Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Bob Flowerdew, Garden Celebrity
Yes, apparently that is the real name of a horticultural Big Star in England. Yesterday's WaPo featured him in a Style section front page article. He's one of the regular panelists on Gardener's Question Time on BBC Radio4. So howcome I never heard of him before? He seems an interesting guy, and exactly the kind of gardener I like - organic and curious. By curious, I mean that he's interested in investigating things for himself, not that he's an odd character (as if I would know that anyway).
I Googled the blogs before posting this because I was sure that it would be old and stale news by now, but I didn't see too many posts. A thoughtful one by Claire asks why we don't have national gardening celebrities on the same scale as England. Something to ponder, but when I read the WaPo article yesterday, I thought of Felder Rushing (mostly because the article mentioned Bob using old tires as planters). Felder does a radio show, but it's local to the Deep South. I think it's more difficult to be a national gardening celebrity here in the US because we have such a variety of climates and conditions here. And now we have such a variety of broadcast media, too. I don't watch HGTV, but I understand that People, Places, & Plants (a Northeastern US regional publication) has a show that's broadcast there, and one of the hosts is Roger Swain. You may remember him from the Victory Garden. Is anybody besides me old enough to remember the original Victory Garden show with Jim Crockett? I never watched the show much after he died. He was my first horticultural hero, I think. I still have a couple of his books and even refer to them occasionally. They were some of the first gardening books I ever owned.
Speaking of gardening books, I understand Bob Flowerdew has authored about 12 of them. I think I'll see what's available here in the US.
11 Comments:
Jim Crockett was my favorite. The show went down-hill in a hurry after his passing. He made me feel at ease. Other gardening show hosts have a tendency to make me feel like I'm either lazy or not doing it right. Maybe it's just me.
I used to listed to a gardening show on radio every weekend, on WWOR-AM out of NYC. It was hosted by Ralph Snodsmith, what a wonderful name! He sounded like Wally Peepers (remember him??). The fellow was a wellspring of gardening knowledge, I learned a lot listening to him.
Be well!
I also was interested in finding out about Mr Flowerdew from alamedagarden. I published a post yesterday on the subject. See what you think. thegoldengecko.blogspot.com
That is very true... there are some different areas of climate in the UK, of course, but not nearly the variety found here from coast to coast and border to border. I never thought of it that way before.
Gregor, I felt just the same way about Jim Crockett; that he was just a very nice man dispensing helpful advice.
Trey, I just left a comment over at your blog. Your point about the role of blogs is well taken. I thought of one place where one-way communication is welcome - I'm still going to read gardening books in the bathtub. Has anybody made a waterproof laptop yet?
Blackswamp_girl, I really admire your recent post on color in the garden.
I also watched Jim Crockett, along with Thalassa Cruso and the upstate New York duo of Larry & Anstace on 'From A Country Garden'. Thinking back to the middle years of the Victory Garden, the parts I loved best were the visits to the homes of real, do-it-yourself gardeners, like the guy in Buffalo with the gigantic compost sifter, or Trudi Temple's ever expanding borders in Illinois, Marcia with the bowling balls in California and the maniac dwarf conifer collector.
Well that's sort of what we do with our blogs, isn't it? We visit each other's gardens, sharing ideas and having conversations.
Annie, I had forgotten all about Thalassa Cruso. I never saw her on TV, but if I remember correctly, she had a popular book on indoor plants during the houseplant craze of the 70s. I got interested in horticulture through houseplants, but now I have exactly one - an ancient Schefflera.
Thalassa also wrote To Everything There Is A Season, one of those books that goes through the months until a year has passed. I picked up a copy at a library sale.
I was too new to gardening to really understand all that she did on the show, but she loved Clivia, and one of these days I'm going to try it!
Do you read BBC's Gardening World (like at Borders)? That's how I keep (ha, not really, but I try) up with them.
I don't think we have the huge national interest that they do in the UK. Which sounds strange since gardening is supposed to be THE leisure activity of baby boomers.
For instance, DH took me to Chelsea this year (a long time dream) and every night we hurried back to our hotel so I could watch the coverage (for an hour!) on tv! They only have like three stations (although they do import some American stuff....like 24, but are way behind) and one was covering the Chelsea Flower Show! Every night!
Then, I thought about it some more and wonderful as Chelsea was (and it was) think of all the grand garden shows we have here...Philadelphia, Seattle, San Fran, etc. And, at most, you can attend lectures by noteworthy garden celebs (?)...some from the UK. But, not at Cheslea...no lectures! The celebs (as far as I could tell) just acted as hosts for the evening show. That was nice, but I would have loved to have attended a lecture by Alan Titschmarsh, for instance.
Okay, sorry to go on so long...very thought provoking! I may just have to blog about it myself (oh, looks like I just did...above!)!
Gotta Garden: Lucky you!, getting to go to Chelsea. Did you do any other garden touring while you were there? DH and I attended Chelsea about 20 years ago, but we didn't allow for jet lag and the weather was nasty. I don't think I got the full experience. Have to go back sometime :-) We also went to the Phila Flower Show a few years ago. We expected that a weekday would be less crowded, and maybe it was, but it was really hard to get a good look at anything. Another problem is that I went to these shows with DH - and he's just not very into it.
I haven't read the BBC Gardening magazine, although I have noticed it on the newsstand. There was a really good English gardening magazine that put out a few issues and then went bust 7 or 8 years ago. Can't remember the name now, but they were into modern design - something along the lines of Garden Design, except with better writing.
I have a book of Bob Flowerdew's: No Work Garden, getting the most out of your garden with the least amount of work. A curmudgeonly, funny and sensible book. Although the heights of perfection achieved by growers of specimen veggies, flowers etc.that he decries competing at your local hort fair probably do not exist to the same extent here in Canada, do they?
Kati, that sounds like the book I should have bought. Instead I bought Bob Flowerdew's Companion Planting, and as I just finished it, I planned to blog something about it. Maybe later this weekend.
I know that horticultural contests are a big deal in England. We have our county fairs here, but I don't think the competition is as intense. Last year I posted a link to some pictures of a horticultural fair in England (from a knitting blog, of all things). I have to admit that I liked looking at the pictures, even if I never plan to grow anything so perfectly.
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