When in Great Britain, stop and smell the flowers

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 3, 2005 | by David Armstrong San Francisco Chronicle

In the graveyard, you can see the final resting place of Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, and Capt. Bligh of Bounty infamy. In one of the fine turns of history, he is identified on his memorial as Admiral Bligh; the old salt prospered after returning to England and was buried here, rich with honors.

Buckingham Gate

This is one of London's secret gardens, tucked away in a courtyard bordered by three central-city hotels just off Buckingham Gate, a secondary street near the Palace.

Far from the madding crowds and far from the scale of Britain's famous gardens, this is a delightfully informal oasis, installed in overflowing planters, in what was until recently a parking lot. Alex Jones, the young Aussie gardener at 51 Buckingham Gate Hotel, has done marvels with this space, which gets only an hour of direct sunlight per day but has a warmish microclimate that draws birds and friendly insects in the mornings.

Visitors can take light meals and sip wine at the neighboring restaurant and gaze up at the frieze that runs along the exterior hotel walls. Newly cleaned, it pictures outdoor scenes from Shakespeare's sylvan plays, such as "The Tempest" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Chelsea Physic Garden

My favorite London garden is not chiefly a flowery redoubt, but a botanical garden created to nurture medicinal plants. ("Physic," related to "physician," is an old term for medicine.)

Dating to 1673, when it was planted on the banks of the Thames by the Society of Apothecaries, this densely packed, walled, 4-acre site fills every square foot with something interesting: Shrubs and rare peonies along the riverside wall, a historical walk along the eastern wall, greenhouses where research is done toward the northern end.

A statue of Sir Hans Sloane, an early benefactor of the garden, reminds visitors of the man who helped introduce chocolate to England, championed cinchona bark to combat malaria and imported cotton plants to London. One of the original backers of the colonization of Georgia, Sloane sent the first cotton seeds to the American South from this fertile London garden, changing the course of history.

Today's Chelsea Physic Garden is still dedicated to education and research, and includes a medicinal garden explaining the healthful properties of selected plants. Relaxing teas and light lunches are served from a stone building on the property.

Kensington Roof Garden

A latter-day British peer, Sir Richard Branson, of Virgin Group airline and entertainment fame, owns this 1 1/2-acre, open-air garden, so it is often closed for swank soirees such as photo shoots and record launch parties. It was closed the day we visited, but the stylish restaurant Babylon, one floor up from the garden, kindly allowed us to walk around its terrace and view the garden from above.

Laid out in 1938 on the roof of the former Derry and Tom's department store, the six-story-high garden has good views of London, is festooned with large trees, ponds, herbaceous borders and lovely flowering plants and includes an English woodland garden with a stream and ducks.