At the end of last year, Jonny Bass our Assistant Head Gardener (recently promoted), visited New Zealand and USA as part of a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust fellowship. This week, he presented what he got up to during his trip to our volunteers:
The criteria for the fellowship award was that it must benefit the wider community - apparently one woman interviewed wanted a fellowship award to visit Transilvania to go jam preserve-making. So the competition was tough!
Jonny's first stop was Auckland ( ...and yes, there is a National Trust of New Zealand), where he met granddaughter of Nancy Stein (famous rosarian, who knew Graham Thomas) and visited Fern Glen, as well as Auckland Botanic Garden.
Jonny went on to Los Angeles, where he went to San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, Red Rose Ridge - an entire ridge of rambling red roses, uncultivated, just growing in sand. Jonny's last stop was New York, where he met Stephen Scanyellow, who is President of their Heritage Rose Society and saw a garden built over a disused railway track and visited Harlem Heritage Rose District, where local residents have developed, planted and maintained rose gardens, which has reduced litter and made places look much, much better.
On from Jonny's fascinating insights on roses, this weekend, I had the chance to visit the National Trust's number one rated visitor experience property: the Beatles' homes in Liverpool. And I must say, I can see why. The enthusiasm, knowledge and passion of the tour guides who delivered the talk, was outstanding. The properties had been very thoughtfully restored too. Just being in the rooms where songs such as "Love me do," "Please, please me" and "When I'm 64" were written was amazing. As a life-long Beatles fan, I loved it. But then again, I was always going to!
So a tale of two "Johns" (...or at least a "Jonny" & a "John"!) Both remarkable in their own ways, both creative and excellent in their own fields of expertise and both linked by the National Trust!
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