events programme 2021
The start of 2021 remained challenging due to continuing restrictions as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Trust embraced Zoom and organised a series of Winter Lectures online with a record number of participants from Surrey, the UK and other parts of the world joining us for these talks.
winter lectures 2021
SIR RODERICK FLOUd
PURCHASING PARADISE
16 JANUARY 2021
The great gardens created in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries are beautiful, lovingly designed, built and maintained. How much did they cost, who paid for them and where did the money come from? Roderick Floud, author of An Economic History of the English Garden (Penguin) considers how Paradise was purchased and places the gardens, their owners, designers and gardeners within the context of their times.
Sir Roderick Floud has taught at the Universities of Cambridge, London and Stanford, has written or edited over seventy books and articles, and is the long-standing editor of the Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain.
Michael thurlow
restoring Audley End’s kitchen gardens
20 february 2021
A brief history of Victorian Kitchen Gardens will be followed by a presentation of the restoration of the walled kitchen garden at Audley End in Essex. Starting from scratch, Michael was fortunate to have the 1874 diary of a journeyman gardener to help him with the project, which also included the restoration of the vinery and backsheds. Michael started his gardening career at Dyffryn Gardens where he rose to Head Gardener. After a brief spell as a horticultural lecturer, he returned to practical gardening as Director of Gardens at Aberglasney, Carmarthenshire and Barnsdale Gardens, Rutland, before moving to Essex in 1999 to restore the Victorian Kitchen Garden at Audley End House.
susan campbell
A Short history of the glasshouse
20 March 2021
Garden historian and illustrator Susan Campbell specialises in walled kitchen gardens. Susan provided a brief history of the glasshouse, starting with the cultivation of citruses in the orangeries of the 16th century to pineapples in pineries in the 18th century and the cultivation of grapes and vineries in the 19th century, finishing with modern day glasshouses. Susan is Chair and co-founder of the Walled Kitchen Garden Network and Vice President of the Gardens Trust. She has visited over 700 kitchen gardens in various states of repair and has consulted on the restoration of around 50. She has published several books, including History of Kitchen Gardening.
dr catherine horwood
flowers for the house - the story of the cutting garden
10 april 2021
Dr Catherine Horwood looked at the history of the Cutting Garden, the minor sibling of the Walled Garden but always a vital ingredient of any large estate. She discussed the pressures on gardeners to provide plant material for floral displays in the home throughout the year and how this tradition has seen a recent revival on allotments and cutting patches across the country. Catherine Horwood is a social historian and author of Beth Chatto: A Life with Plants (Pimpernel Press), which won the European Garden Book of the Year 2019. Her other books include the recently revised Potted History: How Houseplants took over our Homes (Pimpernel Press), Rose (Reaktion), a cultural history of the world’s favourite flower and Gardening Women: Their Stories from 1600 to the Present (Virago).
dr catherine horwood
is it all over for the fiddle leaf fig? -
Fads and fashions in houseplants
24 April 2021
In the second half of this two-part talk, Dr Catherine Horwood, author of Potted History: How Houseplants took over our Homes, looked at how the popularity of houseplants has been influenced by changing trends in domestic interiors over the centuries and what the future holds for today’s favourite indoor plants.
See previous lecture for brief biography of Dr Catherine Horwood.
