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The Garden House (Devon, England)

The destinations are beginning to blur but looking at the tour guide booklet, I see that we are now in Plymouth. Today, we visited two gardens designed by Keith Wiley.  The first is The Garden House , where Wiley worked as Head Gardener for 25 years (from 1978-2003). The 10-acre estate was purchased in the 1940s by former Eton schoolmaster Lionel Fortescue and his wife Katherine. It was formerly home to the  vicars of Buckland Monachronum. The Fortescue's renovated the gardens and ran a market garden business and raised cattle.  The remains of some of the original buildings in the vicarage still stand in the garden and serve as a romantic backdrop in the Walled Garden - I loved the way they had massed ferns together. Just stunning! Surrounding the walled garden and venturing out away from the house are more naturalistic plantings  - Today, the head gardener is Nick Haworth, who was previously head gardener at Greenway , which we visited earlier.  Keith Wiley lef...
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Pamela Harper to speak at Memphis event

I have long been an admirer of this woman - her book "Time Tested Plants" has been a revelation and has made me aware of many fabulous plants. I can't wait to hear her in person and hopefully get to meet her. 

Here are the details

Pamela Harper
‘Hydrangeas and their Companions’
Noted plantswoman, author and photographer
7:00p.m. at the Memphis botanic garden
After we announced that Pamela Harper would be our October speaker, one of our members mentioned coming across an issue of Horticulture magazine that featured Pamela in their “A Gardening Life” series. I happened to have that July/August 2005 issue and was delighted to read again Bobby J. Ward’s celebration of the life of this truly great gardener. 

After her arrival in the United States from England in 1968, Pamela began gardening on two acres near the tidal creeks of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay. She has tended that garden for more than 40 years and shared her experiences through her lectures and writings. She has authored five gardening books – The Story of a Garden, Perennials: How to Select Grow & Enjoy, Designing with Perennials, Color Echoes, Time-Tested Plants: Thirty Years in a Four-Season Garden – and earned awards from the Garden Writers Association of America and the America Horticultural Society.

Please join us for this rare opportunity to spend an evening with such an fascinating and knowledgeable gardener. 

OF INTEREST. . .
Fans of HGTV’s “A Gardener’s Diary” may remember when Erica Glasener visited Pamela Harper garden. To view a segment from that much-missed show, just go to: http://www.hgtv.com/video/garden-guru-plant-tips-video/index.html

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
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Comments

  1. LesOctober 12, 2010 at 4:40 PM

    Today was a crazy day catching up on things at work with lots of phone calls, including one from Pamela Harper looking for a Jalena Witchazel. And now you post about her visit, what serendipity. She is a marvelous plantsperson and has a fantastic garden.

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  2. The Redneck RosarianOctober 12, 2010 at 9:56 PM

    This will be awesome!

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  3. Lisa BlairOctober 13, 2010 at 6:33 AM

    I so enjoyed that video from A Gardener's Diary. I have that show programmed into my Tivo. Love it!

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  4. GailOctober 13, 2010 at 8:39 AM

    What a perfect speaker for the two of you to enjoy~Could anyone love hydrangeas more! gail

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  5. Janet, The Queen of SeafordOctober 14, 2010 at 2:03 PM

    You will LOVE Pam Harper. I have been to her garden a couple times and it is a wonderful retreat. Before I moved to SC I lived a few streets away from Pam. I have heard her speak a few times as well. Her plant collection is incredible.
    I bought an Amsonia 'Seaford Skies' for my new garden. It is one she cultivated.

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