Are plants for the rich or for the poor? There seems to be a moral minefield around this question and I’m struggling to keep up with where we’re supposed to be on the issue.
Hello; my name’s Ben and I’ve just spent some time on Twitter. Now I’m annoyed and ready to rant!
How I got here.
Readers around the world will probably be familiar with the BBC’s gardening show called Gardeners’ World. It’s a generally amiable programme hosted by Monty Don and his small collection of dogs, with other presenters who visit gardens around the UK. Granted, not exactly ‘challenging viewing’ but it provides warm Friday night solace for its viewers, gardeners and non-gardeners alike.
The episode that aired on Friday the 17th of March 2023 visited The Linn Botanic Gardens in Scotland, formerly one of the only private botanical gardens in the world. It was established by Dr Jim Taggart in 1971, and developed with his son Jamie until Jamie’s tragic disappearance on a botanical expedition to Vietnam back in 2013. Jim Taggart died in 2019 at the age of 84 and the garden, with its nearly 4,000 species, faced an uncertain future.
Linn is now under new ownership, in the hands of Matthew Young and his young family. This appears to have annoyed a small but vocal section of Britain’s gardening Twitterati.
I’m not sure what’s annoyed them the most; the fact that the family used to live in Barbados, that they had enough money to buy an overgrown botanical garden, or the fact that the BBC’s gardening show decided to feature this new venture instead of another segment about potatoes or sweet peas.
Bicton Garden in Devon, a different Botanical Garden
A lot of it is jealousy that someone has the money to buy a nice home and an interesting garden while they grow a few vegetables and annuals in their small gardens. While I sort-of sympathise (it would be my dream project too!) life deals us our cards; sometimes we get lucky and sometimes we don’t. Would these people prefer Mr Young and his family spent their money on private jets and fancy cars, rather than salvaging an important garden from dereliction?
It got me thinking…
I’ve had run-ins with people who accuse me of being out of touch with what it means to be a ‘real gardener’. I’m not entirely sure what this means, but I think it means that in order to be a ‘real gardener’ you must grow vegetables and annuals every year.
After my household bills are paid I buy plants and books (usually second hand, usually about plants!), but I work right through the year with no holidays, don’t own an expensive car, and I don’t go to restaurants etc. Not really an ‘affluent lifestyle’….
I live and breathe gardening. I don’t do gardening in the way the gardening Twitterati would have me do; I spend my time maintaining and creating gardens, and improving my knowledge and understanding. Yes I’m interested in ornamental plants, and for ‘social activist gardeners’ this appears to suggest I’m part of some vague and sinister elite. Guess what! I grow ornamental plants in my garden because I work long days and don’t have the time to spare nurturing vegetables and annuals. I plant things in my garden and they get on with it.
Please only look at this plant if you’re wealthy
…are ornamental plants for the rich?
What sort of a ludicrous question is this? Plants don’t care who you are providing that you can give them what they need. They care what’s around them if they get squashed or if another plant steals their water, but have no opinions on how many other plants you grow.
Plants don’t care if they’re growing in a private garden or a public park, if you had to pay an admission fee to see them or if you wandered in off the street. And they don’t care if they were cheap or expensive to buy.
Please only view this plant if you’re NOT wealthy
Why do some people feel the need to suggest that only wealthy people in society can get pleasure from certain types of plant?
Yes, it’s usually the more financially secure who can establish a garden themselves, and thus it’s these people who get the most pleasure out of plant ownership. There are plants everywhere, in parks, gardens, on streets, in shops, online, in books… you can look at plants, enjoy them and learn all about them without buying them!
I know many professional gardeners, people like myself, who primarily work in other people’s gardens rather than having a garden of their own. But, and this is a big ‘but’, their knowledge and enthusiasm is far greater than that of their employers! They, we, garden vicariously through the gardens of our employers.
It’s also entirely possible to derive enormous pleasure from seeing plant in parks, arboreta and any other public place without owning the garden.
