Seeds For Thought
Spring 2011
FLOWERING OF TUSCANY: BRITISH GARDENS IN ITALY, 1900-1930
Anna Pavord, noted garden historian and best-selling author
Anna PavordAnna Pavord is a well-known gardening correspondent for The Independent and the author of numerous books, including the bestselling The Tulip (1999). She contributes to a number of magazines, both in the U.S. and the U.K. and regularly fronts programs for BBC Radio 3 and 4. She chairs the Gardens Panel of the National Trust and sits on the Parks and Gardens Panel of English Heritage.
She lives in Dorset, England, where she spent 30 years restoring the garden of an old rectory. She has recently moved to a new house and started another garden. Her latest book is The Curious Gardener, published by Bloomsbury in November 2010.
At the beginning of the 20th century, more than 40,000 people living in Florence were British expatriates. An important part of their lifestyle was restoring an Italian property and garden—preferably one with Medici connections—to create a glorious setting for entertaining. British émigrés brought with them their love for flowers, which brought a new sense of color and scent to the restrained Renaissance Italian garden tradition of evergreens, water, and stone.
In the hills outside Florence, the brilliant and enigmatic English garden designer Cecil Pinsent created exotic gardens for influential expatriates including Arthur Acton at La Pietra, Lady Sybil Cutting at Villa Medici and Lady Paget at Bellosguardo.
Anna Pavord will examine these magnificent gardens and explain how the British transformed Tuscan landscapes and garden design during the first part of the 20th century.
These lectures were given in Phildelphia, New York and Lake Forest during April, 2011. Watch this space for announcement of the Spring 2012 Seeds for Thought Lectures.
