Daily Dose Blogger Bios
Gardens in Film
Since I've been a little cranky due to the malevolent Mr. V (my garden man - I've given him an alias), I decided to soothe my mind by watching "Howard's End" for the millionth time. Watching this film is like slipping into a hot bath - all is right with the world. And it isn't that I'm such a fan of Helena Bonham-Carter... I love the gardens in that movie. One scene has some people having tea or something at an outdoor table surrounded by an explosion of blooming euphorbias - breathtaking! Watch it and see why you should plant Euphorbia wulfenii. Another garden movie I love - 'My House in Umbria" with Maggie Smith. The olive trees, the vines, the garden they renovate ... pure beauty. I know there are other movies that have amazing gardens in them - here's a few that I can think of off the top of my head:
The Wicker Man - Christopher Lee's character has a garden that has always left me awestruck
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - if that edible landscape with a chocolate river isn't a garden, then what is?
Laurel Canyon - Frances McDormand's house has a perfect unkempt but beautiful Hollywood Hills type garden in it
The Wizard of Oz - The Woodsman's forest with the trees that throw the apples - an orchard with chutzpah!!
Heavenly Creatures - New Zealand is a gardening Mecca; the camera couldn't avoid amazing plants!
That's all I can think of right now - any others anyone can come up with? I'm going to start a dvd collection of them!
Oh, I LOVE this idea. You should do a movie garden a week for a while...
What about the secret garden?
Of course, the Secret Garden! That was beautiful ... and The Age of Innocence has great examples of over-the top Victorian gardens. I know there are others creeping areound in the recesses of my mind - oh! The Hand that Rocks the Cradle is a horror movie with a lovely glass greenhouse in it - and it actually kills Julianne Moore! Death by Garden!
Not a feature film, but the Rosemary & Thyme mysteries from BBC are all filmed in to-die-for real life gardens in England (and I think an episode in France and one in Italy as well). Even if you don't like mysteries, the gardens are spectacular.
I wonder if I can get those on dvd ... I'm sure I can - they sound like exactly what I'm looking for. Those Engligh and their gardens! I wonder why I didn't think of Merchant/Ivory?
I just saw the wonderful late-fifties film "Forbidden Planet" which has an outer-space garden in it that looks like what might happen if you merged the Heaven and Hell panels of the Hieronymous Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights." Actually both Bosch and the sci-fi film would make for great inspirations to gardeners unafraid of getting "out there," like yourself.
Keep up the great work,
Nimby.
Nimby, I love 'Forbidden Planet'! Science fiction movies are a great place to look for fresh garden ideas ... You obviously have exquisite taste, and your partner is a lucky person to have such a genius at her beck and call...