Thank you for another lovely 'letter' from your garden.
I planted a Snow Queen about 6 years ago in my tiny garden. I agonised over whether to have a multi or single stem. Like you, I went for a multi stem and have never regretted it.
My Queen is the star of my winter garden. I gently wash her trunk with water around now and she positively GLOWS from the border in the middle of winter. I had to raise her canopy one year as the lower branches were obscuring the snowdrops I planted at her feet.
I wish you all the happiness and more that mine has given me.
Dear Susan THANK you for this - I am sending your kind note straight to my husband who thinks we don’t need another tree. The white stems are exactly the pull for me and now I am DOUBLY excited for its arrival.
Great timing a lovely read with my cuppa before head out to work, thermals on this morning leg warmers back out! Can’t recommend these enough they really do keep feet warm and woolly hat back out. Great present for those gardening friends , started a trend here in Yorkshire . Thank you for another lovely read Have a good week 🥰
Hi Laetitia, though I have no garden at the moment, living in NYC, it's fun to live vicariously through your gardening exploits. I also wanted to thank you for recommending What Looks Good, and have recommended you back with enthusiasm. Best, Jolain
Those so familiar names, found in every garden magazine and so many books for so many long years = Scribehound. It sadly failed to enable them to become radical, innovative and exciting as they had advertised. Do we really need new versions of Gardener's World in video, audio and some words?
Hope the revamp helps - and that it doesn't stop you writing on here, since I'd miss you!
Nothing stops me writing here - I love it. Sad you don't find The Garden Collective innovative...I really DO but perhaps that means I've had a sheltered life. What sort of things do you think we should be writing about? Tell me! xx
There’s a reason I wasn’t invited and it’s not because I can’t write. So what I’ve written that’s so unacceptable to the mainstream garden media ought to offer clues. Honest criticism of plants and gardens would be welcome and helpful to aspiring garden makers.
And, maybe: The connection between wealth/social class and gardening culture.
And how class is still being suffocating in the garden world?
How gardening history reflects social history over the ages.
Whether garden lighting should be subject to planning permission to reduce light pollution.
Whether playing music and other noise in garden should be prohibited?
Whether opening gardens for charity helps to suppress the wages of professional gardeners?
Whether using volunteers in gardens helps to suppress the wages of professional gardeners?
Whether garden photography lies?
Whether garden designers have become overrated and that has depressed innovation by amateur garden makers?
Whether we over-admire dead people’s gardens long after their influence has left their garden?
Whether garden designers can ever overcome the limitation in making a garden compared to someone working daily and sensitively in the garden.
Is the role and expertise and indeed the career of head gardeners constrained by the apparent greater glamour of garden designers? Do we hear from them enough?
Is it wrong to critique a garden or actually helpful to the garden maker?
Are gardeners more grown up and intelligent than is generally assumed?
Is vegetable growing over promoted?
Is the term ‘Collective’ rather reminiscent of forced conformity and historical events like the Soviet famines, as well as dystopian fiction?
Excuse me if I’ve missed any posts on these topics on Scribehound/Garden Collective.
And maybe you know me well enough that you shouldn’t have asked?!!
I particularly like the idea of whether gardeners are more grown up or intelligent than 'is generally assumed'... I'd never thought about this...do YOU think gardeners are more grown-up or intelligent than gen pop? Also I think the word collective can, as you infer, wear a halo or a boot, but on balance, and in 2025 it implies cooperation rather than coercion....for me anyway. I can assure you that there is no world in which any writer from TGC is toeing any sort of 'line'. But perhaps as you say, we should shake things up a bit...although I'm not sure that our audience wants, or needs a giant amount of controversy...we get enough of that everywhere else we dare to look no?
I think garden makers and gardeners are more grown up and intelligent than most garden writing assumes. And rather less smiley. You’ve nailed it though - even though there are thousands of garden people out there who take the whole thing very seriously, most garden writers think we should stick with light entertainment. As James A-S always boring reproached me: ‘it’s only gardening, Anne’.
