The Flowers, Frocks & Botanical Fantasies Tour 2013

Well, who would have thought that a tiny line of copy (so tiny, it was tacked onto the end of a blog post like an after-thought), would lead to such a wonderful, heart-warming display of garden love?

The response that The Library has received to the idea of a Garden Tour has been overwhelming. (Link here)

It was such a small idea: the seed of an idea, really. To be honest, I didn't think many (any) would respond. Well, who has time to do anything but work now? I barely have time to weed our garden. (Which looks more like the film Grey Gardens every day. Only without Jackie Kennedy's cheques to fund the place.) The idea of flying halfway around the world to wander around the potagers, peonies and garden paths of someone else's seemed like folly.

But gardeners love a bit of folly. And ideas – even seeds of ones – can blossom into magnificent things.

And so I'm pleased – really pleased – to announce that there will indeed be a Garden Tour to England in 2013. Providing I can configure it all. (And soon!)

Scheduled to include the 100th Anniversary of the Chelsea Flower Show (aka 'The Big One'), our 'Flowers, Frocks & Botanical Fantasies Tour' (working title; need more G&Ts to workshop it) is shaping up to be a wonderful celebration of gardens, horticulture, glamour, London, literature (we'll be seeing several writers' gardens), and the gloriousness that is England's countryside in high summer.

We'll be seeing this private garden (above and third image from top), if I can secure us a tour. They only allow groups, apparently. So do email me if you're interested in coming and I'll add your name to The Royal List. (Tip: It's best to see this garden before its owner becomes King of England and it becomes off-limits to happy, chattering little gardeners traipsing all over its herbaceous borders. Which may well be soon.)

We'll also be wandering around this famous Arts and Crafts garden, which has inspired and influenced so many gardeners over the years, including Stella McCartney, who drew on its horticultural style for her own country estate.

We'll pop into this garden, once owned by a lovely gardener who contributed a lot to Highgrove's style, and was also known for her skill with vegetable gardens. (Such as her own, above.) 

Some of us may even be lucky enough to stay here, in her house. Others with a limited budget, such as this librarian writing this post, will happily stay at the swanky pub across the road (owned by the same people), and walk across to The Big House for dinner. Oh – and Elizabeth Hurley/Shane Warner live right next door, so if we're lucky, we might be able to say "G'day, how's the garden looking, Warnie? That espalier needs a bit of a clip!" across the top of the box hedges.

And we'll take the tour bus up to this now-famous (some would say infamous, because of its high prices) place, which seems like a farm but is in fact a haute-cultural hideaway of the highest order. Lots of slick farm shops at this place, with lots of hand-made things to buy, including gorgeous gardening stuff, so if you're practising The Art of Frugality, like me, best keep that handbag close.

There will be walks through the English Cotswolds, including the village where Prince Charles proposed to Diana next to a cute old turnstile. (NB I found this supposed image of the Cotswolds on the Net, but I think it may actually be Castle Combe in Wiltshire, another of my favourite places, so don't get your hopes up as we may not go. Unless you all want to trundle down to Wiltshire?)

We'll stay here... 

(NB A famous interior designer designed it so it's more than your average coaching inn. Also has a lovely kitchen garden so our vegies will be crisp-fresh.)

And here...

(Look at the wicker cloches on the dining table. You can tell they love gardeners.)

And perhaps here too, when we're in London.

(Garden colours. Very pleasing. The bathtubs and showers are also very decadent at this place.)

Or here, if I can organise enough rooms?

I travel on a frugal budget (drummed into me by my frugal mother), so I usually opt for a single room in this hotel. But even these are beautiful. Normally this much pink would scare me (I love pink, but perhaps not dreaming in a cloud of it), but this was heavenly. Just heavenly. These rooms even have French doors leading to a huge terrace overlooking the charming architecture. 

Don't worry. If you come on The Tour, I'll give you all these Frugal Contacts.

Some of us may also stay here, depending on budgets.

(Look at the watering cans. All the hotels I've picked have a garden theme, but this is really cute.)

We'll be heading for Chelsea too. It's the 100th year of the iconic flower show, so there will likely be a memorable display of head-turning botanica. Chanel and Karl L won't be there again, sadly (above pic), however fingers and spades crossed that another designer will do a cheeky haute-garden design. Tom Ford, are you listening?