The idea that ornamental plants are primarily the preserve of the wealthy is ridiculous, but seems to be the assumption made by a great number of individuals and gardening organisations.
But wealthy people like gardening too…
Yes, indeed they do! They have the luxury of larger gardens and larger plant buying budgets too, but they don’t have a monopoly on passion and knowledge! Appreciating plants is one of the last truly universal things that everyone can enjoy without reference to rank or status; a good plant is a good plant whether you own it or are just looking at it.
Trees we can all look at and admire
Now I’ve got this off my chest I’m not going back to Twitter for a while. To Mr Young and his family I say this: I wish you the best of luck in your new home, and that you share the passion for the garden that Jim and Jamie felt before you.
And to the gardening Twitterati I say this: you really don’t want to see how Koos Bekker spent £9 million in four years to create the garden at The Newt in Somerset…
Being on the other side of the pond in the U.S., I think some of the criticism that was brought up is lost on me since Americans aren’t as class conscious as those in the U.K. (Maybe expat Marianne W can “translate”?) I think another ranter brought up a similar theme on galanthophiles vs galanthomaniacs.
Well that’s certainly good news to me, and long may the US gardening scene remain clean of class-consciousness! It’s still an issue here, and quite frankly shouldn’t be; sure it pays to have a healthy bank balance if you want to do something big and expensive with your garden, but jealousy towards those who are in that position is unhealthy.
(And it was me who did the Galanthophiles vs. Galanthomaniacs thing; I assure you this isn’t my only horticultural interest!)
Linus – not so much an ex-pat, just a foot in both worlds with dual nationality. I don’t know the ins and outs of this story (and it makes me want to find out a little more without delving into mood-altering Twitter – you’re brave Ben!), but it’s probably fair to say that envy is at the heart of a great deal of uttered annoyances in the gardening community, either in the UK or US. Sure it’s masked by the usual veils of concern or legacy or whatever makes your heart feel more righteous in your indignation, but at the end of the day, it’s just envy. “What I would do with that money…” (with my knowledge, my experience, etc.) is made even more righteous when you can find a few more people/experts with which to share your ire. It’s very human, but it’s not healthy. Overcoming this state really made up the basis of my first book.
As Ben said, we should celebrate the fact that a young (!) family wants to sink a fortune into a legacy garden, but the fact that they are a) young; and b) rich; and perhaps most annoyingly, c) giving a damn – well, we’ve got to find something wrong with that or the universe is unfair. I’m with Ben. More power to them. Here in Loudoun County, VA, most people who want to lose a few million dollars in the space of a couple years buy a winery or a horse farm. – MW
I have been a cheapskate all my life so that one day I could own even just a postage stamp-sized garden. My obsession with saving money made that happen. And continued. Which meant I eventually was able to trade up said postage stamp to a yard. Than a 10-acre farm. I worked my ass off to get here. All while spending next to nothing to build up my garden via swaps and sales and cuttings and patience.
I laugh at people who make baseless and wide-sweeping statements disparaging peoples’ successes, people envious of those who often simply worked hard to do well for themselves over their lifetime. It is pure envy, based on their own presumptions so they can quickly assume the victim position. It’s so obvious that it makes them easy to ignore. But man they are freaking exhausting.
It does seem rather unfair to me. One of the families I work for has a similar sort of story: they came from nothing, lived in a one bedroom flat (apartment) above a fish and chip shop with their baby daughter, took an opportunity, worked very hard as a family, and at retirement they were able to buy a nice big house in the countryside with a big garden. They’re eternally grateful to the people who gave them opportunities, but ultimately they did the hard work.
I understand the frustration felt by so many in society. I also know that it’s not just hard work that gets us places; some people are lucky and don’t have to work hard, some people work incredibly hard for their whole lives and seem to get nowhere, and some people work very hard and have a little bit of luck along the way and are able to change their worlds. It’s how life is. I’m glad that your situation has allowed you to own your 10 acre farm; I bet you love that place with all your heart, and not a single blade of grass is taken for granted.
