The theme of our Speaker meeting on Monday 6th February 2017 continued as Women and the Arts. Our speaker was Clare Gittings who before retirement worked at the National Portrait Gallery for 24 years and chose as her subject “Five centuries of women and their gardens”.
It was a most entertaining talk with excellent power point images. Clare ranged widely from aristocratic women who could afford to create exotic gardens and travel as plant collectors to later housewives growing vegetables and fruit and herbs to feed and doctor their households.
Many were formidable women who, denied other outlets, turned to gardening for solace,comfort and to use their intelligence. Individual women gardeners mentioned were Bess of Hardwick, Mrs Delaney of paper flower decoration, Daisy Warwick, Vita Sackville-West and Beth Chatto among others.
For centuries woman have been important to gardens and gardens important to women.
Looking at some of the slides of estate gardens one could see they were fine works of art
An evening greatly enjoyed by Hertford and District Soroptimists and their Friends.