We may even see a celeb or three, carting all their horti-goods to their cars. ("Mr Don, would you like a hand with that?")

And of course around the streets of Chelsea there will be flora galore too, with the Sloane in Bloom competition that coincides with Chelsea. Look at Cartier's window. And French Sole's. There are free guided tours of all these beautiful boutiques and their fine floral displays during Chelsea Week. Don't worry. We'll get you on them. You can thank us with a Cartier ring afterwards.

We'll also have some High Tea (or Bubbly) at this delectable place.

And do some shopping in Soho. (Tip: The fabric stores are fab here.)

And lots more too.

In short, we'll have a wonderful time. 

So take those gardening gloves off, pack up your trenchcoats, wellies, walking shoes and cameras, and come with us to England. It will be a gardening tour full of laughter, leaves, light, planting schemes, stories, and a flower or two.

(PS There are lots more gardens than these scheduled on the tour. And great London places too.)

If you've kindly emailed me to put your hand up for a spot, thank you – I will respond with more details soon. I'm so thrilled that you've expressed interest, and look forward to meeting you!

PS I lived in London for many years, and although my former husband and I lived in a teeny studio, (barely bigger than a dead rose petal really), it was still in a perfect position, just around the corner from Sloane Square, which is near where the Chelsea Flower Show is held each year. So I wandered these streets for six years. I can tell you every gorgeous boutique, every glamorous shoe shop, every secret vintage clothing shop (Chanel for a song!), every inspirational homewares store, and every great bar/pub/bistro within 5 miles. Probably 10. And I'll be more than happy to share every address.

A Picture-Perfect Country House, Part 2

As promised, here is the second part of the post on Fern Vale Farm. Soon after I photographed this beautiful country house (thanks to its gracious and engaging owner Jane Charlwood), it was voted as one of the Top Ten Country Houses in Australia by The Australian newspaper. It was an extraordinary accolade for what is essentially a quiet, understated, monochromatic cottage hidden away in the shadow of Hanging Rock. But it was also well deserved. Jane Charlwood worked magic with this formerly run-down, gloomy B&B, and turned it on its melancholy head.

I've lost some of my original photographs, but they probably weren't very good so it doesn't matter! Fortunately, Leigh of the beautiful Brabourne Farm blog did a post on it in 2009, and so I've used her scans of my old photos, with gratitude. (Thank you Leigh.) These were  used in the book Country Estates.

I hope the new owners are very, very happy here. Fern Vale Farm is a rather special place.

Tucked away down the end of a holly lane, like some fabulous fairytale-style hideaway, Fern Vale Farm is one part magic, one part minimalist chic. When Charlwood, a Melbourne- based interior designer, first purchased the property, however, it was dark, cluttered and recovering from a period as a bed and breakfast. The house, which is over a century old, was worn out, and looked it. Charlwood’s father suggested she pull the lot down. 

But, like so many who fall in love with a country house, Charlwood wanted to save it: she felt the house still had soul, and a spirit. So the “rabbit warren of rooms”, as she calls them, were opened up and reconfigured into more liveable areas. Five bedrooms and three swish new ensuites were carved out of the former bed and breakfast rooms, while a sunny kitchen, a beautiful long dining space, a cosy library, a country office, a fabulous living room and a spectacular sunroom flowing out to a deck and then down to a playing field-sized lawn hemmed by hedges and mowed to perfection for summer soirées were created out of the rest of the interior.

Of course, the facelift took a little more than some clever architecture. The harmonious balance of big open rooms and small intimate ones was achieved by hundreds of litres of white paint, which Charlwood used to ‘open’ up the formerly cramped guesthouse. Window frames, walls, even floorboards were all finished in a chalky eggshell white that has transformed the house into a gallery-like space fit for the sleek vignettes that have since filled it. 

Some of the timber was too beautiful to whitewash and so Charlwood simply updated those parts with a rich, glossy chocolate finish, which has made the house a little like architectural confectionery: completely and utterly irresistible.

The interior is pure glamour but it is the garden, with its shady nooks and rose-scented crannies, that truly makes this place. Most of the garden is green, which was a surprising choice for a country garden, but Jane felt it a simple planting scheme was best to reflect the monochromatic palette of the interior.

Even the animals match the colour palette! (Jane's not the only one who colour-coordinates her livestock: Martha Stewart also does it.)