Strangely, garden historians are the ones who dare to be serious.
I can only speak for myself Anne, but as you know, I don't WANT to be too serious when I write, and that's something that's underpinned by the title of my Substack (NOTHING IMPORTANT). It frustrates you that TGC and 'gardening media' isn't opinionated enough.....not meaty enough...Okay, and look, that's YOUR USP....you've got a great niche and I for one, applaud it, and if it's what people want then they will come and applaud it with me will they not?
Of course - I'd not be looking for uniformity and I can't imagine you holding forth on any of that lot. Nor should you: not your style. Would be awful.
But I've no desire to have a niche all of my own or to do much more. But I'd love to see a lot of serious discussion of topics like those. How will we ever know if anyone else would appreciate that? Media like the Telegraph have dumbed down. I may have sold thousands of books but that's not dialogue. Might it happen here?????
Sadly, I think Marianne (Garden Mixer, below) has a point. The risks are too great for most writers. My impression is that the Garden Collective have toned down their advertising now and are focusing more on inclusion and 'happy'. Understandable.
What a brilliant list Anne. I’d gobble up all of them and am tempted to steal some, ha! I feel that the money and class issues are HUGE elephants in the room and topics that very few people want to talk about. Well, the people with no money want to talk about it, but the ones with wealth, power and influence are conspicuously quiet…
Personally, I feel like working in the natural world has given me a kind of wisdom and patience that I would not normally have acquired otherwise. I see these same qualities in fellow gardeners, forest workers and farmers.
The class issue is interesting too.
When I told my father that I wanted to be a landscape designer he said I would be taking a vow of poverty - which is partly true. I could not afford to have my own garden until I was in my 50’s. Still, I have had no regrets. Working with the earth gives a richness no money can buy!
[Marianne here] What a meaty list. Topics worth exploration through conversation and compelling writing; and I’d happily play devil’s advocate with any of them to discover further questions. Perhaps they are considered controversial because garden writing as a whole is not “unleashed.” When one is truly unleashed as a writer, one takes great risks — there is hierarchical position to be lost. Circles from which one can be removed. Friends who drift away. That’s a heavy price, and most of us are freelance, not salaried, and depend on those circles and friends and position to make a living. Result: most garden writing remains essentially voiceless, steps out of bounds only within acceptable parameters, and its authors should quake at the thought of AI which, equally voiceless, can easily replace it. BTW — I am also bemused at the choice of The Garden Collective, and cannot help but conjure visions of the Hive Mind of another Collective in popular TV and film culture over the last two decades. -MW
Thank you for weighing in here. I do agree with you that there is of COURSE an Overton window when it comes to garden writing…just as with ALL topics, but I would push back on the idea that we are all being somehow muzzled by the fear of being cast out of the tribe if we dare to unleash our 'true authentic feelings’….I just don’t think that people consume gardening content because they want to be piqued…I love a good debate as much as the next person but on the whole I think most people consume gardening content because they want to learn, and be inspired, and dream and, well ESCAPE. At least that’s what I want from it!
There are places people can go if they want to read opinions by fortunate people with lovely lives who say gardening is "racist" and the countryside is "racist" etc. I remember reading this even in Gardeners World Magazine but it's mostly indulgent ideology with little hard evidence and a major turn off. Enough of it everywhere else so no thanks!
