Tradition and Styles of Landscape Design

Top 8. Nov 22, 2002 12:22 AM

» Gay_Klok - Re: Re: Re: Re: Hi Cercis

In response to message posted by Kirk_Johnson:

"I can't bring myself to call Miss Jeckyll by her first name, but I feel very comfortable doing that with Vita."

Funny, Kirk, I wrote something the same in my course but said "I can't feel like calling Jekell 'Gertie' but have called her Gertrude!

Thanks for extra info. Shall passit on

-- posted by Gay_Klok

Top 9. Nov 23, 2002 1:46 AM

» Kirk_Johnson - Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hi Cercis

In response to message posted by Gay_Klok:

I just looked at my copy of "Wall & Water Gardens" and discovered that Gay and I have been misspelling Getry's last name. it is Jekyll ;-)

-- posted by Kirk_Johnson

Top 10. Nov 25, 2002 2:12 AM

» Gay_Klok - Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hi Cercis

In response to message posted by Kirk_Johnson:
Didn't want to seem like a know-all, Kirk.

I think I have spelt it correctly in the Uni course :=] Woyuld have been better to have called her Gertie [tee-hee]

-- posted by Gay_Klok

Top 11. Nov 25, 2002 11:45 PM

» Kirk_Johnson - Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hi Cercis

In response to message posted by Gay_Klok:

I suspect that Gertie would have gone over the same with Miss Jekyll whether you misspelled it or not ;-)

We should get Carol to participate in this discussion so that our typos would be less obvious in comparison.

-- posted by Kirk_Johnson

Top 12. Dec 1, 2002 11:27 AM

» Georgene A. Bramlage - What's in a name?

In response to message posted by Kirk_Johnson:
Gay and Kirk,

Regarding names, I've always used the tried and true Quaker (Friends) method of address between two adults who are not necessarily intimately acquainted and referred to these two women gardeners in my own mind and also when I've given presentations with both given and family names as Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville-West.

Here, also, is a tidbit that I thought both of you as well as our readers might be interested in reading. It is from Nigel Nicolson's (Vita and Harold's younger son) autobiography Long Life: Memoirs and refers to the actress Vanessa Redgrave (playing Vita in a 1994 NY City production) pumping Nigel for information on how V S-W would have pronounced various words and handled some situations. Miss Redgrave: If Vita was announced by a flunkey at a very grand reception, would he have said "Mrs. Harold Nicolson" or "Miss Victoria Sackville-West"? N.N.: He would have said Mrs. Harold Nicolson and she would have hit him.

-- posted by Georgene A. Bramlage

Top 13. Dec 2, 2002 6:01 AM

» scuba_steve - I enjoyed your article

Georgene,

Thanks for such an informative and well written article. I love to garden and work on our home landscape as well but unfortunately have very little time to do so. For this reason my wife and I have chosen plants that require very little care once planted. I look forward to reading your future articles at this topic and I have subscribed so that I do not miss any. You may be interested in reading my latest article, "The Wonderful Gifts of the Wax Myrtle" since it is somewhat related to your topic. It is basically about the surprising gifts that this tree has brought to our yard.

Thanks again,

-- posted by scuba_steve

Top 14. Dec 2, 2002 8:48 AM

» Georgene A. Bramlage - Re: I enjoyed your article

In response to message posted by scuba_steve:

Steve, Neat! Thanks for your kind words and support. I did not know about your topic (mea culpa), but will certainly check it out. I try, as much as possible, to include ideas from many different growing areas in what I write. I love to travel, look at gardens and also have the good fortune to have three "adult" children and their many friends! The middle child just moved from Durham, NC to Roanoke, VA. While she was in Durham, I drew up a plan for their yard which was quite a mess when they moved into the house. They completed about one-half of the work before they moved. Now, I get to "work" on the Roanoke yard. The youngest child is in Ft. Lauderdale, FL (tropical climate) and I'm just becoming accustomed to that...but have many ideas already. The oldest lives in upstate NY...cold in almost any season :+) but as his education was in arboriculture and landscape contracting, he needs little help from me...just a few living gifts now and then. Cheers and please keep in touch!

