Gardener’s Cuttings
Joy Adamson and her role as a botanical artist
There’s just time to catch an exhibition which reflects the flare for botanical gardening shown by Joy Adamson. The Nature in Art, Gloucester exhibition runs until Sunday 5th September and is in association with the Elsa trust which celebrates the 100th anniversary of Joy Adamson’s birth.
Joy Adamson – a flare for botanical gardening illustrations
Joy and her husband George Adamson’s conservation
work was made famous with the publication of the ‘Born Free’ book, although she is less well known as an artist. Her mercurial temperament led her to study medicine, music, sculpture, photography and with the guidance of Peter Bally she discovered her flare for botanical painting. She was then commissioned by Lady Muriel Jex Blake to illustrate her book ‘Gardening in East Africa’ for which she won the Grenfell gold medal granted by the Royal Horticultural Society and established herself as a botanical artist. The exhibition will include 25 original works by Adamson, and another 25 other pieces by artists whose work reflect her life in Africa, with particular reference to Kenya.
Nature in Art is open Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 5pm plus B/H Mondays. Wallsworth Hall, Twigworth, Gloucester GL2 9PA. Telephone: 01452 731422
Gardening photo competition offers critique to all entrants
If you are a keen garden photographer then why not aim high and enter the fourth International Garden Photographer of the Year competition. The deadline is 30th November. There’s an outstanding range of awards on offer, including a top cash prize of £5,000 for the overall winner plus a Royal Photographic Society gold medal for the Portfolio winner. Uniquely among photography competitions, the competition offers every photographer who enters the chance to receive a personal email critique of their entry from the judges (once the winners are announced) as well as an invitation to an Entrants’ Day in 2011 at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. There are six categories, with awards for single images as well as portfolios. The third International Garden Photographer of the Year exhibition is currently on show at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew until 26th September 2010.
www.igpoty.com
Colonial garden wins award for Sulgrave Manor
Sulgrave Manor, the ancestral home of the Washington family in Britain, has what is now an award winning garden well worth a visit for anyone with any interest in colonial affairs.
The vegetable garden contains herbs and vegetables similar to the plants grown in Virginia in the 1650’s
The Manor, on the borders of Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire started a garden project last year to commemorate early colonial life in Virginia and to celebrate it by designing and planting a vegetable garden to represent what would have grown.
A lot of research took place from limited sources to find the appropriate varieties of vegetables and to source
companies that could provide seed as alternatives to the original plants. The result is a vegetable garden which measures approximately 12.5m x 18m and contains and displays herbs and vegetables very similar to the plants that were grown in Virginia in the 1650s.
This summer the John Washington garden won an Inspiration Award for Best Special Project at the Renaissance Heritage awards for Northamptonshire. The awards celebrate the work of museums and heritage collections.
The research work for the project was carried out by gardener Sue McNally. Tobacco is growing in the garden and has done well along with sweet potatoes, sunflowers, maize, salads, brassicas and root crops.
“It is an accessible garden to all our visitors and reaches all audiences. It is an education to those who visit from abroad including groups of young ambassadors from America and has been a real education for all of us."
The gardens also incorporate the National Garden of the Herb Society which celebrates the American link by containing beds dedicated to herbs taken to the Americas and those introduced to Britain from the Americas.
Open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, May through to October from 2:00 p.m. (August only - from noon.) Last entry on all days: 4:00 p.m. Standard admission is £7.25 for an adult and £3.50 for a child 5 to 16. Call 01295 760205.
10 Country Gardener
Last year's Cookery Theatre at the National Gardening Show
Research has shown gardening to bring enormous benefits to people with disabilities. Not only can it help people rebuild physical strength but it can bring about a huge improvement in psychological health. At the show, the annual Showcase Gardens initiative will have a new Jubilee Garden brief – this is the first time the initiative has had a theme. Entrants will have designed an accessible garden for people who are paralysed following spinal cord injury.
Other show highlights include: The National Dahlia Society Show where you can learn everything you need to know about these beautiful blooms and The country’s biggest vegetables where competitors return in the hope of setting a new record like last year’s gigantic 5.9kg parsnip which did indeed break the world record!
www.bathandwest.com
Early September date for National Gardening Show
The National Gardening Show running on the 3rd – 5th September at the Royal Bath and West Showground, is an ideal day out for gardening fans - the event showcases the finest in autumn gardening with lots of features that are unique to the show, advice from experts and help on how to grow plants and vegetables.
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