The baggallini brigade

I didn’t know that baggallini bags were such a cult item. While signing books at the University Bookstore author’s table at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show, someone noticed my baggallini Around Town Bagg (color: espresso/tomato) and pointed to her own baggallini. We’re our own underground group.

I promised that this bag would be for travel, but I can’t stop using it for everyday, because it’s so darn handy. The pockets! One for business cards, one for sunglasses (safely stowed through most of the Seattle winter), one for thin stuff, one for big stuff, another one for big stuff, a little one inside that one. Whew. And a wide strap that doesn’t kill my shoulders. Coming up, the travel test as I head to Philadelphia to speak at the flower show, Chicago to check out their show, then later in March to Texas to check out the bluebonnets. This summer, Ireland, England. Fall, Italy. This is what comes of not going anywhere in the awful year 2009, I’m ready to burst at the seams. But my baggallini will be intact.

Garden Book Picks

The Daily Telegraph’s list of garden books is out – intended as suggestions for Christmas gifts, but it’s a good list of what caught the eye of British garden writers. Most notably from our end of things, is Great Gardens of America by Tim Richardson , photos by Andrea Jones (Frances Lincoln, 2009). This distinguished list includes quite a few I haven’t visited, although I can see them fitting into a garden tour in the not-too-distant future. Others, I’ve visited and led tours through, such as our hometown favorite, Windcliff, as well as Middleton Place in Charleston. Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown, Filoli in Woodside,

Filoli

California, Monticello – this book may have been intended for the British audience, but it’s great find for gardeners in the U.S., too. A memory of what you’ve seen or a wish list of where to go, either way it should be on your table within easy reach when you need to dream.

Gifts for the Garden Traveler

Gardeners’ stockings are soon to be filled with Atlas gloves, trowels, sisal twine and bird netting, but those of us who also enjoy traveling to garden may have a few other items on our minds.

The garden traveler’s holiday wish list is a hybrid of sorts – somewhere between a normal tourist and a gardener.

A tour – Cough up the bucks and send your garden traveler (or yourself) on a specialty tour with like-minded people, who want to discuss the merits ofCrinodendron hookerianum and where it will grow. Our Ireland tour for 2010 may be just the ticket.

A digital camera – And not just any cheap or any expensive model. We take pictures outside and so we need more than a 2.5- or 3-inch LCD screen on the back of the camera: We need a viewfinder. Call it old-fashioned, but in bright daylight those screens are useless. Canon has some reasonably priced models that all include viewfinders; check out the SD780IS. Yes, we do need that image stabilizer – this isn’t a professional photographers tour, and we won’t wait around while you set up your fancy equipment. Anyway, many gardens have a “no tripod” rule, and so we must be our own tripods.

Something to write on – Garden travelers take notes. We may need to jot down the name of a plant or something funny that our local guide says (“The crowd will be heaving.”) And occasionally, we may need to write that down in middle of a light mist. So, a Rite-in-the-Rain notebook comes in handy. They come in all

Leighton's beer notebook

sizes and have yellow covers. Leighton has a small one that he uses as his beer notebook; you never know when a splash of a best bitter might land on an important comment. Rite-in-the-Rain also carries pencils for wet-weather use.

A raincoat, not an umbrella – See previous entry on my biases.

A travel purse – I’ve found mine, it’s a Baggalini. Wide strap to go over my shoulder, enough but not too many zipper pockets and loads of room even though it looks small. Waterproof for those less-than-perfect weather days.

Really good walking shoes – We are not hikers; or at least, this is not a hiking trip. Shoes are too personal to recommend, but I’ll tell you I love my new Clarks Unstructured. Take two pairs so that they can get a rest every other day.

Books about the gardens you want to see – Patrick Taylor’s book The Gardens of Britain and Ireland will give you a good overview. The Good Gardens Guide by Peter King usually comes out every year. Is there a particular place you want to read about? Ask me for a recommendation.

And, for those lovers of English ale, Leighton recommends The Good Beer Guide – which brews are the best and where to find them. To get the 2010 edition, you must go to the amazon UK site.

See you in the garden. Or the pub.

