Rosebud at Sissinghurst - Sarah Raven and Adam Nicolson

Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Brandreth / Plain Jaine Media

Society & Culture, Unknown

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's Chelsea Flower Show in London this week, and at Rosebud we're celebrating - with this special episode recorded at one of the most beautiful gardens in the world: Sissinghurst Castle in Kent. At Sissinghurst Gyles meets the writer Adam Nicolson, grandson of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson (who famously conceived and designed the garden there) and his wife Sarah Raven, the plantswoman and entrepreneur, who is one of the most influential people in gardening today. Sarah's garden at Perch Hill in Sussex, and the business she runs from there, have been instrumental in introducing a new abundant, naturalistic and colourful style in gardening, and her story is fascinating. This is a brilliant conversation about the history of Sissinghurst and the Nicolson family, and about Sarah's childhood 'botanising' with her father, John Raven. It's also about finding wild tulips, the meaning of the word 'wharfinger' and the burden of inheritance. Adam Nicolson's latest book, which is brilliant, is called Bird School and is available here. Sarah Raven's website is inspirational for any gardener and is here. Her book, A Year Full of Pots, is also highly recommended. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's May, and if you're in the UK, you'll know this is the week of the Chelsea Flower Show.
0:06.7	And this podcast is called Rosebud, because we love flowers.
0:11.7	So we thought we should do a special episode celebrating gardeners and a special garden and some special gardeners in particular.
0:57.4	Let's get mulching. Cue the world. We're at Sizzinghurst Castle in Kent.
1:03.9	The garden at Sizzinghurst was created a long time ago, a century ago really, by Vita Sackville West, the poet, writer, and her husband, the diplomat, the diarist, the member of parliament,
1:09.7	Harold Nicholson.
1:13.8	Actually, they'd be extraordinary guests on Rosebud,
1:19.0	because Peter Sackle West famously had affairs with many women in her time,
1:21.0	including, I think, Virginia Woolf,
1:25.5	and Harold Nicholson had affairs with men in his time.
1:29.0	Their son, Nigel Nicholson, who I was lucky enough to know,
1:34.8	wrote a remarkable book about his parents called Portrait of a Marriage. Their grandson,
1:41.5	the writer Adam Nicholson, and his wife, the great plantswoman, gardener, and entrepreneur, Sarah Raven. There are guests. So we're going to hear about the fascinating history of Sissinghurst,
1:46.8	how it was created, and about the, well, eccentric, bohemian, unusual family that's lived here.
1:52.5	But we're also going to hear about Sarah Raven's family
1:55.4	and how inspired by her father she became interested in plants when she was a very young girl.
2:01.8	This, I think, is a very special episode full of stories held together by a common thread,
2:07.8	the magical thread of plants and gardens.
2:11.1	So, welcome to Rosebud from Sissinger's Castle in Kent.
2:29.7	Music from Sissinger's Castle in Kent. Sarah, Adam, before we begin,
2:32.6	Adam, this has been your family home.
2:35.2	Tell us where we are, exactly.
	...

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