Ursula Buchan

French foray

One surefire sign of maturity is the acceptance that you have friends who are more talented than you are.

issue 16 October 2010

One surefire sign of maturity is the acceptance that you have friends who are more talented than you are. I learnt that lesson early, which, considering my manifold shortcomings, was just as well, frankly. I have mates who are better practical gardeners than I am, and ones who are more creative garden designers. I like to think that this is not so much a source of deflation or envy as a spur to my ambition.

The spur pricked recently in France. I had been invited by Clare Whateley, of French Gardens Today, to join a very jolly small party of knowledgeable gardeners who were visiting gardens in northern Brittany. I was particularly pleased because I had worked with two of them at the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Wisley in 1975.

In those days, as now, Wisley was a draw to ambitious horticultural apprentices who wanted to benefit from the exceptionally wide range of practical experience on offer.

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