My gardening world
Sam has created hairstyles for some of the world’s most iconic figures, from Kate Moss to the late Princess Diana. Over the past nine years, he has turned his creativity to his own back garden
Where did your love of gardening start? It happened about 15 years ago. I was sitting in a deckchair in Regents Park and thought how lovely the flowers were and how it was funny that I had been in that spot in the 1980s for a London club scene party, I think it was Davina McCall’s birthday, and I hadn’t noticed any of the roses. Then I met garden designer Jo Thompson and we became good friends through the process of creating my garden.
Why are so many in the fashion world drawn to gardening?
If you have a creative mind and your eye is drawn to beauty, you are more likely to get into gardening. I send Kate Moss plants twice a year – tulips for Christmas and dahlias in summer. I pick flowers to match the friend – for example, I’ve sent Kate ‘Black Parrot’, ‘La Belle Époque’ and ‘Angelique’ tulips, as they have romantic, feminine colours and are a bit Gothic.
How does your garden make you feel?
In the morning I do my yoga and then gardening – it feels like there is a real flow from one to the other. Gardening for me feels nurturing and peaceful. It makes the idea of renewal and hope a visual thing. I’ve been looking after my seedlings like babies this year.
What does gardening give you that your profession doesn’t?
My job deals with many people, but I am on my own in the garden, it’s the ying to my work yang – I only have to answer to nature. Learning plant names has helped my memory, too. Learning
something new is important for those of a certain age. If you had told me I’d been doing this 20 years ago, I wouldn’t have believed it.
What do you bring from the fashion world into your gardening?
I like organised chaos, nothing too complicated or carefully arranged. Like hairstyling, you need a basic structure and discipline, then you break the rules. If I like it, it goes in – there is no such thing as too many plants.
Has the lockdown changed how we view gardens and green spaces?
Yes, I think we have all become more appreciative of green spaces and I hope that we, government included, continue this respect by looking after our parks and the countryside.
What do you love about your garden?
I have flowers for all but six weeks at the end of the year, and now have 3,500 tulips. I’ve started pulling out shrubs to make way for more dahlias. It’s time to get a bigger garden.
Will we worry less about appearances after the lockdown is over?
No, there will be a mad rush to the salons, it will be a blooming business. People will want pampering. But what needs to open first are the garden centres, which are suffering – we could respect restrictions as we do in supermarkets. ◼ Follow Sam on Instagram at @ sammcknight1