November 2024 Talk: Andrew Babicz on Great Gardens of Great Britain

On Monday 18 November, we had our last meeting of 2024. Despite poor weather, it was well attended. Perhaps it was the mince pies, stollen and similar delights or maybe it was the “special” raffle prizes, including a hamper as the star prize. The Show Table was up to the usual standard and for sale there were the last of the tulip bulbs, a small plant sale and our lovely Christmassy cards.

Andrew Babicz gave a fascinating talk based on his extensive experience of great gardens in Britain, having worked in a variety of outstanding gardens himself – Inverewe Garden, Hampton Court, RHS Wisley and several London boroughs. He was Chief Recreation Officer for the London Borough of Redbridge and has also been involved in judging for the South and South East in Bloom Competition. His talk reflected on his knowledge and personal experience of a range of types of gardens in England and Scotland.

Originally from Hawick in the Scottish Borders, his interest in gardening was stimulated by his father who was a post-war immigrant from Poland who became head gardener at a care home.  Andrew began his horticultural career as an apprentice at the Inverewe Garden in the North West Scottish Highlands, later being awarded a degree in Horticulture from Edinburgh University.

Andrew started by asking what makes a great garden. He said people judge gardens on different criteria, referring to the landscape, types of plant there, their displays or the trials they hold – but also to their coffee shops. People also visit for relaxation or for educational purposes.

He illustrated a wide variety of gardens in England and Scotland including Benmore Botanic Gardens, Geoff Hamilton’s garden, Guildford Parks, RHS Harlow Carr, Hyde Hall, Inverewe Garden, Larch Cottage Nurseries in Penrith, Leven Hall Gardens in Cumbria, Logan Botanic Garden in Stranraer and the Edinburgh Royal Botanic Gardens.

For instance. he particularly liked Geoff Hamilton’s Barnsdale Gardens in Rutland, with its 19 small rooms, as it provided him and other visitors with ideas that they could replicate in their own gardens. He showed photographs of plants there grown in copper pots – an answer to warding off slugs as they hate copper!

He mentioned Inverewe Garden where he started, which has a mild climate similar to that found in Cornwall; both benefit from the influence of the warming Gulf Stream. Inverewe Garden thereby grows a wide range of exotic and tender plants, over 2000 of them. It also has a range of large trees and shrubs from all over the world such as Pines, Douglas firs and rhododendrons as well as having a large collection of Erythronium. Tree ferns grow there all the year round. Being near the coast, the gardeners are able to collect seaweed which makes excellent fertiliser.

Benmore Botanic Gardens is a satellite garden of Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh which, also being in the North West Highlands, experiences heavy rainfall.  It has an avenue of giant sequoias, the tallest in the country. Meconopsis grows there like a weed.  Crinodendrum hookeriana (Chilean Lantern Tree) is also grown there. Andrew also said if you like public park flower displays, Guildford Parks have excellent ones and at Levens Hall Gardens there is magnificent topiary.

At the end of the talk Andrew was asked which was his favourite garden. He said Biddulph Grange in Staffordshire, a Victorian quirky playful garden which, with its winding paths linking one section of the garden to another, was designed to entertain.

Andrew contributed a useful list of gardens worth visiting  particularly those in Scotland which CABAHS members may not be so familiar with. Scottish outstanding gardens are clearly well worth a visit if anyone is going on holiday to Scotland.

Angela B