Virtual Grandmother Gardens

Since both of my grandmothers have long since passed away and Garden Maven Colleens’ grandmothers don’t have gardens, I decided to take you on a virtual tour of some famous grandmothers’ gardens. I first considered Gertrude Jekyll, but she never married, so she was never a grandmother. Then I thought about Ellen Biddle Shipman, about as far as I could tell, she never had children, so again, not a grandmother. I realized I would have to turn away from the garden designers and writers and move towards more of the traditional grandmothers who also loved to garden.

The first virtual trip is to the memorial garden in honor of the Queen Mother, grandmother to Prince Charles and Great Grandmother to Princes William and Harry. Queen Mother Memorial Garden. It is, like most gardens, a work in progress. The English love to garden and are experts, no doubt. This garden is quite lovely, as was the Queen Mother.

The next tour is of a relatively famous garden founded by a not so famous name, Ida Cason. Ida’s family began to garden decades ago at what we now know as Callaway Gardens. Callaway Gardens is a great educational garden. The virtual tour does a nice job of showing off its strongest points. I think an in-person visit in early spring would be a terrific compliment.

If you love lilacs, and who doesn’t? This is a site for you. Hulda Klager was widely know and loved as the Lilac Lady. Take a nice tour of her gardens at Hulda Klager Lilac Lady. You can almost smell the sweet blooms.

Coolcarrigan looks like a wonderful place to visit in Ireland. Since the property has been owned by the same family for 6 generations, one can assume many grandmothers had hands in the gardens. The shades of green in Ireland develop and remain intense due to the climate: moist, sunny and cool. Ireland is full of fabulous gardens, both public and private, and I’m quite sure grandmothers have a strong influence over most of them.

We like to think of grandmothers as wise and gentle. Their gardens should inspire us all.

by Garden Maven Peg

Was this information helpful? Support Growing Pleasures A Garden Club with a product purchase!

For more recommended trips, visit The Archives Pages