Friday Features’
Guest talks about
Gardens she loves and her new book
by
Caroline Warfield
If you check out my official biography, you will note I am a lover of gardens—but not necessarily the act of gardening. For that reason, I’m particularly fond of large public gardens, ones that don’t ask me to do anything other than admire and enjoy.
I have had the good fortune to visit many around the world, having wandered through the Tuileries Garden and the gardens at Versailles and Hampton Court. I enjoyed Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver, and toured both Auckland’s Hamilton Gardens and the Christchurch Botanical Gardens in New Zealand. I found delightful pocket gardens tucked into walled enclaves in Venice, and was awed on a private tour of the Vatican Gardens with friends. The National Orchid Garden of Singapore is a stunner.
I was reminded lately that we have treasures here in the urban wilds of eastern Pennsylvania as well. The University of Pennsylvania’s Morris Arboretum is a tree lover’s paradise. This week, however, I took a friend to Longwood Gardens, Pierre DuPont’s gem in Kennett Square. DuPont reportedly bought the land to preserve the rare and interesting trees collected by a previous generation in 1906, and immediately began laying out flower walks. Later came the spectacular Conservatory, opened to the public in 1921.
DuPont endowed a foundation to maintain and improve the place in 1937 and for many years it was free to the public. That is, alas, no longer true; it is a pricey ticket. However, once inside, I never doubt it is money well spent. At 1007 acres a visit takes all day and features numerous flower walks and secluded formal gardens, rose arbors and topiary, tree houses (yes, plural), meadow walk and lake, water features of every sort imaginable including the newest—absolutely spectacular—main fountains that draw hundreds to the place.
The conservatory has been well cared for, and its collections (orchid room, children’s garden, rotating seasonal displays, organ and music room, bonsai, central Mediterranean garden, orangerie, and much more) are worth a visit all by themselves. Its Green Wall, covered with plants, which is the entrance way for a series of bathrooms, was once voted America’s Best Restroom.
My personal favorite? The water lily ponds, with the dozens of varieties including giant lily pads.
I’ve not included many gardens in my novels, but in The Price of Glory , I needed to. When the heroine arrives in Khartoum, a provincial outpost more military base than city, in 1839, she would have found a newly built governor’s palace which would have assuredly had a garden—wouldn’t it? I had no idea, so I invented one.
To their right the governor’s palace rose along the river, an oasis of green surrounding it. The garden’s size, a pittance compared to the courtyards of the khedive in Cairo, relieved the heavy gloom of the surrounding walls. An artificial stream wound among Nile grass, dracaena and monk orchids, cooling the air.
About the Book: The Price of Glory
Richard Mallet comes to Egypt with dreams of academic glory. He will be the one to unravel the secrets of the ancient Kushite language.
Analiese Cloutier seeks no glory—only the eradication of disease among the Egyptian women and children of Khartoum.
Neither expects to face intrigue, unrest, and insurrection, to be forced to marry to escape death—or to succumb to amorous enchantment under a desert moon.
About the Author
Award winning author Caroline Warfield has been many things: traveler, librarian, poet, raiser of children, bird watcher, Internet and Web services manager, conference speaker, indexer, tech writer, genealogist—even a nun. She reckons she is on at least her third act, happily working in an office surrounded by windows where she lets her characters lead her to adventures in England and the far-flung corners of the British Empire. She nudges them to explore the riskiest territory of all, the human heart.
Thanks so much for having me! This was fun to write.
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And to read.
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The gardens at the Biltmore Estate are the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen!
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