events programme 2019
It is has been another busy year for the Trust with monthly events ranging from our Winter Lectures featuring Head Gardeners of historic gardens to our ever popular range of garden visits. We also held a study day on George London at Fetcham Park, one of his last landscape garden projects. Below are the highlights for the year.
Winter lectures 2019
JOSEPH WHELAN: NYMANS - HISTORIC GARDEN MANAGEMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY
FEBRUARY 2019
Head gardener, Joe Whelan, gave an excellent talk on the history of Nymans and the development of its extensive gardens and woodlands by Ludwig Messel. Ludwig Messel acquired Nymans in 1870 and with the help of his head gardener, James Comber, transformed its gardens, totalling some 600 acres of woodlands and 30 acres of garden. His presentation included photos of the Messel family and the gardens from their archives. Joe discussed the national plant collections contained at Nymans and the environmental practices that have been put in place to combat the threats of climate change and increased visitor numbers whilst maintaining relevance.
Daffodils at Nymans near Oliver Messel’s urn
DAVID STANDING: DISCOVERING GILBERT WHITE’S GARDEN
MARCH 2019
David Standing’s passion for Gilbert White’s garden at Selborne could not have been more evident in this delightful recounting of the unearthing of his original garden. David was able to recreate the gardens at Selborne largely thanks to Gilbert White’s detailed dairy, a 20 year record that included almost daily observation of weather, plants and work undertaken. David, working with Kim Wilkie and the plan that he designed post the 1987 Great Storm, has recreated much of what they understood to be White’s garden.
russell dixon: Great Fosters - the Alchemy of gardening
April 2019
Russell Dixon talked about his nearly three decades long involvement with the Grade II* registered gardens of Great Fosters Hotel. The current garden is based on the Arts & Craft design by W H Romaine Walker and Gilbert Jenkins in the early 1900s, extensively restored and extended by Kim Wilkie after the Great Storm of 1987. When Russell joined he needed to combat years of neglect with massively overgrown yew hedges, derelict rose garden and parterre, rotting bridges and other structures. New work was also undertaken including the construction of the grass amphitheatre in early 2000 and the hectare lake.
