The very first people to inspire me were my grandfather, father and a gardener employed in a flower nursery next door to our garden. I was 4 years old when the gardener and I first began talking to each other over a low cinder wall. He used to give me seedlings, cuttings and unwanted plants etc. Everything he gave me seemed to grow and I did manage to keep a sweet scented peach coloured garden pink going until I was in my 30s. Along with my father who gave me a piece of ground of my own, they encouraged me to garden and of course, success breeds success. From the age of about 10-11 yrs old I used Enid Blyton's book, Let's Garden, a monthly guide through the growing year, as a bible for many years, my first gardening book. It was so exciting to run down the garden after school to see if any plants had been dropped over the wall into my garden for me, it was like Christmas. I wish horticulture, linked in some way to art or biology possibly, had been suggested to me as a career, my working life would have been so much happier and satisfying and I would be so much more knowledgeable about gardening than I am now.
I love to read Christopher Lloyd and even though my garden would probably fit into the paved area outside his front door, I find him very inspiring, especially his attitude that the best time to do a garden job is when you feel like it!
I have the loveliest heuchera called Helen Dillon. I am sure that to have such an excellent little plant named after her, she must have been a wonderful gardener. 😁
Helen Dillon is a wonderful gardener. She lives in Ireland, in her 80s now.
Oh, thank you for this. 👍 I was pretty sure there was an Ireland connection as I saw a video of her talking about her garden there some yrs ago. I did not realise she was still alive though. Excellent. I hope she has the hechera named after her as it is an absolute gem.
I've stayed at Bressingham Hall on a number of occasions and the late Alan Bloom always came down and sat with us at breakfast and had a chat. Marvelous man, much missed. He's my inspiration.
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I wish horticulture, linked in some way to art or biology possibly, had been suggested to me as a career, my working life would have been so much happier and satisfying and I would be so much more knowledgeable about gardening than I am now.