…..It’s like an art piece for me. When people pass by on the street, I want them to see this beauty. The fourteen foot sunflowers are magnificent, but people desecrate them. They cut the sunflowers for themselves or just break them. It’s almost like beauty makes them feel uncomfortable.”
And “What do we value? Where do our values comes from? Why do we pledge allegiance to a flag instead of Mother Nature?”
You can see him talk about his garden here.
I was equally moved when garden designer Topher Delaney said….
I see many boring little public landscapes. I quit a business garden once when I was told the plants could no longer be allowed to touch. That landscape is now just thoroughly separated shrubs and grasses, of course.
My garden goals described perfectly by Topher:
Wonderful.
More from Topher:
I agree with her completely about landscape architecture and about daffodils, my favourite flower.
Those were the two gardeners whose stories touched me the most intensely. If you have had cancer, you may want to read what Topher wrote about her experience.
I love the book’s description of Bill Henson’s garden. “Bill’s garden is an entire universe. It’s an incredibly atomospheric space, filled with a sense of mystery and beauty only he could create. While invisible, noise from neighbouring buildings can be heard.” That’s what I want. I’m not there yet. Give me just one year of semi retirement and reasonably good health and I might get there.
Also this!
That is why I say that a lot of nature activities are “too outdoorsy for me.” I like gardens more than the wild world, I think because I like to see human personalities expressed. What’s more, there are (just a few) cougars in the countryside here. I like to spend time with cats that are only of a certain size.
This, below, is everything about the garden put into words that I couldn’t come up with:
Reading about Beverly McConnell’s vast country garden reminded me in a small way of my career at the Boreas Inn, because Beverly’s gardener, Oliver Briers, is “still pottering in the garden despite having retired five times!” I have twice passed the Boreas on to other gardeners because I like to do gardens that are more public, and twice I have returned to it. To liven up this post, see photos of that garden after my book rave.
A gardener and painter, Lucy Culliton, seeks exactly the reaction that I want people to have to my front garden:
(Or “What in the world is going on there!”)
Garden designer Cevan Forristt has some great ideas about how to design gardens for others:
I am reminded of the book The Inward Garden, one that I often recommend to anyone creating a new garden.
I don’t have anything approaching a temple in my garden, nor do I serve delicious food, but people have said they can get lost in it.
Gardener Simon Rickard:
Gardener Leslie Bennet says this, something I strongly feel at times.
There is a huge class divide here on the peninsula, and jobbing gardeners are on a lower level from the self-defined society elite. Yes, it is not just me; some other gardeners have agreed with me on this. I have noticed that working gardeners who come to gardening from another, more elite career, are the ones who are still part of the upper class.
David Holmgren on the power of permaculture:
(But then what happens to the people who had jobs in the supermarkets?)
A recommended book that I wish to read…
…along with a recommended blog, The Gardenist, by Michael McCoy.
Once upon a time, someone hired me to make a garden just like my garden. And then told me she wanted it to be low to preserve the view (which was a wonderful view). But then it could not be anything like mine, and Michael explains to me why: “The trouble with low plantings is that you always feel that you’re on them, and never in them. They can only work when surrounding features or plantings create the sense of in-ness.”
More from Michael McCoy:
Bruce Dunstan, plant hunter:
I recently read an article on this very topic.
Gardener Max Gill:
Claire James on how to amicably share a garden:
That is just a glimpse of an inspiring book. One of the especially interesting aspects is how the gardens are photographed. If you are local, and a responsible book borrower, I will lend you my copy. (The library does not have it yet.)
Here are some photos of the Boreas Inn garden, taken by innkeeper Susie Goldsmith.
Very nice thought-provoking quotes topped off by such wondrous flowers. Thanks for the beauty this morning!
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Thank you!
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You covered so much in this post. Human personality is critical to a good garden. The gardens I’ve toured and loved most were quirky like the gardeners who made them.–While the plants, themselves, were of course important, these gardens held mosaics or sculpture (purchased or home-made) or architectural salvage, or signs with quotes or special garden furniture or artsy pots and rocks. They did not hold mass-produced stuff made in China (a pet peeve of mine). I also personally like beds where the plants touch, but was surprised to find gardeners who are uptight about that kind of thing and prefer acres of mulch between their plants. ???
You touched on boring public landscapes.–Oh yes! Ugh. The plants are almost always the same in these landscapes.
And the jobbing gardeners versus the snobbishness elite? That definitely exists! Hubby used to garden his front bed donned in well-worn t-shirts and a Mexican sombrero. People would walk INTO our front yard and discuss the flowers/plant border while he was sitting on the ground next to them pulling weeds. Not ONCE did they acknowledge him because they thought he was the hired gardener. They were far too good to talk to hired hel, and this was OUR yard.
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Thank you for a great comment (as always). Thanks for the validation re how jobbing Gardeners add often treated. I have more to say about the book, too, soon; it has really inspired me.
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Another great post, with thought provoking excerpts. Yes and yes re societal discrimination against those who labour in the soil. From low wages and poor working conditions extended to agricultural workers – right through to jobbing local gardeners.
I don’t think there is a garden more lovely than the natural landscape….but….my sense of wonder and enchantment always increases with the discovery of an overgrown path, broken pavers, the crumbled foundation of a cabin, remnants of a fence, an old orchard….swallowed and reclaimed by nature.
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ThAnk you, also, for enhancing this blog with an insightful comment.
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I just finished a book that was put together of articles written by a Portland Gardner. I t was a nice change from my usual how to books. https://www.amazon.com/Back-Garden-Dulcy-Mahar/dp/0989710408 .
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I love Dulcy and have both books of her articles. Used to read them every week in the paper.
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I’m so glad you got this book, it’s a gem for sure.
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