The
Mediterranean Garden Society

Past Events

June 2009
Visiting two gardens at Guadalajara

We met at Piedras Menaras, Guadalajara, at the house of Maria, Marquise de La G., in order to visit her garden and that of her sister Beatriz, as well as to admire the restoration work carried out in the Marquise de C.'s garden by Rob Snook (a horticulturalist at Kew Gardens). Maria thinks highly of the MGS and many of us will remember having visited her San Bernardo garden at Cordoba during the AGM held in Carmona. Ever hospitable, as the daylight faded she invited us to partake of a glass of well-chilled sangria under the great oak tree. These two beautiful gardens both have a lot of shade, for the heat here is intense in spring as well as in summer; the winters, by contrast, are extremely cold. They have been created in the midst of a fine dehesa – in other words in an area of outstanding agricultural land. The photos show us various corners of these gardens and allow us to understand Rob's explanations of his work. As well as MGS members, I also invited the Assistant Director of the Botanic Garden of Alcala de Henares, Inmaculada Porras, who gardens in Guadalajara and possesses a fine collection of roses, and Silvia Villegas, of the Madrid Botanic Garden, a former assistant of Sally Razelou at Sparoza, whom we see in one of the photos chatting to Maria La G.

Everyone had a wonderful time and we agreed to meet again in the autumn.
Meye Maier

The rose garden.

Trachelospermum and urn.

Otto between the irises.

A new pond.

Maria and Silvia chatting.

Rob explains the restoration work.

Botanic Painting in Cordoba and Madrid

Since I have a passion for botanic painting and since some other MGS members in Madrid also practise this art, we decided to try to persuade Béatrice Saalburg to come to Spain to give us some lessons. In Spain the discipline of botanic art is little known, in spite of the fact that there are some highly committed botanic painters. It was in Béatrice Saalburg’s studio, in the Perche region of France, that I was first initiated into the pleasures of an apprenticeship to this art.

Thus, "in the season when the orange and lemon trees flower" – in early April 2008 – I found a large studio in a simple inn in Cordoba, at the foot of a mountain and below the wonderful garden of Medina Azahara, run by Pilar del Pino who is herself a painter. During our five-day stay we spent hours painting and wandering through the town to visit patios and gardens, trying to understand what an Andalusian garden is. The group was Franco-Spanish, including both French participants and friends of the branch of the MGS based in Madrid who are interested in the subject. Viola did some fine work during these days of inspiration and learning.

In November 2008 our lessons were held in the Botanic Garden of Madrid. Some of those participating came from France and Germany (for example Signe Groos); there were also members of the MGS from Madrid and students from the Batres School of Landscape Design in Madrid. The subject that we worked on was Arbutus unedo.

Here is some of the best work, with a touch of ambience and of the genius loci...

Beatrice Saalburg, our teacher.

Meye and the Arbutus unedo.

Patios in April.

Three Phases.

The strawberry tree.

Branch Head Meye Maier writes:

For 20 years I gardened in the patios of a house in Carmona, but now I care for a sunny terrace in Madrid where I grow the lovely Jasminum sambac ‘Granducca di Toscana’, Arbutus unedo, bergamot, Clematis cirrhosa var balearica and many bulbs as well as some roses like ‘Cocquelicot’ and ‘Ghislaine de Feligonde’  - all in pots. Also I cultivate my love of the historical gardens, like ancient Roman gardens and mudejar gardens. I try to visit gardens and my gardening-friends as much as I can - I take photographs of the gardens and enjoy publishing little books and writing articles.

Meye in a stibadium (dining room) in an ancient roman villa in Cordoba.

            Two of the many styles of patio gardens.

For more photographs of patio gardens click here.