Further to Monday's post about European Cultural Routes, here is a nice slide show of the botanical garden of Villa Hanbury in Ventimiglia, Liguria, Italy, posted by fraste2. The garden was created by Sir Thomas Hanbury, who later donated land that was to become Wisley Gardens, the showpiece of the UK's Royal Horticultural Society.
Liguria is a great, unspoilt, region of Italy, check out Walking Liguria featured in our guide.
Stuart Robinson from Busselton, Western Australia, has launched blotanical.com, a directory of gardening blogs which offer gardening tips, gardening info and heaps of ideas to help gardeners of all experience get more out of their hobby and out of their gardens. Stuart describes himself as a non-academic but passionate gardener with a real love of gardening, and observes that like most people who potter around, he gardens because it gives pleasure, a sense of satisfaction and a retreat from an insanely busy world.
Blotanical.com has some particularly interesting mashups showing the location of gardening blogs around the world. All gardeners have to retreat from their garden at some time and they will find this a most browsable resource. Well done Stuart, I am sure it will grow :-)
Brooklyn Botanical Gardens celebrates its annual cherry blossom festival, Sakura Matsuri, this weekend, April 28 and 29, 2007 The two-day festival, celebrates Japanese culture and the cherry blossom collection in the botanical gardens, with music, dance, martial art performances, workshops, crafts, and guided tours.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden started as an ash dump just over 200 years ago and today presents a magnificent horticultural display. Sakura Matsuri is often referred to as "New York's Rite of Spring," and many visitors to the festival celebrate the season with cherry-blossom inspired costume; wearing the latest trends in kimono fashion or anime-inspired cosplay costumes.
With warm spring sunshine forecast for most of the UK this Easter holiday, many people will be out and about visiting gardens and many of the gardens will be taking part in the National Gardens Scheme (NGS).
He showed me lilies for my hair And blushing roses for my brow He led me through his garden fair Where all his golden pleasures grow.
From "How Sweet I Roam'd" by William Blake.
The NGS registers nearly 3,500 gardens (mostly private) that are open to the public, in order to raise money for charity; over 530 new gardens have joined the scheme this year.
In the ten years since 1997, more than £15 million has been raised for nursing, gardening and caring charities.
The most popular tourism gardens in The Netherlands is Keukenhof at Lisse, near Amsterdam and it boasts one of the world's greatest displays of tulips and spring flowers. It was established nearly 60 years ago and each spring there is a flower festival when more than 7 million bulbs burst into flower throughout the 70 acre garden.
For the 2007 season, the Keukenhof has chosen the theme 'Linnaeus: King of Flowers Turns 300', to commemorate the birth of Swedish physician and botanist Carolus Linnaeus 300 years ago. Linnaeus had tremendous impact on the bulb world and tulips are still named according to the classification that Linnaeus developed in the 18th century.
The Swedish theme will be incorporated in the park in a wide variety of ways, including a giant portrait (16 x 11 metres) of Pippi Longstocking, the young heroine of Swedish author Astrid Lindgren's beloved series, made out of bulbs designed to bloom in the spring.
This year's International Keukenhof Flower Exhibition will be open from 22 March until 20 May, 2007.
The dates for this year's Chelsea Flower Show are 22-26 May, 2007.
Regarded as the greatest flower show on earth, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show sets the latest trends in horticulture and garden design, it attracts worldwide media attention and has long been the favourite place for plant breeders to unveil new plants.
As in previous years, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show web site is offering 360-degree panoramic tours of all the show gardens, videos of show gardens, small gardens and new plants, plus Webcams.
For the 2007 season, the Keukenhof has chosen the theme 'Linnaeus: King of Flowers Turns 300', to commemorate the birth of Swedish physician and botanist Carolus Linnaeus 300 years ago. Linnaeus had tremendous impact on the bulb world and tulips are still named according to the classification that Linnaeus developed in the 18th century. 
