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It looks as if this year's Hampton Court Palace Flower Show offers a real chance to broaden your knowledge and I don't just mean horticulturally.
There is going to be a strong Tudor theme throughout to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the accession of Henry VIII. Wishing I'd paid more attention at school, I have started reading a big fat book (Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel - brilliant) so that I'll be a bit more informed before I go.
Included among the show highlights are six small gardens, each one dedicated to one of Henry's wives and by the sound of it, the designers have really done their homework.
The gardens are all very different and full of floral symbolism and historical clues. I'm fascinated by the idea of a witch's garden for Anne Boleyn - with rows of fiery red flowers to ward off the witch hunters and am looking forward to seeing the contemplative Mary garden for devout Catherine Parr, planted with flowers associated with the Virgin Mary.
In my reading I'm only up to the last days of Katherine of Aragon - the first wife, who was married to Henry for 20 years. I've learnt that she was as wide as she was high, partly due to the fact that she always wore a Franciscan nun's habit under her clothes, but
also because her dresses were heavily encrusted with jewels and crystal - a sort of queenly stab vest I suppose, very necessary given Henry's temper.
Katherine was a much loved queen and the thing that really catches my eye in the description of her garden is that there are lots of yellow flowers - ".... the colour people wore when she died". What a lovely idea - a really personal statement of mourning rather than the ubiquitous black armband. Before we die we should all designate in our wills the colour we would like our mourners to wear - could be fun. I wonder why the tradition died out ?
The third wife, ice maiden Jane Seymour is to be represented by a cool, white planted garden, as neat and controlled as she apparently was, while poor little Katherine Howard, who was beheaded when still in her teens, has flirty pink and white flowers, a bubbly fountain and a dance floor. Look out for clues indicating that it's all going to go horribly wrong.
When I think Tudor, I think knot gardens and Anne of Cleves is the inspiration for one here. Apparently they were made for the ladies to look down on from their windows or from specially built viewing platforms. Anne seemed to be the most fortunate of the wives - after her divorce she lived a comfortable, independent life in the country. Apparently she enjoyed a drop of English ale, maybe that had something to do with it.
I must get back to my book now, I'm itching to know more about Henry and these turbulent times and I want to find out, what exactly were gillyflowers......?
Just for the record I'd like my mourners to wear hi-viz jackets - then I'll really be able see who my friends were.
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