INSTRUCTION IN PRACTICAL GARDENING FOR LADIES, GLYNDE, NEAR LEWES, SUSSEX
Principal: The Hon. Frances Wolseley
Patrons: The Lady Ardilaun, Miss G. Jekyll, Miss White, E. O. Greening, Esq., W. Robinson, Esq., Mrs. Charles Earle, Miss Willmott
The school was founded in 1901–2, and is supervised by the Hon. Frances Wolseley. The number of students is limited, and great care is taken as to their selection. A personal interview and the highest references are required before admission. The following arrangements for the course of work are a development upon specialised lines of the scheme which has up to now existed. The chief objects of the course are:—
To give a thorough foundation in the management of all the more hardy garden plants.
To improve taste in the laying out and arrangement of gardens. To teach the daily routine work of a private garden, so essential to those who, later, wish to become private head gardeners.
To give students responsibility and thus enable them more easily to be competent to undertake posts when their course of training is completed.
A competent, practical superintendent gives instruction in flower, fruit and vegetable growing. In addition to this well-known advisory experts visit the school from time to time and give lectures upon the theory and special branches of horticulture. H. Edmonds, Esq., B.Sc., of the Municipal School at Brighton, lectures upon Botany and the Chemistry of the Soil.
Mr. Back gives demonstrations upon fruit culture. Mr. Paris lectures upon Bee-keeping. Mr. Edmund D. Foster, Head of the Engineering Department of the Brighton Technical College, has undertaken to lecture upon Land Surveying.
A special feature of the garden is the arrangement of Italian Oil Jars and Lemon Pots.
GATHERING ROSES FOR POT POURRI, SCHOOL OF LADY GARDENERS GLYNDE, SUSSEX
Photograph by Pictorial Agency.
Students are encouraged to take personal interest in all alterations and improvements made in the gardens.
Attention is given to the every-day work of a garden, comprising:—The care of grass, paths and beds; mowing, sweeping and general tidiness; digging, trenching and other ground operations, raising plants from seeds and cuttings, their subsequent treatment; culture of herbaceous alpine plants and roses; forcing violets, Dutch bulbs, richardias, etc.; watering, ventilation and other points of glass-house management. Gathering and packing flowers and general varieties of vegetables for market is carried out. Fruit is grown, including bush, standards, espaliers and strawberries.
Arrangements are made by which students can visit local gardens. They are required to keep notes of these visits and to answer in writing questions upon them. The advantages thus gained to students, in comparing their own work with that of those having life-long experience, will be a special feature of the school.
Students are encouraged to stay two years if it is found that their special needs can be provided for. In any case they should not stay less than one year. Advice is given as to their future.
A half-holiday is given once a week when the necessary work allows. This implies that quiet times alternate with busy ones, and it is necessary that a high standard in the appearance of a garden should be maintained.
Fees for practical instruction, £10 per annum, payable after a week’s mutual trial. Should the student, owing to any serious breach of discipline, be asked to leave at Miss Wolseley’s wish, this sum is refunded.
The lectures of experts are £2 per annum extra.
Preparation for Royal Horticultural Society’s Examination, £1 extra, but only two-year students go in for this.
Lodgings, conveniently near the gardens, where several students board together, can be secured at 17s. per week, for board and lodging. Each student defrays these expenses.