by Judith Brand and Cyril Hume.
November 18, 1999 will be a date to remember for Canadian garden enthusiasts. On that day the Land Conservancy of British Columbia (TLC) negotiated an option to purchase the Abkhazi Garden in Victoria, Canada’s “City of Gardens.” Only a few months earlier neighbours had learned of a developer’s plans to destroy the world renowned garden of just over one acre and build twelve townhouses. The TLC, bolstered by local volunteers, embarked on a fundraising campaign. This represented a relatively new venture for TLC to protect cultural and heritage sites as well as areas of scientific or scenic interest. They received an unprecedented number of inquiries and donations from private donors, Greater Victoria gardening societies, and others across Canada, in Britain and the U.S. The Garden Conservancy based in New York endorsed the project, their first outside the United States, and recently featured the story on the cover of their latest newsletter.
TLC’s offer to purchase the Abkhazi Garden addressed the Victoria community’s compelling desire to honor and preserve a superb example of its history, culture and landscape heritage. The late Prince Nicholas, from Abkhazia in the republic of Georgia, first met and fell in love with Marjorie (Peggy) Pemberton-Carter while both were studying in Paris in the 1920s. During WWII he fought for France before becoming a prisoner of war. With her adoptive mother, Peggy had returned to Shanghai, her birthplace, and also survived more than two years in an internment camp. Her secret diary was later published as A Curious Cage (1981) in Victoria. After the war Peggy came to British Columbia and bought property in Victoria, her chosen refuge and sanctuary, where she married her Prince in 1946. They began a new adventure together – building a home and creating the extraordinary garden that she referred to as “their child.”
Cyril Hume, garden historian and designer, volunteered in the campaign and wrote the following description for the TLC’s website (www.conservancy.bc.ca). The site of the Abkhazi Garden, characteristic of the unique Victoria landscape dominated by native Garry Oak (Quercus garryana), is given shape and topography by dramatic outcroppings of glaciated rock. The garden plays up a contrast between the rock and the treed areas of deeper soil. Parts of the rock are deliberately bare; others are planted with rock and alpine plants, and ornamental evergreens. Some of the deepest pockets in the rocks are carefully dammed to create pools frequented by native Mallard ducks and to provide reflections of the plantings. The lower portion of the property, treed with oaks, was developed into a rhododendron copse or woodland garden. A flowing lawn, bordered by heather and a paved path skirts the point where the rock plunges into the ground. The original garden shed/summerhouse, designed by the owners, provides a focal point at the end of this long view, and a vantage point from which to appreciate the vista in the opposite direction. Paved paths meander past the summerhouse and up to the higher, rocky site of the house from where a stunning view is enjoyed, not just over the garden below, but outwards over the larger Victoria landscape, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic Mountains of neighbouring Washington state.
There are notable specimens of both hybrid and species rhododendrons and azaleas in the garden. Some of these were gifts to the Abkhazis from an earlier generation of Victoria area nurserymen who sought a good home for some of their more significant specimens. There are also examples of some of the hybridizing efforts of local rhododendron growers such as R.X Prince Abkhazi and R.X Peggy Abkhazi, this latter plant registered internationally with the Royal Horticultural Society 1989. That same year Peggy was honoured by the American Rhododendron Society when they held their conference in Victoria and a tour of the Abkhazi Garden was a conference highlight. There are also rock and alpine plants, naturalized bulbs, and good examples of Japanese Maples and weeping conifers, notable for the careful pruning and training received over the past fifty years.
Canada does not yet have an established tradition of evaluating the historic significance of its cultural landscapes. The US Secretary of the Interior’s recent publication (1996) Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties with guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes would provide some means of historic evaluation. The following considerations applied to the Abkhazi garden would lead to a positive evaluation:
· The site’s artistic integrity;
· Its example of a response to the unique landscape;
· Its lifetime association with its owners/creators;
· Its historic example of a regional gardening style;
· Its relatively good state of preservation;
· The interesting interpretive story attached to the garden’s creation and its creators’ lives.
Over the years starting with the first public garden tour in 1949, many hundreds and thousands of visitors had the opportunity to view and be inspired by the Abkhazis’ efforts. Many thousands more had the opportunity to “visit” the garden by means of film and photographs and such publications as Western Living magazine, Saturday Night, House and Garden (US), City and Country Home, and Journal of the American Rhododendron Society. Nicole Eaton and Hilary Weston featured the garden in In A Canadian Garden with photographs by Canada’s eminent photographer Freeman Patterson. Mr. Patterson has already gone on record advocating the preservation of this garden he likens to heaven. He has kindly loaned some of his remarkable images (included in TLC’s website) of the garden to help us in our campaign to preserve this internationally significant example of Victoria’s horticultural heritage.
Considerable public interest and support is evident for this project, locally, regionally, and in the US. On-going fundraising and creation of an endowment fund will finance the mortgage and enable the long-term conservation of the Abkhazi garden. The Garden Conservancy is not only endorsing the project but also offering technical expertise to properly plan the garden’s long-term feasibility, public access and conservation. TLC will manage the public’s access to the Garden in an appropriate and responsible manner. Area residents and associations will be encouraged to stay involved in the management and maintenance of the Abkhazi Garden. This pioneering project could be a model for future projects of garden conservation locally and across Canada.
UPDATE: January 30/00:
Bill Turner of TLC removed the condition of sale today (Sunday) on the agreement with Graeme Lee to purchase the property for $1,375,000. We have raised over $900,000 in mortgage investment pledges from individuals in less than a week and are fully confident of closing the deal on February 17. Fundraising will be ongoing to pay down the mortgage. Donations can be sent to TLC, 5793 Old West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V8X 3X3, or phoned in to (250) 479-8053.Today’s Times Colonist reported on the vandalism that occurred in the last three or four days. Someone using a very sharp saw cut through some branches on the largest two or three rhodos. Experts were there yesterday doing remedial work and are very optimistic that the rhodos will survive.
All photos by Freeman Patterson.