June Meeting: A Year in Paradise – Eythrope Gardens through the seasons

The next meeting is on Monday 3rd June. Doors open from 7pm for a 7.30 start.

Some members may remember a young Daniel Jones who gave us a short talk some years ago when he was still a student. We are delighted to welcome him back to Colwall to hear from him as a professional gardener.

I started my horticultural career in the gardens of Madresfield Court in Worcestershire before completing my apprenticeship in Botanical Horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, supported by the Percy Picton Memorial Fund, followed by the RHS Level 4 Diploma at RHS Garden Wisley. Following the completion of my training, I was appointed Head Gardener at Morton Hall Gardens in Worcestershire before starting my current role as Assistant Gardener Manager at Eythrope Gardens in Buckinghamshire, leading the team overseeing the productive and ornamental kitchen garden on behalf of the Rothschild Foundation at Waddesdon Manor. In the talk ‘A Year in Paradise’ I wish to share with you a unique and very special productive garden maintained on a scale rarely found in gardens today. 

The magnificent gardens at Eythrope in Buckinghamshire were created by Alice de Rothschild (1874-1922) in the late 19th century. Miss Alice was a passionate and knowledgeable horticulturalist, renowned for her perfectionism and innovation.  Under the stewardship of the late Lord and Lady Rothschild, the garden was transformed and restored in collaboration with Lady Mary Keen in the 1990’s. It was an ambitious project, restoring the garden to its former late 19th-century glory, complete with glasshouses, fruit trees, a topiary garden, herbaceous borders and large vegetable garden. The garden is maintained to the highest standard and uses both traditional and modern techniques to fulfil its original function of supplying flowers and produce to the family at Waddesdon Manor. A person in a garden

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