Gardens in Perspective

"Jerry is from my generation. Well, he is fifteen years older than me, so he has just been 80. He has been photographing gardens for even longer than I have; he was in advertising before. He took to garden photography just before I did and we have been gently competitive friends for years. He has travelled unstintingly round the world; he doesn’t hesitate to drop everything and go to California if there is a garden there he wants to see. I don’t know how he does it because the whole stamina of travel is the worst aspect of what we do. We all tend to get up early in the morning and photograph at dawn – and to get to a place for dawn, you have to fly there or drive there the night before, and he hasn’t hesitated to do that throughout his working life. Like Jerry, I have travelled round the world, but I did so earlier than he did. I have found it stressful and am now trying to do less of it. I have been to America, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and many other places. Do you know, the more I travel the world, the more I realise that my favourite gardens are in England! They are the best gardens in the world of their own kind, of course. If you want a desert garden then you have to go to somewhere like California or Australia. The trouble with a lot of Californian and Australian gardens is that they try to be like English ones. They will never be as good, because the climate isn’t right for that. So when they are like themselves I love them, but when they are trying to be like something else I prefer the real thing! Funnily enough, I was at Highgrove earlier this week, and every time I go, there is something new and wonderful. It’s an enthusiast’s garden in the sense that he loves the garden and he encouraged some of the best designers to contribute. Also he has got a very good team of gardeners. So it is both well designed and well maintained. I was brought up on those gardens in the late 80s. I photographed their gardens and contributed photographs to their books. They are gardens that I admire. Penelope Hobhouse was first at the National Trust Garden at Tintinhull and then at her own garden at Bettiscombe. Rosemary Verey created an iconic garden at Barnsley House. A lot of English garden-makers have found inspiration in the designs of these two formidable ladies."