Hi Ben, your “comments” make so much refreshing sense. In a world were habitats and species are disappearing due to climate change causing environmental stresses I applaud anyone who undertakes a project as large, ambitious and difficult as the Young family. I live near Linn botanic gardens on the Isle of Bute and although not as grand and large as these gardens I have spent the last 15 years developing, landscaping and planting a garden with a diverse range of unusual and interesting plants so I know challenges. I can’t wait to see the finished product or observe the progress of the restoration when the gardens are open to the public. A place like this could be aside from being educational an inspiration to all gardeners. Mr M Markov, Isle of Bute.
Thank you for your comments. I applaud the new owner of Linn for taking on the challenge of bringing the place back to its botanical glory. These sorts of projects take resources, and to have someone willing to use what they’ve got on something so special, as opposed to sweeping it all away to ‘make their mark’ is something I think we should all applaud.
And support.
Actually, Linus, class (caste?) consciousness in the garden persists here in the southeastern US. There’s a population, often older, that eschews certain types of plants. These plants are often passalong-types, easily shared (free), and usually with bold foliage. Palms, cannas, musas, crinum, aspidistra, agave, and others of tropical origin come to mind. Said “gardeners” prefer tiny, glossy leaves, often of Japanese origin; camellias and azaleas are the mark of a genteel southern garden. Not that these gardeners knows what’s Japanese; what they know is that the tropicals originate in areas populated by brown people and have typified African American gardens for decades.
You anticipated my comment. Class and race permeate the US gardening world, and not just in the South. Look at the overwhelming Whiteness of garden clubs and societies, except for those explicitly founded by Black people. Look at the general absence of Black faces from gardening magazines, or the way Black gardeners are presumed to occupy only impoverished urban spaces. I’m observing this as an older white woman gardener and cultural/social anthropologist. Let’s keep this conversation going.
Adding on to the class and race divide in the gardening world in the US. It exists and it is very real. The two prior commenters have given great examples.
It’s very much a thing in the UK too.
Very interesting read – am a keen gardener in the Scottish Highlands trying to create a garden abundant in diversity and wildlife whilst being ‘careful’ not to introduce ‘alien’ species.
My advice here is the more ‘native’ you go, the more ‘disciplined’ you need to be with your design.
The more wild, or wild-looking the garden, the more important it is to have a few things that prove to the casual observer that this is a garden. A dead-straight path mown through long grass is a very powerful design statement, and the use of any art or sculpture should be equally precise. Even something as simple as a clipped yew shape in a froth of flowers will make a strong statement that this is your garden and that things are how you want them to be.
Also make sure you have a copy of ‘Some Branch Against The Sky’ by Geoffrey Dutton.
That’s interesting. It must be regional (or generational). I’ve lived in Texas all my life (and all over it), and gardeners here love the more tropical (towards Houston) and the more desert types (Agapanthus and Plumbago spring to mind – towards Dallas).
I mean, just look at a Southern Living magazine and you can see it plainly.
Just ridiculous generalization that older southeastern gardeners don’t appreciate pass along plants and that attribute makes for a caste system in gardening. I see older white southeastern gardeners at plant and seed exchanges. I had no idea gardening magazines even existed anymore with so much having gone digital. But when I did look at those magazines in the past, I was looking at the photos of the gardens not the humans.
My first reaction to the GW piece was less about wealth and.more about ignorance; the sight of Mr Young wandering around cheerfully planning to get rid of the seeds sown in the greenhouse and noting that he’d probably stood on something valuable horrified me.
I imagine that the BBC is hoping for another Heligan, or perhaps this was a shout out to alert the experts; GW reaches a wide audience. Either way,I do hope he’ll use his wealth to get some expert advice,or maybe contact a university to assist.
