Where does our gardening influence's come from.

Not sure if this has been done before.

Has must people know on here I'm Clematis mad, but I've recently strarted getting back into Fuchsia's.
My late Father grow both, could I be influenced that way.

 

My gardens are still a work in progress, but apart from a couple of exceptions, the influences and additions I'm putting into them are all strongly based on nostalgia and fond memories.

• Fuchsias, from memories of the lovely hedge of them my grandmother kept outside her Glasgow tenement flat.
• Forsythia, cotoneaster horizontalis, buddleia, clematis, berberis darwinii, poppies, crocosmia.. all things I loved from my mother's family gardens I grew up playing in.

I "got lucky" in that a couple of things I would have put into the garden (clematis, fuchsia and berberis darwinii) were already mature and growing there! The other things I'm adding gradually as I start piecing the gardens together.

I actually still have poppy seeds from Mum's garden where the poppies self-seeded and cross-bred with each other into wild and fantastic colour variations, but I'm not sure if they'll grow because they're quite old now.. I hope they do. If not, I'll just have to start my own poppy dynasty!

 

No influences I can think of except some travels where I must have gotten my interest in growing palms, bamboos and other hardyish exotics. This then spilled into digging a fairly large pond with its bogplants and associated wildlife.
Still have too much lawn but replacing it with beds would take too much maintenance so lawn and palms it is.

 

Cant think I was really influenced by memories apart from growing veg, which my dad did when I was a kid.
Sort of moved on from veg, but still grow some.

Now my main interests are half hardy and exotic looking plants, mainly at first from books, later from seeing them grow in habitat.

Must admit the enthusiasm is not what it was, mainly because of time, and age.

 

Interesting idea Ian. Last year I was fortunate enough to be able to design and plant a courtyard garden. I decided to go for a Mediterranean theme as it is fairly sheltered and sunny in southern England. We worked hard to transform the soil and drainage. I chose Med style plants; grey foliage, alliums, cistus, poppies, lavender, sedums, euphorbias, etc and even a myrtle. I wanted an almond but settled for a cherry for practical/hardiness reasons as the centrepiece. It is wonderful and I realised afterwards that I had recreated / made in miniature my grandmother's real Mediterranean garden that I had known and loved as a child.......so without realising it I was creating a garden which is of great personal significance and realised that subconsciously how much influence my grandmothers garden had on me.

 

Think it has, but if so then some time ago and lots of new members since then.

We were all encouraged to have an interest in gardening by our Father (who's first actions on moving out of London was to get a greenhouse, Apple tree and cold frames for the garden), but I was the one who really took to grubbing around in the dirt, digging holes and pushing a fork though their foot (fortunately between my toes) and had my own little flower/veggie plot when I was 5.

His great passions were Tomatoes and Chrysanthemums (no interest in the latter), but I grow hundreds of tomatoes and dozens of varieties, and still remember tapping terracotta pots to check whether they required watering, side shooting, tying up, and picking duties (told off if no calyx attached!).

And I've solved the problem with what to do with excess apples, he only had 1 tree and we struggled to eat them all, I have about 20 trees and press/pasteurise/ferment the juice, plus pasteurise/dehydrate tomatoes.

 

An interest in vegetables came initially from my mother's oft repeated "If you can't eat it why grow it".
Other than that Christopher Lloyd's books, Gardeners Question Time, Plant and Planet by Anthony Huxley have influenced my choice of plants.

 

Hi Ian,

It's funny you starting this thread off now as my mom and me were talking about this the other day.

My favourites are Fuchsias ( no surprise there then ), of which my
nan and grandad had 2 massive ones, and the others are ones that I remember my nan and grandad growing, Carnations, Pinks, species Lilies such as Tigers and Paeonys.

 

My Dad We lived on Kettering loam and any twig stuck in the ground took root, so he built me a miniature garden on the end of the kitchen, with a lovely wooden house and a decent depth of soil laid on plastic sheet. Pottered for hours as a kid.... Then Christopher Lloyd's books, Beth Chatto, RHS, anyone's books.....(except Joe Swift!).
It was a given that when I met OH I'd transform his sad garden

 

My mum, she cant work so was home all the time when I was growing up, and always use to be in the garden(and still does) So I think I got my garden interest from her, plus I share loads more stuff in common with my mum.

I do like to have my own time too and gardening is a thing to do on my own with my own thoughts in the sunshine.

 

For me it definitely comes from my grandad on my mum's side, he was a very keen gardener with 2 allotments as well. I spent many days in my summer holidays watching and helping him.
Sadly he was not around to see when my interest reemerged and we got our first garden. I like to think he'd approve though.