London squares, books and pubs

Around the corner from our favorite little hotel in London—the Harlingford Hotel in Cartwright Gardens—and along our short walk to Russell Square and its fabulously restored gardens—we walk along Queen Square.  The first time we did this we saw a plaque at 3 Queen Square for Faber and Faber. We are Book People, and as such we were thrilled to see one of the offices of such a venerable publisher.  Now, as reported in the Daily Telegraph, Faber and Faber celebrates its 80^th birthday.

The Telegraph’s article tells a wonderful story, not least of which is how the publishing company’s name came about.  Toby Clements reports that poet Walter de la Mare was the one who suggested that Geoffrey Faber add another Faber to the name.  “ … not because there was another Faber—there wasn’t—but because ‘you can’t have too much of a good thing.’ ”

In Queen Square is a statue of Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III; it’s a comfy place where loads of mothers and nannies take children to play.  Just on the corner is the Queen’s Larder, one of our favorite pubs, and where the Queen supposedly stayed while her husband was being treated by nearby doctors.  One summer day, we sat outside the pub with a pint and watched some Morris dancers who were practicing for a competition or show elsewhere.  You never know what you run into in London.

And Russell Square—it’s one of the best of the London squares.  When we arrive in London too early to check into the Harlingford, and we’re trying desperately to stay awake, we sit on a bench at the fountain and watch people.  The fountain is a recent addition to a square first designed by Humphry Repton in 1806.  The restoration of the gardens and installation of the fountain created a pleasant green space whether you’re walking through on the way to the British Museum or need to cool off in the fountain’s spray.

We’ll be back in the neighborhood—isn’t it odd how you can come to consider a holiday place home?—in October, and it’ll be interesting to see how London’s fall landscape.

Happy Candlemas Day

Happy Candlemas Day — or Groundhog Day, if you prefer.  I ran across this old weather proverb in Adam Nicolson’s book Quarrel With the King (HarperCollins, 2008) :

 

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright

Winter will have another flight

 

But if it be dark with clouds of rain

Winter is gone and will not come again.

 

Here in the Pacific Northwest, the day is dawning lovely and clear — oh dear.  I’d hate to think we’d get more of the weather we had in December (which actually started before winter).

In England today, the weather is dreadful.  Although it’s not much consolation, at least they could look forward to better weather the second half of winter if the Candlemas/Groundhog prediction holds.

British garden writer Mary Keen just e-mailed me over the weekend that their cold weather is already delaying garden events, and that snowdrops are just now appearing (mine are up several inches).

            Let’s hope winter doesn’t hit again when we least expect it.  On a May England garden tour, we took our small group to RHS Garden Wisley, always a fabulous visit for the display gardens, range of plants and, of course, lovely lunches.  Here it was the middle of May and the Gunnera had been bitten by a late frost.  It always shocks unfamiliar eyes that such a huge plant could be an herbaceous perennial.  The stand was already about 5 feet high, and many of the leaves with big brown spots.

 

What’s on your shelf?

OK, sorry … now, where was I?

Lorene, who blogs at plantedathome.com, had tagged me in a sort of chain-letter event (Debra Prinzing at shedstyle.com also sent it to me) — I’m supposed to grab a book from within arm’s length (for me, the shelf behind), go to page 56, fifth sentence and read two or three lines.  Even though I’m way behind in responding to this, I’ll have you know I have not rearranged the bookshelf, and I have not memorized its order, so this is about as random as it gets for a garden writer (although there’s the question of reaching with my right or my left hand).  Here goes.

            Right-handed, the choice is:  The Plant Locator Western Region by Susan Hill and Susan Narizny (Timber Press, 2004) — unfortunately out of print.  It’s an exceptional work and one I use constantly to check names.  The Susans were meticulous in checking the latest correct botanical name and cultivar listing, and I use it second only to the Royal Horticultural Society’s Plant Finder online (that, too, gives me nursery sources, but I use it to verify names and spellings).  Here’s my reading:

 

u*  obesum ssp. somalense ‘Nova #2’            caGuy

*    obesum ssp. swazicum                                    caGuy

*u  obesum ssp. swazicum ‘Perpetual Pink’   caGuy

 

OK, that’s about enough of that.  It’s the end of a listing of Adenium , an interesting African plant called the desert rose that’s not hardy around Seattle — at least not this winter (here’s a good photo and info).  The Plant Locator’s info includes subspecies (when plant characteristics differ because of, for example, geographic difference).  The “u” means its unverified and the asterisk notes that it’s a new entry.  The “caGuy” shows that it is (was) available from Guy Wrinkle Exotic Plants in Los Angeles.

