1. Yes, a few.
2. I don't really do 'loving' things. I enjoyed Anglesey Abbey Cambridgeshire and Holt, Wiltshire. I like Iford, Wiltshire. Disappointed by Painswick, Gloucestershire and the Eden Project. Hated Bicton. Many of the best are not famous.
3. No - I'm not sure who you are thinking of but if they're on TV I am by definition unimpressed. I find TV gardening programmes and TV gardeners superficial and annoying. I see little point in 'meeting' celebrities. What would be the point other than to say you've done it? I quite like Alys Fowler's column in the Guardian. It's almost as good as Campanula's posts here.

I'm not really a "famous" gardens enthusiast, so I haven't visited many. I do have a season ticket for Kew Gardens, as it's quite local and a nice place to go for a walk and to check out plants.
I wouldn't say I love it though. It has some very nice corners but I'm kind of sick of the events they always put on.

I haven't met any gardening celebrities but I think I saw Monty Don in Kew Gardens a couple of months ago. Not sure though.
I wouldn't really know what to say to them.

Thanks! I'm going to research some of those mentioned, although the documentaries on Kew hold no interest for me. I agree the lesser/unknown gardens are treasures. I find some by happenstance while surfing online.

I was thinking more along the lines of Penelope Hobhouse, Ireland's Helen Dillon and perhaps the late Christopher Lloyd or Rosemary Verey. I bought some of their books early on in my gardening experience and learned a lot. I especially like Lloyd's writing style.

Monty Don and Alan Titchmarch don't do much for me, either! I simply enjoy watching the gardens they visit on Youtube.

I hesitated to answer because I didn't fancy being exposed as a garden avoider....but in truth, I do not really visit famous gardens - too expensive, too overstaffed, too unrecognisable as any sort of gardening I might attempt....but I did enjoy The Old Vicarage in East Ruston (where I was overjoyed to see similar staking slackers, stepping over daylilies which were practically horizontal). .....on the other hand, believing that us gardeners can wander at will in any other interesting looking gardens, I have knocked on many many doors and asked for tours, seeds, cuttings and have trespassed at will.

I have never met any celebrities either....and am hard pressed to think of any I might like a chat with... (possibly Chris Beardsmore with the help of a stiff drink to compensate for an overdose of beige and bland....but he, at least. appears to know of what he speaks) but many of them seem to be won over by media fame and fortune and generally spend more time in make-up and auto-cue practice than actually gardening and go off the boil very quickly....and I reserve a particular loathing for Don who I regard as a ligger and band-wagon jumper without an innovative thought in his head.... a few years ago, he was a very vocal opponent of a few strawberry growers polytunnels which he considered a blight on the landscape and the ruination of his ridiculously gentrified ideas of rural idyll.
On the other hand, there are many plantspeople I would dearly like to spend an afternoon with - Roy Lancaster for one and the amazing Wynn-Jones at Crug farm for another.

Well expressed and appreciated, campanula!

Ah Catkin, I see we are climate cousins, in that you garden, or at least frequent the wonderful PNW. True, East Anglia, where I garden, does not get the rain (Flora does though) but rest assured, I will be paying especial attention to your posts having struck up a rather good friendship with a couple of the Texan cowgirls on this forum, it is also really nice to hear from people who are the same....but different, if you know what I mean. I forget how many people here garden in freezy zones such as Minnesota or Nebraska (hope my geography is not to amiss) and carelessly ramble on about such plants as would meet with frozen death after a northern winter (although I myself benefit hugely from their experience on the chilly edges)........but have been waiting to hear from Portland and Seattleites and other Z8s.

Yes, I have always enjoyed Christopher Lloyds snippy but good-humoured writing style and his ability to always look forward....and have visited Beth Chatto's gardens many times, especially when I was setting out my gravel garden.

Yes, we are climate cousins! I'm actually in in 8b--roughly half way between Portland and Seattle--in a maritime setting. I've only read that the UK climes are similar to my area in the last 4 or 5 years--of if I knew it before, I never pondered it. We get tons of rain, which may be part of the difference.

