Advolly Richmond
The garden, landscape and social historian on the pleasures of research and how understanding plant history will make you a better gardener
Many gardens are created to be experienced in a particular order. The Villa d’Este in
Tivoli is a magnificent High Renaissance garden spread over terraces. The original entrance was at ground level, but now you enter via the villa at the top. When I visited with my daughter, I forced her to run down to the bottom entrance while taking in as little as possible! It was worth it to enjoy the gardens in the intended way, ending at the top with its breathtaking views of the Roman countryside.
Garden history is for everyone. It relates not only to gardens but also to places like cemeteries. The local park is a historical landscape that would have been given to the public by a 19th-century philanthropist. Garden history can help you become a better gardener. To understand where a plant has come from is to understand its optimum growing conditions.
First and foremost I am a historian. I’m happiest when researching because everything else I do stems from this, be it presenting, lecturing or podcasting. There’s nothing nicer than to sit surrounded by piles of books – ‘fortifications’ as my husband calls them
– and build a picture from a jigsaw of stories and facts.
One story I am particularly proud to have told was about the gardens at Alton Towers for an episode of Gardeners’ World. In 2019 the theme park got 2.1 million visitors, yet very few people have heard about its beautiful gardens.
I’m currently tackling two projects: The Garden History Podcast is an A to Z of people, plants, places and features that you might find in garden history, and we published ‘k’ for ‘kentia palm’ the other day. I’m also researching the life of Anglo-African botanist Thomas Birch Freeman for a biography that I’m in talks about writing.
I leave my garden alone over winter so the wildlife can enjoy its treasures. Then, in February, I cut it all back so I can enjoy my snowdrops. I’ve got over 70 dierent varieties and I’m particularly fond of the waed petals of ‘Diggory’. The little faces of snowdrops come out in even the harshest weather: they carry on regardless, which in my opinion is an excellent mentality. advolly.co.uk