            You see how useful this book is?  You could probably find one used — if you don’t want to search for yourself, let David at Flora & Fauna do it for you.

            Sorry Lorene and Debra — I’ve always been the last stop when it comes to chain letters, so I have not sent this out to five people who must look on page 56 of a book within reach.  I can’t even send recipe chain letters along.

            There’s much more to say these days about gardening, touring and writing, but I wanted to get this out there and get it off my conscience.  

The Writer in Somebody Else’s Garden

With apologies to Jane Garmey, editor of The Writer in the Garden, an anthology of garden-related literature.  I read many works about gardens and gardening, and enjoy some more than others.  Among my favorites:  Jenny Uglow’s light hand at heavy subjects (A Little History of British Gardening tops my list), Christopher Lloyd’s acerbic wit and Ursula Buchan brisk style.

            Writers are told that what they read will influence what they write.  It isn’t only garden writers I look to, but good writing in general, in the hope of getting an idea across in an entertaining, insightful and knowledgeable manner without wasting a word.  I’m irritated when reading a book and find myself editing it for style, syntax and word choice.  Some books, both fiction and nonfiction, start with a great idea and they may be full of interesting elements, but overall the writing is thin at best.  Naturally, I always wonder how in the world these books get in print.

            If I’m to try my best at writing about the gardens we visit — be it the famous Hidcote Manor or a private garden open through the National Garden Scheme — then I need to surround myself with good writing.  Without even trying, I came up with three writers who excel at their craft:

Jo Rowling — I don’t write fiction, but if I did I would want to write dialogue like she does.  No wasted words anywhere, and every turn of phrase evokes time, place and character.

Erik Larson — I’m just finishing Thunderstruck.  He’s precise in his research, and careful about not interpreting past events through modern eyes.  It’s true, I did have to skim over the details of the murder, just as I had to skim over a few paragraphs in Devil in the White City, but I admire him for his unsentimental (and unsensational) approach, while holding my interest through all the details.

Ray Bradbury — A deep thanks to the master.  I do not write science fiction or fantasy, but I will be forever grateful to Ray Bradbury, his imagination, and his enthusiasm for writing and for others who write.  I’ve attended four of his talks, the first when I was in 7^th grade (more than 40 years ago), the last just a few years ago.  He’s an inspiration.

A good read

            Gardens, gardeners and plants figure sporadically into novels.  Several years ago when I was still volunteering at the Miller Library (a fabulous gardening library at the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture), I helped librarian Brian Thompson create a list of mostly fictional books where gardening was at least a part of the story.  It ranged from Nero Wolfe’s orchids to Miss Marple, who wisely said: “Gardening is the best disguise”.

            Gardening is often woven into English writing, showing it’s more ingrained in the lives of the English than it is ours in the U.S.  You can’t turn a page in the Harry Potter series without Jo Rowling mentioning plants and gardens, from someone tripping over an aspidistra to a description of the rhododendrons in the Weasley garden (let alone what goes on in the greenhouses at Hogwarts).

            So, it’s no wonder it was a Brit who came up with the English Garden Mystery series.  Our friends and fellow anglophiles Holly and Gerry Wilson told us about the books.  The author, Anthony Eglin (who now lives in California) has three books out with a fourth expected next spring.  I’m reading them in order, just in case I need to know something about protagonist/gardener Lawrence Kingston (there’s a good physical description of Kingston in the first book, The Blue Rose, but if you need a visual aid, check out the author’s photo on the inside back cover).

            What fun to see Hidcote Manor Garden featured so prominently in The Lost Gardens (as well as a good short history of Heligan).  Plants, gardens and garden history take center stage here, and the author, a rose specialist, takes great pleasure in making the plot turn on some horticultural aspect.  (Just this one small misstep:  In The Blue Rose, the author mentions “clematis tendrils.”  Clematis don’t have tendrils — grapes have tendrils, sweet peas have tendrils, clematis climb by twining their petioles — leaf stems — around a support.)

            I’m about halfway through The Lost Gardens, which takes place in Somerset (as did The Blue Rose); I await my afternoon cup of tea to find out what will happen next at Wickersham.