About halfway through a fascinating article about a botanic garden on the Isle of Wight I’d never heard of – I’ve never heard of any gardens on the Isle of Wight – I wondered idly if the piece would ever end. I kept scrolling and scrolling with continued interest as I absorbed all the conflicts and personalities surrounding Ventnor Botanic Garden, which was taken over by American businessman John Curtis in 2012.
Turns out this piece, Mark O’Connell’s Battle of the botanic garden: the horticulture war roiling the Isle of Wight, was one of the Guardian’s “long reads,” at 6,000-plus words. Which is not really all that long, but still, refreshingly comprehensive.
Ventnor under Curtis is being transformed into a self-perpetuating ecosystem, where the exotic plants that thrive in its warmer-than-usual microclimate are allowed to seed themselves about, without much intervention from the gardeners who work there. The plants include species native to South American, Australian and African locations, which stay alive thanks to their protected location, said to be 5 degrees Centigrade warmer than the British average.
There’s no question that all the plants I saw in the article – photographed outside in December – would have to be under glass in Buffalo.
Anyway, the whole thing is highly controversial and the story is populated with a fun assortment of eccentrics. Read it for yourself. The Guardian is still free, but, after enjoying this and many, many other Guardian stories, I finally caved in to the little request they always have at the end and subscribed.
The writer’s attitude was interesting. He listened to everyone and faithfully included lengthy quotes, but you could tell that he thought the place was – overall – pretty cool. He took note of visitors, mainly seniors, who make repeated trips to the place, loving it despite the lack of labels, uncollected plant debris and generally less-than-kempt appearance.
You’ll recall that the Beatles note the Isle of Wight as a good place to check out when you’re 64.
Professional gardeners and others with advanced horticultural expertise seem to be the main complainers about the Ventnor’s increasingly wild appearance.
I’m not sure. I would probably want a few labels or some sort of signage if the plants are that exotic. You can cover a lot of plants with just one sign.
But I’ve always declined to use labels in my own garden. I don’t care how well they’re designed; I just don’t like them.
And I allow some reseeding, especially with eupatorium (boneset) which provides fall flowers easily. Otherwise, though, I pick up litter, including leaves, for the city compost truck. It just looks crappy and tends to bury early bulbs and emerging perennials otherwise. But we’ve been through all that.
My main point? Read the article. You’ll enjoy it, regardless of whether you have heard of Ventnor or ever intend to visit it.
Way cool article.
Thanks for sharing the article. It was an interesting read!
I’ve been following louise_1ness@instagram for views of her wonderful garden on the Isle of Wight. I recommend.
thank you for bringing this article to our attention. It would seem that a garden necessarily involves human manipulation of the environment, but to what end? I would hope there is room at Ventor for the 2 camps, perhaps by setting aside a certain number of acres for the highly structured/manipulated/groomed approach to satisfy those who crave control over nature. People tend to be resistant to change and to what is not familiar and this article illustrates that in the botanical context.
Thank you!
It’s impossible to judge from the article whether this is an over reaction by a lot of the Neat and Tidy Brigade or a genuine loss of a Botanical Garden (which is, after all, a very particular kind of garden).
But what I loathed was the horrible ageism of the piece. What IS that about?!
I don’t think there’s an easy answer to that–the acknowledgement of which is one of the things I liked about the article. As a senior myself, I didn’t really see the ageism, but I totally get why others’ mileage would vary there.
“As a senior myself” caught my attention. Zooming in on your picture shows a (very) few laugh lines of a happy soul. I just always thought you were in your late thirties/early forties from your thumbnail photo.
As the saying goes “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!”
As to the agism of the area. Just another town with small children and older folks.
As the kids grow up, many (most) of them move out to seek their fortune in a bigger city with more jobs/better opportunities.
It is the reason so many towns and small cities from the Midwest of the US to beautiful picture perfect villages in Portugal and Italy are advertising for people to move in and help keep the area a going concern.
Impressive that folks are concerned enough about their towns and proactive and creative enough to help them grow.
Haha, thanks! That is a professional photo and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some professional photoshopping.
Now, I’m intrigued. I want to visit someday.
Yes, an interesting article about an important debate: neat/tidy vs wild/messy, accept change vs resist change, leave-it-alone vs garden nature, etc. Sure, ageism is a factor, but the condescending attitude of Brits toward Americans trumps it. Not altogether unwarranted, I suppose.
I marvel that Curtis is able to shrug off the hostility of the community about his effort. Lucky for the community, he is not thin-skinned. As he observes, “regime change” is unlikely to benefit the garden because the dying town can’t do better.