I too, do not have much conception of the colder growing zones. I need to keep in mind that when my gardens are coming to life in the Spring, others are still under a blanket of snow.

I've told myself that this year, I will not let the inclement weather keep me out of the garden as much as I've allowed in the past. I'll need to get off my you know what, bundle up and go check out the yard instead of napping in the recliner under a blanket! There will always be tree branches to rake up--or something! It'll be much less work when the weather does break, too.

I have a Beth Chatto's book Garden Tapestry and have drooled over online images of her incredible gardens many times!

I dunno - napping under blankets on recliners sounds good to me.......with biscuits and tea and a good book, why be anywhere else?

@ Campanula: Shouldn't that be Chris Beardshaw you were talking about?

I think it is easy to criticize tv presenters of gardening programmes as the television format severely limits what one can do. Gardener's World is a decent program as seen in the general context of amateur gardening. Many continental European gardeners don't have a program like GW and have to do with gardening programs from commercial channels that are filled to the brim with product placements. Unwatchable for me.

Ahhh yes---balance---my new buzzword!

campanula, I really got sucked in reading about Christopher Lloyd online sitting here late at night. There is a u-tube I watched too of him giving a tour to "the once influential garden writer Rosemary Verey". How would you like an introduction like that? (cough cough). I think I will buy that book 'His Life at Great Dixter'. I'd never heard of him before.

By chance I could visit some perennial conventions in Berlin and at other German universities.

When studying, one of my professors started this convention about perennial planting or general use of them in an urban context.

He had his network, so I could listen to some "rock stars" like Piet Oudolf, an old perennial breeder Dr simon, Hitchmough and Nigel Dunnet.

I remember an evening, after one dinner thingie, when some fellow students and me crowded around Piet Oudolf, drank red wine and talked plants.

I am quite a plant nerd, i'm afraid, so sometimes it is so nice to have similar minded persons to talk to. Like on that convention or here on GW...

And this January I travelld almost 5 hours by train and bus and on foot, to see Fergus Garret, the head gardener of the late Christopher Lloyd giving a speech/ talk on their garden Great Dixter, for about 1.5hours.
Fergus Garret is one of those rather rare persons who are good at doing something AND good talking about it.

Very inspiring, not really something you yourself or a client could really do at home. But, wow, they really know their stuff.

And you always learn something.

I personally solved the mystery of the non- ratty Lupinus, or rather, how they handle it at GD.

So you just start seedlings right on time, transplant them in a large Lupinus-only border, and after flowering, you just ripp them out, voila, easy...

So, as this is not an option for me or plantings I design, I personally felt reassured to stay away from Lupinus.

I think what I most like about some of those more-or-less famouse plant persons is their enthusiasm and deep knowledge they share so willingly.

Guess what, the next convention is set in October, about shrubs and trees for the first time after ca 16 years, and a very happy me is going to join this merry mingle of plant geeks, while DH minds our kids.

So, have a great fall, editing and transplanting your borders,reading and whatever

Bye, Lin

That is so awesome, Lin! Fergus? He's not bad looking either, eh? I read that Christo(pher) adored Fergus' baby daughter and was an all around generous person. Take me with you!!!!!!! LOL!

Tex, Rosemary Verey designed the grounds of one of Elton John's homes(in the 90s)--that's on video, too.

HGTV had a gardening series with both Penelope Hobhouse and Rosemary Very way back when--wonderful IMHO.

campanula wrote: ut have been waiting to hear from Portland and Seattleites and other Z8s.

Don't forget to look at some of the wonderful gardens in British Columbia Canada. Vancouver's hardiness zone is an 8...very English like!

The current issue of one of our magazines has a stunning spread of Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island in BC Canada (zone 8).

(I bet GW member aftermidnight (Annette) can give us a first hand account of Butchart.)

This post was edited by rouge21 on Sun, Sep 28, 14 at 12:34

Rouge, I was there a couple of years ago, it was just as beautiful then if not more so when I lived in that neck of the woods back in the 50's. The sunken garden and japanese garden are my favorites but the other gardens are just as lovely.

