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Story by Helen Williams,
Photographs by Margaret Chapman
Anna Pavord, well known British author and broadcaster and author of the bestselling 'The Tulip', showed both her passion for things garden and amazing stamina when she delivered a two hour lecture on the story of "The Tulip" and "Hidcote and the Edwardian Garden" in Dunedin as a part of a seven lecture tour of New Zealand.
Anna began by saying how enthralled she was with New Zealand, Dunedin in particular, and Larnach Castle Gardens where she was staying.
The Tulip
Anna's passion the tulip was her first subject. The United Kingdom's National Collection of tulips is held in Cambridge, England, and from here Anna moved onto describe her passion of tulips and the quest to discover their history, which lead to writing a book. She described plant hunting in Crete for Tulipa bakerei, an adventure that saw her climbing to the snow line in search of her quarry only to find it by the picnic hamper.
Anna described the history of the tulip as beginning in 1643 when there was real "tulip mania", which she was pleased to say was still alive and well today! Her slides showed wonderful early engravings such as the Lupin de Paris engravings. | |
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Tulip 'Flaming Parrot' |
Tulips are dramatic, structural plants |
Tulip 'Washington' | |
The tulip arrived in Europe, moving west from Turkey by drifting along the trade routes to Constantinople and Western Europe. She showed slides of early beautiful calligraphy such as Tulip 'Viridiflora', seen especially in Flemish art. Art was a less expensive way of owning tulips at a time when tulip bulbs cost 4,800 guilders - it was the flower of the age. The selling and bargaining power of tulips were the 1630's concept of futures trading.
Tulips were the ultimate status symbol. Anna traced the journey of the tulip through examples such as traveling salesman J.B. van der Schoot who sailed to America to take orders for the tulips bulbs, sailed back across the Atlantic to place the orders that would then make long journey. Many Tulip societies were established, such as the Wakefield Tulip Society in the north of England where beautiful blooms are still displayed in brown beer bottles today. |
Tulip 'Queen of the Night'
 'The Tulip'
Anna Pavord's best-selling tale of the history of the tulip
Order now from Flying Pig
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Hidcote Garden
The long vista through the Red Borders and stilt hedges to the Vale of Evesham |
Looking across the Bathing Pool garden | |
And advice on growing tulips? Tulips prefer a slightly alkaline soil and deep prepared beds, good drainage (Anna suggests that they are best grown in grit) and a baking in summer. She often grows hers in pots to provide sharp drainage and summer heat; this also protects them from the slugs that love them.
Anna showed many slides: species such as Tulipa biflora from Turkey, and the florist tulips.
Anna recommended companion planting with tulips such as 'Black Parrot' with Euphorbia, 'Princess Irene' with Sweet Cicely (Myrrhis odorata), 'China Pink' with forget-me-nots (Myosotis). Other suggested companion plants were wallflowers, fennel and squills, such as Scilla hispanica.
Having led us through the tulip's amazing history and many journey's Anna reminded us that there is always more to discover, as she said "You never get to the end of what there is to know".
Hidcote and the Edwardian Garden
Anna's second lecture was on Hidcote, one of the most important gardens of the 20th century. She began by emphasizing what a very important garden it is - "an extraordinary creation and the first National Trust Garden as a garden in its own right".
The history of the garden began with Lawrence Johnston who created this garden from nothing in Gloucestershire over a period of 40 years.
Johnston was an American, born in Paris. After leading a rather rootless lifestyle for 36 years he settled at Hidcote where he developed this garden, reflecting the influences of the times and his many travels.
The garden has two main axes, one west from the house to the gate with the well known view over the Vale of Evesham, and the second is a" T" south from the summerhouse through the hedges of hornbeam hedges to the long walk.
A garden scheme should have a strong backbone and Hidcote is an excellent example of this. Plants are very important but the design is as, or more, important.
Shelter was the first requirement for this exposed site, with plants second, and the garden has been described as "having boundless variety soberly controlled". | |
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The garden was designed in three main periods the "arts and crafts" gardens 1908-1914 (influenced by the likes of Alfred Parsons), the bigger lines and open spaces during 1914 -1920 and the plantsmanship period with the development of the long walk from 1920- 1936. As Johnston left no gardening notes or plans of his garden creation, it is difficult to know who influenced him, or who he influenced in turn.
Johnston was influenced (or he influenced) by the fashion of the times beginning with the arts and craft period (1908-1914) in the early gardens close to house, such as the Maple garden, the Fuschia garden and the White garden where the box edged parterre gardens were filled to overflowing with topiary.
Next came the cool classical style with the development of the Theatre lawn and the Stilt garden - a complete antithesis to the somewhat claustrophobic gardens close to the house. This garden would have been quite exposed in the early days. The influence of Edwin Lutyens, Gertrude Jekyll, Vita Sackville-West, Sir George Sitwell, Harold Peto, and Nora Lysnday can be seen especially the strong use of Italian and French architecture.
He did not have an architect and used plants to create his rooms. An exception is the two brick pavilions with their upturned tiled roofs thought to be inspired by Herbert Kitchen.
In the second period the Red Border was planted - these were longer, cooler, classical and not at all fussy. |
In the final period (1914-1920) the Pillar garden planted with fuschia and the very familiar agapanthus, as well as the cold frames to house the many exotic plants collected on trips to South Africa and the like. The plant shelters resulted in 10 tonnes of glass to be moved every season. The use of cordyline plants for structure was a feature and it is valued as a very important plant in English gardens, brought in for the winter for protection from the cold.
Anna was an entertaining, lively speaker with a wealth of knowledge whose ability to use descriptive phrases such as spilling "like custard off a tart" kept the audiences attention and showed her passion for gardens, gardening, and especially tulips.
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Brick pavilion with upturned tiled roofs
'Mrs Winthrop's garden', from the first period and closer to the house |
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