-- posted by Georgene A. Bramlage

Top 15. Feb 5, 2003 2:46 PM

» Georgene A. Bramlage - Influence of Jekyll & Lutyens on Sissinghurst Castle Gardens

In response to message posted by Kirk_Johnson:
Hi Gay & Kirk!
To continue part of the discussion which we started ages ago…
From Gay I had yesterday an interesting question from a student, Kirk, who asked whether I felt there was much influence between the two wonderful gardeners, Vita and Gertrude.
I feel that Vita was such a self centered person that she did exactly what she wanted [or asker her husband to do it or ordered one of her gardeners] but that I was sure that she had Gertrude's books in her tower
From Kirk… Vita met Gertrude Jekyll once when she was a beginning gardener and Miss Jekyll was quite elderly. Vita had a rather defiant attitude towards Miss Jekyll's influence. Sissinghurst's purple border was a reaction to Miss Jekyll's warnings about using too much purple…
Kirk & Gay, although this is fun, the last thing I want to do is make this topic dwell too much on dead English gardeners, although we do owe them thanks for their sometimes too marked influence upon our own gardens. I especially enjoyed your remark, Kirk, about the discrepancy in appreciation of the color purple by Jekyll and Sackville-West.
I found references to the influence of Jekyll and Lutyens on Sackville-West's gardening style in Jane Brown's Gardens of a Golden Afternoon: The Story of a Partnership – Edwin Lutyens & Gertrude Jekyll in which Brown cites the gardens at Sissinghurst Castle along with those at Hidcote Manor and Darlington Hall as being the three most universally admired 20th century gardens influenced by the partnership.
Brown goes on to say that Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West's garden at Sissinghurst was made in the 1930's without consciously recognizing the partners' lead, but Lutyens was a frequent visitor, and a visitor who gave advice, at their previous home, Long Barn at Sevenoaks, which was the workshop for the Sissinghurst garden. Vita repeatedly rejected any Jekyll influence upon her planting, though Lutyens had taken her to Munstead Wood (which she found not looking its best) with Lady Sackville (Vita's mother) in August, 1917, and the same favorites, the same luxuriance and at the same time restraint in colours are there at Sissinghurst, gloriously for us all to see. Nigel Nicholson (son of Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson) feels that the Lutyens influence in his mother's garden is pervasive, and to anyone who has visited both Sissinghurst and Folly Farm (Lutyens' home place & garden), the same conclusion is inescapable. This information about Lutyens involvement at Long barn and his pervasive influenceat Sissinghurst is in a letter to Brown from Nigel Nicholson, 8 March 1981.
This is fun! Cheers!
How is your SU course on The Women Gardeners coming along, Gay?
Georgene (AKA Cercis)

-- posted by Georgene A. Bramlage

Top 16. Feb 5, 2003 5:26 PM

» Gay_Klok - Re: Influence of Jekyll & Lutyens on Sissinghurst Castle Gardens

In response to message posted by Cercis:

These are such interesting quotes, Georgene. When at Sissinghurst, with my husband, some years ago, my first reaction was a feeling of surprise at my lack of 'spontaneous' excitement - Had I seen too many photos? I was also suffering from 'real' bronchitus.

Thinking back now and re-watching the video I took, I think that this sort of "Oh! Yes! Ho-hum" feeling is caused by too much written about and shown about many of the famous English gardens, too much familiarity. Also, I observed, when the gardens are being managed by the National Trust team of gardeners, creators having gone to the big garden in the sky, the gardens lose something which is hard to put into words. Don't get me wrong, I think the Trust does a wonderful job and I am thankful to them that I am able to experience these wonderful gardens.

I suppose it is something like when you pick up your beautiful little daughter from a weekend's stay with your mother, she is dressed in the clothes you provided but, although her hair is done in the same style, she isn't quite dressed the same as when you do it.

Famous gardens that still had the creator living in the house but maybe with help from the Trust, still retained that certain 'something'

That is why I never respond wholeheartedly to a professional designed garden

Re Uni course - I had no students taking the long course last time around, and there is no way I can tell if anyone took the 'short' course

The course is 'live' again on Febuary 17th and I hope there is SOMEONE - it is rather sad not to be able to discuss things! so thanks for your site here :=]

-- posted by Gay_Klok