I agree with much of that. It's why I strenuously avoid politics in my writing, because people do want (and should be able to) escape. And the garden is a great place to do it. But horticulture occupies an interesting place in culture. Yes it is a lovely hobby for weekend warriors. But it is also a scientific discipline and an expression of artistic vision. Ecology and design all wrapped together in a complex package that can spark discussions and lead to new ideas. We need brave souls who think outside the collective to be part of that conversation, or those ideas are not sparked. On the topic of being cast out -- I think 'belonging' is signal-based and difficult to describe. One is usually not fully aware of it until an honest thought or an earnest question leads one down less established roads -- and one is met with not only resistance, but animosity. My eyes weren't opened to it until several years ago. We shouldn't be contrarians for the sake of controversy or click bait -- that is pointless and dishonest. And it's important to understand that some things are clearly subjective. And that tone and timing matter. Terrific to have this conversation with you Laetitia, and to 'meet' you. May I just add that the lack of ability to use paragraphs in reply mode is extremely tedious!!! --MW
Sorry to hear of those difficulties. But I do feel I should point out that we have two acres of ornamental garden (plus another few acres less intensive) and don’t need or have full time gardeners. We have Angus about 36 days a year and Charles does a quite a bit when he isn’t being injured. I do minimum!
Lovely to read on a dull Monday morning, dreading work (NHS - long story!) Aren’t those light shades gorgeous? Thank you for the link. It reminds me of the late and lamented RK Alliston shop in Bath, who also produced the most beautiful catalogue. She had that indoors rustic, potting shed style done to perfection and I still mourn its closure. Still loving Scribehound, or the Garden Collective. Much better name but will take some getting used to.
Thank you Moira and I’m so glad you’re loving The Garden Collective - it really is an absolute joy to be writing over there. Thinking of you today and I hope whatever it is, it goes well x
I have a multistem amelanchier that I love and so glad I didn't get a standard. Could you please share where you purchased it from Laetitia? Multistems are more expensive and a clever trick is to plant several standard birch whips in the same big planting hole to get the same effect for less.
Good morning Laetitia,
Thank you for another lovely 'letter' from your garden.
I planted a Snow Queen about 6 years ago in my tiny garden. I agonised over whether to have a multi or single stem. Like you, I went for a multi stem and have never regretted it.
My Queen is the star of my winter garden. I gently wash her trunk with water around now and she positively GLOWS from the border in the middle of winter. I had to raise her canopy one year as the lower branches were obscuring the snowdrops I planted at her feet.
I wish you all the happiness and more that mine has given me.
S
Dear Susan THANK you for this - I am sending your kind note straight to my husband who thinks we don’t need another tree. The white stems are exactly the pull for me and now I am DOUBLY excited for its arrival.
Great timing a lovely read with my cuppa before head out to work, thermals on this morning leg warmers back out! Can’t recommend these enough they really do keep feet warm and woolly hat back out. Great present for those gardening friends , started a trend here in Yorkshire . Thank you for another lovely read Have a good week 🥰
Thank you Sarah - which leg warmers do you use?
Pachamama- think can buy in line a local shop to me sells them lots lovely designs 😊xx
Hi Laetitia, though I have no garden at the moment, living in NYC, it's fun to live vicariously through your gardening exploits. I also wanted to thank you for recommending What Looks Good, and have recommended you back with enthusiasm. Best, Jolain
Jolain how incredibly kind of you! I am SO glad to have found your wonderful, well- informed and beautifully put together Substack!
The Snow Queen looks gorgeous
cannot WAIT for it to arrive!
Hi Laetitia
Those so familiar names, found in every garden magazine and so many books for so many long years = Scribehound. It sadly failed to enable them to become radical, innovative and exciting as they had advertised. Do we really need new versions of Gardener's World in video, audio and some words?
Hope the revamp helps - and that it doesn't stop you writing on here, since I'd miss you!
Nothing stops me writing here - I love it. Sad you don't find The Garden Collective innovative...I really DO but perhaps that means I've had a sheltered life. What sort of things do you think we should be writing about? Tell me! xx
There’s a reason I wasn’t invited and it’s not because I can’t write. So what I’ve written that’s so unacceptable to the mainstream garden media ought to offer clues. Honest criticism of plants and gardens would be welcome and helpful to aspiring garden makers.
And, maybe: The connection between wealth/social class and gardening culture.
