Thoughtful Gardening

"That’s right and I put it on the list because it is also a fun book. I think he is the most important garden writer writing in English today. He belongs to the great pantheon of 19th and 20th century English garden writers who have informed the whole world, not just British gardeners, about good gardening. These articles that he wrote for The Financial Times are all very informative and highly amusing. It is a very good read. I think among all the current gardening books this is the most useful and fun. There is a great fashion here now for native plants. You mentioned the native plant garden that we are building. We have always had a native plant garden to show the plants of the northeastern United States. That was mainly didactic, whereas the new one is meant to be very glamorous and beautiful to show people how they can use native plants in the same ways that we have always used more exotic plants, such as delphiniums and irises and peonies. None of these are American but we have always used them to make our flower gardens beautiful. But there are important ways that people now understand how to use native plants. They are more disease resistant because they belong here. There are many sunflowers from this part of the US that are much easier to grow than white delphiniums, for example. That doesn’t mean we won’t grow white delphiniums – we do – but we are expanding the plant palette. “Trees give scale to a garden and nobility. I don’t think any garden feels right without its trees.” And this is not just an American interest right now. It has also been a great interest in Germany. And with people like Piet Oudolf, a Dutch designer who uses many native American plants. There is a major garden at Wisley [the Royal Horticultural Society’s flagship garden in Surrey, England] where many of the plants are native to North America. It is a kind of prairie design aesthetic. Our climate is less hospitable. I know you all complain about your climate all the time but it is actually very good for flower gardens. Our climate is much harsher. We have harsher winters and harsher summers. We have more humidity in the summer. We have more violent storms and the wind is a greater issue here than it is for you. So here it is harder to grow refined flowering plants in your garden. We still do it, but native American plants are tougher and easier to grow, so we blend the two palettes. Also, there is a new American style, which uses ornamental grasses and other very tough plants that are happier in this difficult climate. In this new American style, there is often a sweeping landscape full of a single ornamental grass or two or three used in very large grandiose swathes. There are fewer walled gardens or traditional mixed borders surrounding a clipped lawn – that English model – although it does still exist here."

"I think it is a brilliant book. The most complimentary thing I could say about any gardener is that they thought of what they were saying themselves. The way of lecturing that used to be for gardening talks was very stuffy, a bit like a university lecturer would be. I am talking about the older generation in their 80s and 90s. Yes. And I think the only way you are going to get anybody to read anything is to think of oneself as an entertainer of very charming elderly ladies. Yes, he has got it all sewed up. They eat out of his hands. He is totally brilliant. My problem with Robin is that I thought he was very laid back, but actually he is terribly clever, which is quite alarming. All of them are so good. The naughtiest thing he does, which is just so funny, is to have a good go at badgers. I think it is perfectly genuine, and he is not a bit afraid of upsetting the cuddly-toy type animal people. Just when you think he has forgotten about badgers, he starts off again!"