EXTRAORDINARY GARDENS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Margaret Abbott, volunteer garden lecturer and tour guide
Monday 16–Wednesday 18 January
1.00 pm
COURSE FEES R330
This course will explore a number of unusual gardens, horticultural practices and motifs as well as several specific plants that have captured the world’s imagination. The lectures are intended to be ‘gardentainment’ and will be richly illustrated with many slides, but will also include the history, backstories and details that make the genre of gardens so compelling. We will look at the long romantic history of the rose and her many suitors, explore the macabre practice of bonsai and its first cousin topiary, and then will examine the madness of orchids, their astonishing variety and reach, as well as some of the intrepid explorers who risked their lives to find them.
Lecture titles
1. The rose and her many suitors
2. Torture and disfigurement in the plant kingdom
3. The madness of orchids