And how class is still being suffocating in the garden world?
How gardening history reflects social history over the ages.
Whether garden lighting should be subject to planning permission to reduce light pollution.
Whether playing music and other noise in garden should be prohibited?
Whether opening gardens for charity helps to suppress the wages of professional gardeners?
Whether using volunteers in gardens helps to suppress the wages of professional gardeners?
Whether garden photography lies?
Whether garden designers have become overrated and that has depressed innovation by amateur garden makers?
Whether we over-admire dead people’s gardens long after their influence has left their garden?
Whether garden designers can ever overcome the limitation in making a garden compared to someone working daily and sensitively in the garden.
Is the role and expertise and indeed the career of head gardeners constrained by the apparent greater glamour of garden designers? Do we hear from them enough?
Is it wrong to critique a garden or actually helpful to the garden maker?
Are gardeners more grown up and intelligent than is generally assumed?
Is vegetable growing over promoted?
Is the term ‘Collective’ rather reminiscent of forced conformity and historical events like the Soviet famines, as well as dystopian fiction?
Excuse me if I’ve missed any posts on these topics on Scribehound/Garden Collective.
And maybe you know me well enough that you shouldn’t have asked?!!
I particularly like the idea of whether gardeners are more grown up or intelligent than 'is generally assumed'... I'd never thought about this...do YOU think gardeners are more grown-up or intelligent than gen pop? Also I think the word collective can, as you infer, wear a halo or a boot, but on balance, and in 2025 it implies cooperation rather than coercion....for me anyway. I can assure you that there is no world in which any writer from TGC is toeing any sort of 'line'. But perhaps as you say, we should shake things up a bit...although I'm not sure that our audience wants, or needs a giant amount of controversy...we get enough of that everywhere else we dare to look no?
I think garden makers and gardeners are more grown up and intelligent than most garden writing assumes. And rather less smiley. You’ve nailed it though - even though there are thousands of garden people out there who take the whole thing very seriously, most garden writers think we should stick with light entertainment. As James A-S always boring reproached me: ‘it’s only gardening, Anne’.
Strangely, garden historians are the ones who dare to be serious.
I can only speak for myself Anne, but as you know, I don't WANT to be too serious when I write, and that's something that's underpinned by the title of my Substack (NOTHING IMPORTANT). It frustrates you that TGC and 'gardening media' isn't opinionated enough.....not meaty enough...Okay, and look, that's YOUR USP....you've got a great niche and I for one, applaud it, and if it's what people want then they will come and applaud it with me will they not?
Of course - I'd not be looking for uniformity and I can't imagine you holding forth on any of that lot. Nor should you: not your style. Would be awful.
But I've no desire to have a niche all of my own or to do much more. But I'd love to see a lot of serious discussion of topics like those. How will we ever know if anyone else would appreciate that? Media like the Telegraph have dumbed down. I may have sold thousands of books but that's not dialogue. Might it happen here?????
Sadly, I think Marianne (Garden Mixer, below) has a point. The risks are too great for most writers. My impression is that the Garden Collective have toned down their advertising now and are focusing more on inclusion and 'happy'. Understandable.
What a brilliant list Anne. I’d gobble up all of them and am tempted to steal some, ha! I feel that the money and class issues are HUGE elephants in the room and topics that very few people want to talk about. Well, the people with no money want to talk about it, but the ones with wealth, power and influence are conspicuously quiet…
Thanks for making me laugh. I do believe you're right. Who's going to start that discussion??
Personally, I feel like working in the natural world has given me a kind of wisdom and patience that I would not normally have acquired otherwise. I see these same qualities in fellow gardeners, forest workers and farmers.
The class issue is interesting too.
When I told my father that I wanted to be a landscape designer he said I would be taking a vow of poverty - which is partly true. I could not afford to have my own garden until I was in my 50’s. Still, I have had no regrets. Working with the earth gives a richness no money can buy!
