- DURATION 60 mins x 3
Event Description
Discover some key characters in English horticultural history. We will learn how these designers created some of the most beautiful gardens around England. Get to know the people behind the plant and gain more of an understanding into how these designers have extended the creative limits in horticulture.
Visit Warley Place: the vision of Ellen Willmott (8th November)
A woman with very different ideas from most middle-class young women in Victorian times. Her ambition was to use her inheritance to create a garden that would draw horticultural experts from all over the world - a garden that would also include plants and shrubs from all over the world. A fascinating look at a garden which today is gradually being brought back to life, and the story of the lady whose love of gardens and the study of horticulture took her from incredible riches to almost rags.
Visit Hidcote: A 'place to get away from the world' (15th November)
We visit the garden designed by an American who took British nationality and served in the British military during the First World War. For Lawrence Johnston, the garden he created was partly a place of calm and creativity after the carnage of 1914-18. It was where he came to recover from wounds sustained in combat and where he experimented with some new ideas about horticulture - ideas that did not always please his formidable mother, who held tightly to the purse strings!
Visit Sissinghurst: A garden with a varied past (22nd November)
Today she is perhaps best-known as a talented gardener, but Vita Sackville-West was also a biographer, journalist, poet and playwright with a very unconventional lifestyle. We discover the garden she designed together with her diplomat husband, Harold Nicholson, which evolved from 1930 until her death in 1962. It is not only the garden she created but her library of books and her fascinating life story that still attract visitors today.
- Duration: 60 mins x 3
- Online Zoom event: Join from your computer, phone or tablet (no replay available)
Meet the Host, Margaret
Margaret has taught as a qualified lecturer in further, higher and adult education for over 33 years, and currently teaches English Literature and History in adult education. For many years, she has given talks to various different clubs, societies and other organisations, including Rotary and Probus Clubs, U3A’s, WI’s, Townswomen’s Guilds and Archaeological & Historical Societies. She writes a book review each month and contributes short local history topics for a community radio station, alongside writing published articles for the Brontë Society, the Jane Austen Society, Community Archives and the British Association for Local History. Her aim is that her talks are informative and interesting, with a touch of humour!
Preparing for the Event
For the best experience, you will need to have Zoom downloaded onto your computer. Please ensure you're connected to broadband/wifi rather than using your mobile phone connection (3G/4G).
We also recommend that pets are either calmly sitting on your lap or in another room, and any refreshments you may require are within your reach!
Resources
Great English Gardeners has supplementary learning materials provided by the event host. Once you book an event, you will get access to these resources.
More Information
What if I can’t make the event?
If a recording’s available for the event, you can still register for it and we will send you an email with a link to a recording shortly after it ends.
Will my camera be on and will I be visible to the other people?
Your camera and microphone does not need to be on for you to enjoy the event. The choice about whether to do this is completely yours.
How do I watch the live event?
Rest Less events are hosted on Zoom, a computer application that allows you to attend online events just by clicking a link. For detailed instructions, please go to our "FAQ" page, which you can find a link to in the nav bar at the top of the page.
How do I sign-up for and access the recording? (Recorded events only)
Book the event as normal (as if you are attending live). After the event ends you will automatically receive a post-event email with a link to the recording, as long as the event was recorded. You do not need to do anything else and there is no separate booking process for recordings only. Please note it can take up to 24 hours for Zoom to process recordings.