Fern Vale Farm could be described as the Audrey Hepburn of country houses: understated in its chic simplicity but also infused with delightful splashes of wit and whimsy. Polished to a sophisticated finish, the house has now achieved an apotheosis its original B&B owner may never have imagined.

{All images mine, excluding 7 & 9, which are from RT Edgar's property website}

A Picture-Perfect Country House, Part 1

Many years ago, I photographed a country house for a book; a country house cast entirely in black and white.

It was love at first sight.

This house, which was co-owned and decorated by the lovely Melbourne-based designer Jane Charlwood, was located down the end of an enchanting, holly-covered lane, in a pocket of countryside known for its grand homes and spectacular formal gardens. (The village of Mt Macedon.) The house wasn't grand, or formal; in fact, it was the very opposite: compact, cosy and set in a garden that showed impressive design restraint. But that's precisely why it stood out from the architectural crowd. It was a pearl among all the flashy diamonds.

A month or so ago, I noticed that Fern Vale Farm was on the market. Then last week, I noticed it had been sold. Snapped up by a sophisticated city buyer ( a city buyer with a spare $3 million for a weekender!) who recognises understated elegance when he/she sees it.

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for this house. It is one of the most beautiful country retreats I've ever seen.

I will try and post more images of it tomorrow, once I find them in my archives. (These are from the real estate agent's website). I'll reveal a little more about the interior design too.

It's beautiful. You'll love it.

{Images via RT Edgar}

Australia's New Museum of Fashion

With so many of us fascinated by fashion, and with so many of us blogging about it, reading about it in magazines, browsing the latest collections on Vogue.com and of course buying it, it's surprising that there is no dedicated fashion museum in Australia, nor other cities, for that matter. Nor more fashion exhibitions?

Museums are changing – slowly. For years the V&A in London seemed to skimp on fashion exhibitions, however that does appear to be changing with the newly renovated Fashion Galleries. (There are also great online archives available here: www.vam.ac.uk/page/0-9/19th-century-fashion) The Met in New York also falls short on fashion shows – I was disappointed in the recent 'Schiaparelli-Prada-Impossible Conversations' exhibition (above, images via Vogue), but I'm not sure what I was expecting? Schiaparelli herself? And whenever I go to the Musée Galliera in Paris, it always seems to be closed. (Sadly, it's now closed until spring 2013.)

Perhaps I feel nothing has ever come close to the extraordinary show of Audrey Hepburn's personal clothes at Sydney's Powerhouse many years ago. Did any of you see it? It was moving because we knew who wore them; how much love she had for them. Audrey was more than a clothes horse. Her best friend was Givenchy. The woman adored fashion. And it showed. {Image from Funny Face.}

This is why exhibitions need to be more than just galleries of clothes. They need to tell the stories of who wore those clothes. And why the wearers loved them. Fashion is so much more than just clothes don't you think? It is so much more than hemlines and heels, and what's been in season or 'on-trend' (hate that phrase) for the past ten decades. It is even more than an expression of individuality, class, status, style – or indeed history. Fashion is a mirror of our lives. Clothes sit on our bodies for so long, it is no wonder they become part of us. Part of who we are.

This is why I love the concept that author, custodian and curator of the famous Darnell Collection, Charlotte Smith has conceived.

A new Australian fashion museum that reveals the narrative behind the clothes as much as the details of the garments themselves.

I was fortunate to meet the glamorous (it takes a lot to pull off gold lamé at 9AM!) Charlotte Smith yesterday at a fashion breakfast to launch 'Fashion Meets Fiction', a fantastic new exhibition at the Burrinja Gallery from Nov to Feb. The author of the bestselling books Dreaming of Dior and Dreaming of Chanel, Smith has some stories to tell. She told of how she inherited her godmother Doris Darnell's treasured collection of dresses and outfits, collected over 70 years, which was shipped in 72 tea chests from the US. She told of how she found, in those 72 tea chests, priceless Cartier diamond brooches (hidden between old Victorian petticoats so Customs didn't find them!). Plus perfectly cut Chanel gowns and unimaginably beautiful Dior suits made by the man himself. The collection – the largest private vintage clothing collection in Australia – soon became a book, then another book, and now it's going to form the basis of a dedicated fashion museum. Australia's first.

