I have written articles for the Lakeland Gardener, Journal of the Lakeland Horticulture Society, which are available below in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format as downloads (used with permission).
To learn more about the Lakeland Horticultural Society, visit their website: www.holehirdgardens.org.uk
Armstrong Gardens, Illinois
An American In Scotland
As a member of the Lakeland Horticulture Society of Windermere, England, I took my first trip with LHS members in May, 2011, to the Highlands of north-west Scotland. As I was the only American in the group, I was asked to write an article for the journal on my experiences in Scotland traveling with my “British cousins,” and the gardens we visited. This is the story of my travels from Virginia Beach, Virginia to the Isle of Skye and the gardens in between.
Chicago Botanic Garden
I wrote of my June visit to the Chicago Botanic Garden to introduce the LHS members to a premier garden in the mid-west of my country.
The Chicago Garden was opened to the public in 1972, so in Great Britain time span of Botanic Gardens, a “youngster,” but their Plant Research breeding program has already contributed new perennials for our gardens. A highlight at the garden is the English Walled Garden designed by the English landscape architect John Brookes.
Colonial Williamsburg
The 18th century capital of Williamsburg, Virginia has been recreated as an outdoor living history museum. Besides the physical reconstruction of the capital’s homes and public buildings, gardens were also restored. Williamsburg, while a capital city, became a focal point of gardening activity in Virginia and played a pivotal role in the early plant exchanges between the New World and the Old.
Influences of the English gardens of the early 18th century are displayed throughout the Colonial city. Enjoy additional photos of several of these gardens I wrote about ( and others), under Williamsburg Photo Archive.
The LHS Tour of Sweden and Gotland
Early June 2014 I traveled in Sweden with a small group of members of the Lakeland Horticulture Society. It was a fast paced garden tour with an itinerary that included public gardens and nature reserves, arranged by Brightwater Holidays in conjunction with impressive private gardens of George and Dorothy Feather’s contacts and friends.
The journal article focuses on highlights of the tour on the mainland and the Island of Gotland. Since articles of visits to Uppsala and the gardens associated with Carl Linnaeus have been written previously by other members for the LHS journal, I have bypassed Uppsala for the journal but I have written on Linnaeus in Uppsala on my blog.
The Military Botanist
Stories of botanical collectors of the 17th through to the early 20th century, often portray a life of travel, excitement, danger and at times death, in pursuit of their singular passion. Many of these individuals would have been educated in the sciences at prestigious universities. Financial backing and support for their exploits could have come from botanical institutions, wealthy benefactors or commercial horticulture businesses. There have also been individuals with interest in the collection of new species whose main education and occupation was other than botanist or plant hunter. I found that, using their own resources, they used the opportunity of their employment to make significant contributions of new botanical species.
I found an example of such an individual when identifying a photograph I had taken of a group of lilies at the northerly Botanical Garden of Tromsø, Norway. I was introduced not only to the stately Caucasian lily, Lilium monadelphum, but also to a botanical explorer of the Caucasus mountain range which extends through the territories of Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. His career was in the military, but he learned to use every assignment as an opportunity to expand his botanical studies.
My First Visit
(Deborah McMillin remembers the first time she discovered Holehird while she was on a visit from America to her daughter.)
When the visitor centre in Windermere advised us that there was no bus transportation to our destination, Holehird, a mountainside garden which my husband David and I had been given the impression was not far from the rail station, David insisted (his spend-thrift Scottish blood dominating our modes of transportation) that we hike to the garden rather than pay a cab fare. Since the weather had improved that Wednesday from the overcast skies and sporadic rain showers we had encountered on our first Lake District trip two days earlier, I was agreeable to a leisurely scenic morning walk after sitting for two hours on the train from Manchester where our daughter Cara lived.