Annette

Here is a link that might be useful: Buchart Gardens

Yes, I have a mate who gardens on Salt Spring Island who has been at pains to convince me that Canada is, in fact, quite temperate and English-like.....not that I believe this for one nano-second. When snow-mobiles are common transport modes in the fens, I may take her assertions a bit more seriously.
Lin, I love hanging out with other planty types. As a shy and curmudgeonly type, I generally avoid my fellow humans....unless they are gardeners in which case I can find something to say instead of incoherent mumbling, hiding, or rushing off at the first sound of visitors (although I am pretty certain these planty convos are not exactly scintillating). I came within a whisker of going to the Heritage Rose conference at Mottisfont this year....but the horsebox was burgled a couple of weeks before the booking deadlines and I just could not justify the ticket and travel costs, knowing all our garden tools (and our woodburning stove ffs) had been robbed....so I missed out to my utmost chagrin (shoulda just gone).
I went through a phase of knowing nothing, then knowing lots and finally, knowing enough to know that I really did know nothing....and yep, I am greedy and avid for more knowledge, ideas, information, suggestions and best of all, furious contentious debate......
Tex, I can especially recommend any of C.Lloyds books - he writes in a particularly dry, even faintly arch, but distinctively english manner (of a certain age and class) which I suspect will amuse you no end.
There is an unfortunate backlash regarding famous gardeners and especially famous gardens which I despair about - the tendency to remain stuck in a time-warp where a certain style evolves and is then preserved in aspic....forever. True, there is always a temptation to remain within your comfort zone and the public are often voraciously against any sort of change. If you have made a name for yourself as this or that (New Perennials are still riding high in garden trends), it can be really difficult to throw it in and try something different for a while....which is why us poor and undistinguished types have much more fun....but then again, being a dilettante rather than becoming truly expert has its limitations as well.
Forum mates, where do you place yourself in this scheme - are you trying to explore everything about a particular style....or are you too much of a flipperty-gibbet to do much more than dabble? Do you have a 'speciality'....or a style you are maintaining. Are you a purist or all over the place. At bottom, do you have a garden philosophy which informs your art or do you change with every passing craze? (it must be fairly obvious which camp I fall into).
And, do you have garden gurus or educators who's advice and theories you adhere to?
Speaking personally, I have not yet come across the garden writer or thinker who I can follow on my woodland adventure...and feel I am ploughing a lonely meandering furrow with minimal guidance....(no money, no staff, no time, no water and no idea).

I have just got back from a weekend of leaf-raking and bulb-planting. I used to save my leaves for making leaf-mould....and I can't quite bring myself to let this booty go unused....but a forest worth of poplar leaves is a crazy big mountain (grandaughter did a lot of diving and romping).....

Oooooh Camp! Take those last questions and start a new thread, please!

UPDATE:

Annette, neighbours of ours just returned from out West and raved about their visit Butchart; a visit there is on my gardening bucket list.

Well Rouge, if I ever got around to updating my passport, it would prolly be on mine too (along with the Huntingdon- although I hear that has gone a bit awry lately). Having a pot garden means never being able to risk leaving the plants for longer than 48hours without disaster - far too many to consider irrigation lines - so I haven't actually had a holiday for around 15 years. The wood, while not exactly on the doorstep, has to fill in for a lifetime of vacations now but, in consideration, it isn't a difficult sacrifice - staying at home to garden. Plus, I can't drive, hate airports and cannot afford the trains any longer...even supposing they weren't filthy, crowded and unreliable. A bike ride is pretty much the extent of my trips away.

Having a pot garden means never being able to risk leaving the plants for longer than 48hours without disaster

Campanula, there has to be a friend (albeit a very good friend) or family member or relative that can follow your detailed written instructions re watering that would allow you to be away from your plant children for a week?

And if by chance it is a wet week than you are golden!

(When I was away for seven days earlier this summer I kept in regular touch with such a person who was not only responsible for watering but looking after our 3 cats!)

Butchart Gardens has been on my list of must see garden visits since before I was 10 years old . . . my grandparents showed us photos of their visit there, and I fell in love. So I've been a garden nerd since I was quite small . . .

Perhaps we need to plan a group visit from all 4 corners of the earth.