What was even more interesting than hearing about this amazing new museum was hearing about the stories behind the outfits that will go in it. (Such as these, above.) 

There was one story of a dress that had been worn by a woman crossing the Wild West to start a new life in the Gold Rush Fever of California. It was her only good dress. Perhaps her only dress? For years, she altered that dress to reflect the trends, mended it, patched it, and held it together with love. Who knows what that dress went through? But it was significant enough for the owner's family to have passed it down, from generation to generation. That dress has become part of their family's history.

This is, I hope, what Australia's new fashion museum will show. 

Thanks to Charlotte Smith for a wonderful morning. I can't wait for your idea to come to fruition.

PS No details of the museum have been released, however it is going to be in or near Sydney, and it is going to be soon. I suspect the launch will be 2013. But I will let you know. In the meantime, visit thedarnellcollection.com for details. Or if you want to see the 'Fashion Meets Fiction' exhibition from November onwards, it's at Burrinja, 351 Glenfern Road, Upwey.

The Most Beautiful Garden In The World?

If I were not committed to my darling man, if I were single and allowed to sneak a few naughty glances at other men every now and then, I think I should have a small crush on Monty Don.

Robert Redford too, but Monty is rather special. Anyone who gets emotional about gardens is a man to love, in my opinion.

Tonight, I just happened to turn the TV on when Monty's BBC show Italian Gardens was on. Did you happen to see the show? He was on his way to the Gardens of Ninfa, near Rome. He claims that out of all the gardens he's visited in the world – and our Monty has been to a LOT  – Ninfa is his favourite. It is, he said, the most romantic garden, anywhere on earth.

Tall call Mont. Raised eyebrow there. But as the show went on, I had to agree with him. It did indeed look fairly magical. Perhaps even more than Sissinghurst.

The Gardens of Ninfa are in fact a ruined medieval town, which once consisted of a castle, 7 churches, 14 towers, mills, 150 houses and 2000 villagers. Ruined by plague and malaria it was left abandoned for six centuries. Six centuries. Then, in 1905, it was saved by two dedicated gardeners: an Italian price and his sister-in-law Marguerite. Together, they cleared the undergrowth and set about creating an idyll in the Italian countryside.

You can still see the ruined remnants of the village – the "melancholy decay" as Monty calls it – but it's part of a wider, horticultural mise-on-scene of lovely rivers, dangling wisteria, spectacular roses and wandering paths. And views. Views that will make your heart stop. Views that will make you believe God really does exist, there among the climbing roses and the stone archways.

"I think that the secret of Ninfa, as with all truly great gardens, is that it enlarges us. You go to admire and enjoy, but you come out with a whole new set of parameters with which to measure life. It is, quite simply, completely life enhancing". Monty Don.

Here is the YouTube clip, should you be interested. It's a lovely piece of television. Monty's sonorous voice is the gardener's equivalent of Barry White's songs. I could listen to it for hours. Better than meditation, really. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGEjoVlCj6A

Now I haven't been to as many gardens as Monty, but here are my favourites, out of the few I have had the privilege of visiting.

1. Villandry, France. The most extraordinary garden I've ever seen. (I shall look forward to seeing whether Ninfa is as good.)
2. Prieuré d'Orsan, France. Another beautiful, beautiful garden. The garden architecture in this garden alone is worth the trek down to Berry.
3. Sissinghurst, Kent, England (above). The history of the Sackville-West and Nicholson families is as extraordinary as the garden.
2. Bunny Williams' Connecticut Garden. I flew across the world to see this garden. It was worth it. (See the post from earlier this year.)
3. Barnsley House. Rosemery Verey's former home and garden, which you can now stay in. The Potting Shed (a luxurious hideaway) is one of the prettiest places you will ever sleep in. It even has its own small garden, and is also attached to the famous potager so you can wander around that in your PJs at twilight after the crowds have left.
4. The gardens of Lake Como. I'll try and do a post on these in the next few weeks.


I'm considering organising a garden tour next year, perhaps in May? I thought it might be a lovely way for garden-loving bloggers to get together? Do email me if you're interested and I'll try and set something up. Several extraordinary Australian gardeners I know have expressed interest, so perhaps we could bundle a group of lively, fun-loving travellers together and use our collective contacts to see a few of England's most glorious gardens?