On the more general topic of wealth and gardens,it’s worth remembering that without super rich,plant mad underwriters, the likes of Tradescant,Fortune,Forrest and Wilson wouldn’t have been able to explore and bring back the plants that form the backbone of English gardens; come to that, we wouldn’t have the ‘ big house gardens ‘ often curated for generations to conserve the rarities. Likewise public parks and botanic gardens were often bankrolled by the rich.
You make a valid point about ownership – there’s an acquisitiveness amongst gardeners which blinds some to anything but ‘must have’ , which loses sight of the time,skill and passion required to create a beautiful place regardless of size or budget.
I got the impression that the seeds in the greenhouse had been neglected, and realistically anything that had made an appearance probably died of drought while the property was unoccupied. I think the thing about accidentally standing on something was probably meant as a joke, although in a place as overgrown as Linn it would be easy to miss something. I myself accidentally snapped a Magnolia that I hadn’t see in one of my gardens; the garden was similarly overgrown and as I came down the ladder something went snap.
I gather through my plant network that there have been beneficial connections with interested parties about the restoration of the garden. The previous owners had forged links with institutions and private individuals, and such groups will have taken an interest in the place if only through curiosity. It will be interesting to see how the restoration develops, but also how things progress. I think the mark of success will come in what’s planted for the future as much as what is salvaged of the past.
Indeed there is a great history of gardening driven by wealthy landowners, and so many things grown now were first introduced thanks to their craving new plants. I’ve long been irritated by those who collect plants so they can feel important!
It seems people have to be mad about something these days! Rich or not so rich gardening is for all! Thanks for your article.
You’re certainly right there!
Thank you for reading.
Yes…..it does seem like people are mad about something or anything these days. It’s part of the reason for why this country is in a state of angry division. From gardening to wind farms, handouts to hand ups and everything inbetween. I’m grateful for every garden I see regardless of how wealthy or poor the gardener is.
Oh yes!
So many wonderful gardens around.
Just an aside Ben – that liriodendron is as common as common ’round here. I sure do wish it meant I had great wads of disposable cash each time I glanced at a flower – or pulled 6.7 million seeds out of my gutters each fall and spring. 😉 – MW
A poor choice on my part, but the one in the picture is Liriodendron tulipifera ‘Contortum’, flowering nicely but generally a bit of a pointless tree! I’ve found one for sale in the UK that’s 2ft tall and £195.00 (plus shipping, which is an added insult!).
It’s funny how perceptions vary though; we treasure Liriodendron in the UK and usually spend £20-£30 on young trees here while you’re trying to stop them forming a modern ‘hanging garden of Babylon’ in your gutters!
Not being a watcher of Gardeners World, nor having seen a Twitter Spat following it, I’m somewhat in the dark as to what this is about. Intrigued I had a look at the Twitter handle for the garden and I see in capital letters “MARXIST GARDENING”. I don’t know if someone is being ironic here but now I’m really interested. What the hell is Marxist gardening ?
Absolutely no idea!
And how many of the readers immediately looked up The Newt in Somerset? I did.
I assure you I’m not on commission from them! It’s an interesting place; lots of very beautiful new buildings, artisan-built paving, lots of new plants and a sense of direction… yet somehow rather emotionally cold and uneasy, as though there’s a lot more to a garden than money could ever buy. I’m hoping to go back in a few years to see how things have changed; my guess, my hope, is that it will have lost some of its ‘perfection’ and gained a load more personality.
Try this re the Newt: https://thinkingardens.co.uk/reviews/hadspen-aka-the-newt-in-somerset-by-anne-wareham/? Ben’s right.
The expression ‘there’s always someone worse off than you’ should encourage people to be grateful for what they have. Who wouldn’t love their own botanical garden? But then how many love their own much smaller and personalized gardens that they personally created? I am very thankful to those who are wealthy enough to create, maintain and rescue these beautiful spaces but it doesn’t keep me from appreciating smaller spaces. It’s all relative.
Absolutely; there will always be people better off AND worse off, but a love of gardens and gardening is still a unifying thing for us all.
I work in gardens ranging from tiny up to over 10 acres, yet each garden has its charms and also its flaws. All of the gardens are loved by their owners, which means a lot to me.
