By Patti Spezaferro
“The most noteworthy thing about gardeners is that they are always optimistic, always enterprising, and never satisfied. They always look forward to doing something better than they have ever done before.” …
Vita Sackville West
Last year, I was lucky enough to travel to England with a wonderful group of garden enthusiasts. One of our garden stops was Vita Sackville West’s magical Sissinghurst in Kent. Writers Vita and her husband Harold Nicolson bought the 450-acre property in the 1930s when the buildings on the site were used to house farm workers who harvested cereals, fruit trees, and hops.
Their always optimistic, always enterprising and never satisfied attitude transformed this humble property into a world-class garden studied and admired by thousands of people worldwide with over 200,000 yearly visitors. Harold designed the hardscape and Vita filled the garden with wonderful plant material. Vita was the first garden designer to create a white garden that I had the privilege of witnessing its splendor with awe. Five acres of 450 would eventually contain an internationally respected plant collection with a particularly outstanding assortment of old garden roses that possess the most glorious perfumed scents. Garden writer Anne Scott-James considered the roses at Sissinghurst to be “one of the finest collections in the world”.
If you do happen to go, I highly recommend booking the 16th-century priest house on the property and strolling Sissinghurst in the early morning when the sun is coming up before the tourist buses descend upon it each day. It is Vita’s disciplined perspective on gardening that I find so valuable and try to adopt this attitude in my own garden and in my own life.
Until I can go back again to Sissinghurst, this month you will find me continuously deadheading, removing suckers below grafted bud unions, picking up and disposing of all dropped leaves, collecting petals for my potpourri, fertilizing, weeding, and general clean up.
Jim Crowther still has fertilizer should you need some. You may contact him to place your order.
And finally, this month, I invite you to the PRS Weekly Zoom Social Chat hour every Thursday at 2 pm to get ideas, watch members tour their rose garden, build community, and learn something new. I will be sending out weekly reminder emails.
If you missed last month’s Monthly Membership meeting you can catch Karen Flores demonstrate floral arrangements in the resources page under videos. Her talents are not to be missed. Our next Zoom monthly membership meeting is set for Tuesday, August 18th, and will feature Diana and Steve Steps who will present a thirty-minute talk on the story of The Peace Rose which was hybridized by Francis Meilland and they will also speak on the love of the families who gave it life. This incredible story of love and passion for roses includes slides and documents from its birthplace in Lyon, France.
Like Sissinghurst, our Zoom monthly meetings and our weekly chats will leave you delighted, your mind refreshed, and your spirits lifted and your heart filled with thankfulness in having found a strong and welcoming community to share your love of roses. Until then, don’t forget to smell the roses.