Yes, it’s certainly character building - and rewarding in other than ££££ ways.
[Marianne here] What a meaty list. Topics worth exploration through conversation and compelling writing; and I’d happily play devil’s advocate with any of them to discover further questions. Perhaps they are considered controversial because garden writing as a whole is not “unleashed.” When one is truly unleashed as a writer, one takes great risks — there is hierarchical position to be lost. Circles from which one can be removed. Friends who drift away. That’s a heavy price, and most of us are freelance, not salaried, and depend on those circles and friends and position to make a living. Result: most garden writing remains essentially voiceless, steps out of bounds only within acceptable parameters, and its authors should quake at the thought of AI which, equally voiceless, can easily replace it. BTW — I am also bemused at the choice of The Garden Collective, and cannot help but conjure visions of the Hive Mind of another Collective in popular TV and film culture over the last two decades. -MW
Thank you for weighing in here. I do agree with you that there is of COURSE an Overton window when it comes to garden writing…just as with ALL topics, but I would push back on the idea that we are all being somehow muzzled by the fear of being cast out of the tribe if we dare to unleash our 'true authentic feelings’….I just don’t think that people consume gardening content because they want to be piqued…I love a good debate as much as the next person but on the whole I think most people consume gardening content because they want to learn, and be inspired, and dream and, well ESCAPE. At least that’s what I want from it!
There are places people can go if they want to read opinions by fortunate people with lovely lives who say gardening is "racist" and the countryside is "racist" etc. I remember reading this even in Gardeners World Magazine but it's mostly indulgent ideology with little hard evidence and a major turn off. Enough of it everywhere else so no thanks!
Is this what you imagine serious discussion about gardens would involve? You're giving me nightmares!
I agree with much of that. It's why I strenuously avoid politics in my writing, because people do want (and should be able to) escape. And the garden is a great place to do it. But horticulture occupies an interesting place in culture. Yes it is a lovely hobby for weekend warriors. But it is also a scientific discipline and an expression of artistic vision. Ecology and design all wrapped together in a complex package that can spark discussions and lead to new ideas. We need brave souls who think outside the collective to be part of that conversation, or those ideas are not sparked. On the topic of being cast out -- I think 'belonging' is signal-based and difficult to describe. One is usually not fully aware of it until an honest thought or an earnest question leads one down less established roads -- and one is met with not only resistance, but animosity. My eyes weren't opened to it until several years ago. We shouldn't be contrarians for the sake of controversy or click bait -- that is pointless and dishonest. And it's important to understand that some things are clearly subjective. And that tone and timing matter. Terrific to have this conversation with you Laetitia, and to 'meet' you. May I just add that the lack of ability to use paragraphs in reply mode is extremely tedious!!! --MW
Sorry to hear of those difficulties. But I do feel I should point out that we have two acres of ornamental garden (plus another few acres less intensive) and don’t need or have full time gardeners. We have Angus about 36 days a year and Charles does a quite a bit when he isn’t being injured. I do minimum!
Mine is a standard & while I love it in the winter, I so wish it was a multi stem, so jealous!
I bet you have room for another?? x
Lovely to read on a dull Monday morning, dreading work (NHS - long story!) Aren’t those light shades gorgeous? Thank you for the link. It reminds me of the late and lamented RK Alliston shop in Bath, who also produced the most beautiful catalogue. She had that indoors rustic, potting shed style done to perfection and I still mourn its closure. Still loving Scribehound, or the Garden Collective. Much better name but will take some getting used to.
Thank you Moira and I’m so glad you’re loving The Garden Collective - it really is an absolute joy to be writing over there. Thinking of you today and I hope whatever it is, it goes well x
Mwaaaah xx
I have a multistem amelanchier that I love and so glad I didn't get a standard. Could you please share where you purchased it from Laetitia? Multistems are more expensive and a clever trick is to plant several standard birch whips in the same big planting hole to get the same effect for less.