Hasn’t there always been a fine line between the farmer and the gardener? When you farmed to survive no land could be given over to flowers or ornamental plantings. So success was demonstrated when ground could be set aside for the flowers.Thus you were “rich enough” to grow such a luxury. Now few gardeners even know a farmer.
Yes, broadly. The rise of modern living changed our relationships with gardens and gardening; as more and more people piled into offices and factories it changed how we as people relate to the land. People who tradtionally worked on the land and spent what spare time they had growing food found themselves now found themselves in what we would recognise as the ‘modern way of life’. Barring the war years the working classes have largely been able to enjoy the luxury of growing flowers not food.
I have always envied the English gardeners ever since I saw Lord So and So standing in his compost dressed in tall leather boots, tweed and a cap holding his shovel..the compost “bin” was of course the size of a horse stall and was one of many such bins. Now whether he actually performed manual labor I dont know, but the English gardens whether formal or casual are assumed to be the product of a wonderful damp moderate climate that we in the US can only envy. And the characters in English novels with their seaside gardens! Stereotypes perhaps but a source of envy.
I assure you that these people are very much a minority! British gardens are on the whole fairly humble, as I suspect most American gardens are, but they are usually loved by their owners. Overwhelmingly ‘low input’ gardens are the thing here as so many people have other draws on their time, and ornamental plants certainly help in that respect. There are community growing projects across the country and people on low incomes can rent allotments to grow fruit and vegetables, but on the whole private gardens tend to be more for ornamental plants now.
I’m with Linus. I couldn’t quite understand what the fuss what about. Here in the Buffalo-Niagara area (Western New York State in the U.S.), people have all kinds of gardens. They have ornamentals, fruits, vegetables, native plants, etc. There are formal gardens, gardens that fill a tiny front yard, gardens full of food, gardens that feed pollinators, gardens with a bit of everything. Nobody looks down on someone else who doesn’t grow the same kind of plants. In fact, they get ideas from each other. People can visit about 500 private gardens–for free–during the summer. You’ve probably already heard about them from Elizabeth Licata. Come visit us some time. See more here. https://www.gardensbuffaloniagara.com/
I looked up the story on line about his missing son. I somehow thought from your article he was a young boy but he was a grown man. So very mysterious. It reminded me of a book a read long ago; I think the title was The Orchid Thief. Not to say his son was an orchid thief, just that it brought back the feelings of being in a jungle and the dangers involved. How very sad.
It was a sad story, and one that weighed heavily on his father for the rest of his life. Plant hunters travel to some very remote and dangerous places to collect seed, and sometimes don’t come home. Michael Wickenden, also from Scotland, died on an expedition, and so many have stories of injuries or bandits. I was at an online lecture about exploration and the speaker showed us a picture of his friend who was suffering from altitude sickness; apparently it’s customary to take a ‘last photograph’ for friends and family if someone gets ill, just in case.
I’ll be honest, it doesn’t appeal to me!
I was nosy and looked on right move. They got it for £275k so maybe not the millions many might have been expecting?
No that is quite a lot less than you’d expect.
A couple of years ago I met an estate agent who was valuing a place I was working on. I asked what sort of percentage of the asking price was down to the mature garden; his response was that the house would be worth more without the garden! Apparently people buying houses tend to see large and/or mature gardens as ‘too much work’ and prefer large houses with small gardens.
I was quite surprised.
We had to get a valuation for insurance, and were told the value (house and garden) was nothing. Rather tongue in cheek but for the same reason: the garden.
It’s a bit depressing isn’t it?
Yes!
My oh lives nearby. The house required extensive renovations, so that’s where the money’s needed. We visited when it was in a sorry state, not realising that Jim Taggart had died, and it was uninhabitable. A local family bought it initially, but found it too big a project, so it was put on the market again. We would have loved to buy it, but we’d have had nothing to spend on making it liveable again…
I am from Nova Scotia. I laughed with your article. I found myself thinking, how Fortunate that this family can take over and care for this beautiful life project of love for a father and son. Nature is for everyone. I love “twitterati”.
