
The story goes something like
this: Early in the final decade of the last century, a couple of explorers, Tim
Smit and his friend John Willis, made an expedition to the outer reaches of
southwest England, Cornwall precisely, where they made an astonishing
discovery. While in the tiny fishing village of Mevagissey, they heard rumours
of a vanished garden in a tropical valley far above the village.
But these hints and whispers
gained a life of their own, as rumours do, and intrigued, Tim and John, following
the hidden paths of poachers, set out to explore the valley. They were amazed to
discover palm trees and bamboo, and as they pushed upwards through tangled
undergrowth and overgrowth, they soon found themselves crawling on all fours
beneath huge, overgrown shrubs and laurel hedges, their way blocked in places
by massive brick walls, derelict stone structures and broken glass.
I imagine
their strained conversation was along the lines of, "I say, Tim, aren't
those thingies the gnarled branches of the extremely rare Rhododendron
prunifolium, native to the Himalayas, and what the Dickens is it doing here in
Cornwall?"

Over four kilometres of footpaths would eventually lead them to a hectare of
walled kitchen gardens containing the melon frames and pineapple pits that had
supplied the estate with exotic fruit. All about were hundreds of rare plants
from around the world, overgrown specimens from the original collections of the
garden's founders, the Tremayne family.
The area had been under the
stewardship of the Tremaynes since the mid 17th century, although the first true
gardens were largely created during the 19th century. They became one of the finest
in England of the period, with 23 hectares of planted gardens, around 40
hectares of ornamental woodlands, and riding trails crisscrossing an area of
120 hectares. It was a remote oasis of tranquility.

Thus began the largest garden
restoration project in Europe. The result is a time capsule of a forgotten era,
faithfully restored to its original majesty. A gardener visiting the Gardens of
Heligan today can indeed travel through time and see this wonder almost exactly
as it existed over a century ago. I did and I can't forget it.
First published November 2005 Waterloo Region Record and Guelph Mercury
First published November 2005 Waterloo Region Record and Guelph Mercury
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