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“World’s Greatest Flower Show” For Immediate Release: RICHMOND, Ind. — Maybe because English gardens figure notably in British literature, Jennifer Hirsch was drawn, if not destined, to convert her Earlham College English major into a keen career in horticulture. 
As a horticulturist, Jennifer Hirsch’s career has bloomed in England. Now a resident of the U.K. and endowed with a Diploma of Horticulture from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, Hirsch ’92 recently has teamed with a special needs school to create her first garden for the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show. Sponsored by the Royal Horticultural Society, the Chelsea show attracts the world’s best garden designers for a five-day exhibition, scheduled this year for May 24-28. The more than 600 expected exhibitors will vie for coveted medals in five garden categories: show, chic, courtyard, city, and “Sunflower Street” gardens. Hirsch is working with a dozen pupils from Oak Lodge School in the New Forest area of England’s south coast on a “Peace is Special” chic garden. Over 1,200 plants will be needed for the garden, which will focus on how the landscape of war can be regenerated as one of peace. In Hirsch’s concept, barbed wire becomes trellises and bombed metal becomes sculpture. As part of the unique project, Hirsch has organized trips to the Imperial War Museum and workshops on peacemaking and poetry for the youngsters. “What I’ve tried to do in designing it is not to slap people in the face with the awfulness of war but to draw upon their subconscious memory,” Hirsch explains in a telephone interview from her home in Hampshire. “I want people to appreciate the garden as a garden that has integrity in its own right and on its own level.” For example, Hirsch and her students have combined lilies, Jacob’s ladder, alliums and iris creatively with such objects as metal shot through with ammunition. Light streaming through the holes falls evocatively on the plants and blossoms. Minimalist and urban in character, the “Peace is Special” garden measures 4.5-meters square (nearly 15 feet each side) and is framed in steel with polished concrete pavers and opaque plastic walls. Three blocks of plantings are arranged in the geometric pattern used for military graves. Another area is planted prairie style in a yellow and cream scheme of Iris siberica, phlox, Polemonium caerulem ‘Album,’ Primula prolifera and Thalictrum aquilegiifolium, among others. A steel channel of still water bisects the garden and uplit pavers appear to float on the water surface. Hirsch, who runs “dirt,” a design and horticultural consultancy, is looking forward to the exhibition. Chelsea, which is called, with little argument, the “world’s greatest flower show” is about pushing the boundaries of perfection. “It’s a measuring stick, the gold standard against which everything is held,” Hirsch says. The theme of the garden was chosen by the youngsters at Oak Lodge School and Hirsch has been working with them for several months to develop the ideas further. “It’s amazing to watch the children come out of their shells, and to see the role horticulture plays in that,” she adds. Rather amazing, too, is Hirsch’s rise in British horticulture circles to compete at Chelsea. Originally from Washington, D.C., she attended Field School, a small liberal arts high school, which seemed like a natural preparation for Earlham College, which, in her words, “felt like family from the day I arrived.” After graduation she found herself attracted to landscape architecture and began an apprenticeship with Frances Parker of Beaufort, S.C., working in the celebrated horticulturist’s nursery and with her on designs and installations. While considering entering a master’s program in the field, Hirsch was put in contact with the head gardener at Lambeth Palace in London who suggested that she come and spend the summer (of 1996) working there. “While I was in England I was offered a place at Kew,” where Hirsch began three years of study under the tutelage of top horticulturists, work that led to her being awarded the coveted Diploma of Horticulture. “So I’ve been here pretty much ever since,” she says, adding with a laugh: “I’m married to an Englishman, and now I’m stuck.” That a definite English accent has overtaken her former American articulation is further evidence of her assimilation. In addition to operating her own design and horticulture consultancy, Hirsch also is a freelance garden writer. “So I draw on my Earlham education somewhere in my professional life,” she says. “(Emeritus Professor) Paul Lacey once told me I’d do just fine as a writer if I wrote about my family. I’m not brave enough to do so while they’re living, so I resort to writing about my plants!” — EC — Contact:
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Earlham
College · 801 National Road West · Richmond,
Indiana 47374-4095 |