The place was loved before by its previous owners and I’m sure will be loved again by its new owners.
Ben, KayakKaren from Nova Scotia again. We have watched Midsommer Murders. We know how Krazy English gardeners can get. (And she laughed!)
I too have seen Midsommer Murders… property must be very cheap in that part of the UK with all those murders!
Living in Vancouver Canada where even the most modest of houses commands an asking price of two million dollars, the sentiment increasingly is that anyone (hello Boomer) selfish enough to own a house and garden, does so at the expense of densification and all the apartments that could be built on that 7000 square foot bit of land. A garden?! Even worse, gasp, an ornamental non food garden?! Move ye to a seniors home!
Best not to ever divulge your house and garden status on twitter in this neck of the woods.
Crikey, I won’t be moving to Vancouver any time soon!
As a professional gardener my work involves gardening for people who are better off financially than me, and in my previous job I was selling plants to people who could afford more plants than I could. Jealousy on my part would have made work very hard! I can understand what goes through people’s minds when they see other people living the life they dream of, but by the same token it’s not healthy to obsess.
I am from Turkey and all those plants, mentioned in the garden of rich and wanting to be important people, are easily grown in our climate. All of them can be seen not only in the gardens but also in the front of the windows.I think that inaccessible things are valuable, so plants that are thought to be inaccessible (like expensive and difficult to grow in the climate) are tried to be turned into a collection for those who can reach them (for example, rich people). I agree with Mr. Ben, this can be frustrating sometimes, especially for those who know how to grow plants and who consider themselves as gardeners.
Yes people do like to know what is hidden behind closed doors, and it is also interesting to grow plants that do not like the local climate.
I am glad that you can see lots of beautiful plants. It is important to make sure that everyone can enjoy as many plants as possible. Loving the natural world, whether in nature or in gardens, should be a right for everyone.
Pleasure gardens were always made for the rich. Exotics that ne3ded hothouse, even more so. Its only very recently in historical terms that the rest of us could have the luxury of a garden full of pretty plants.
Very true.
Just in case you don’t know, Monty Don has tweeted your article on there and it’s getting lots of love and comments x
Thank you.
I think good on the guy for taking on the project, the place was up for sale £300k. It needs someone with both passion and money to bring it back. It’s going to look stunning.
I agree! I look forward to seeing how it pans out.
Perhaps wealthy gardeners are more subject to vitriol because so many open their gardens to the rest of us — it’s rare that they let us traipse through their drawing rooms, at least here in the US. Americans might be more class conscious if we saw how the 1% actually live. It’s the main reason I stopped buying “shelter” magazines—they were too envy producing. And as for twitter….
An interesting idea, and plausible too.
I so enjoy your writing, Ben. Living in a ‘less than salubrious’ area of a provincial town in New Zealand I propogate and share freely all the flowering plants (and veg):possible to support those who do not have resources to buy plants and to ensure my beautiful environment extends to all possible areas because I know the difference afew flowers make to one’s day.
Please keep ranting this logic…it makes our world a better place.
Thank you.
There’s so much beauty in the world. I passed a Forsythia a few days ago; each little flower was in perfect condition and I just had to pause and appreciate it. This plant made me happy even though it was owned by someone else and was in their garden, not mine.
100% in your camp, here, Ben. I’m also a professional gardener (in USA) who vicariously enjoys many a plant I do not own. The plants don’t care, it’s true! But, they do respond to care, and it’s a privilege to be able to be in the position of caring for them; possibly more privileged to be the care giver than the owner. Many a day I marvel that I’m paid to play. Meanwhile the owners linger indoors, taking care of the myriad details of their wealth.
I once marched a couple out of their house to go and see a Magnolia that was looking absolutely perfect; I’d taken photographs of it and lavished attention on it, but there was no way they were going to miss it!