The British invasion — the botanical version — continues this month with a presentation by the head gardener of one of the world’s most prestigious gardens.
Troy Scott Smith, who has been in his current position at Sissinghurst Castle Garden in the United Kingdom since 2013, is the second head gardener from a world-renowned UK garden to speak in Portland this year.
The Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, which is behind the Scott Smith talk Sept. 21 at Roosevelt High School, also hosted Fergus Garrett of Great Dixter Garden in March, drawing a capacity crowd.
Troy Scott Smith, who has served as head gardener at Sissinghurst Castle Garden in the United Kingdom since 2013, will speak Sept. 21 at Roosevelt High School in Portland.Courtesy of Sissinghurst Castle Garden
Scott Smith will talk about Sissinghurst, which at one time was a prisoner of war camp during the Seven Years’ War but which really began to come into its own when it was purchased in 1930 by poet/author Vita Sackville-West and author/diplomat (and part-time garden designer) Harold Nicolson.
By 1938 it was open to the public and in 2021-22, drew 150,000 visitors to the five-acre garden, which boasts one of the world’s top collections of old roses.
The National Trust took over operation of the property, known for its garden “rooms” before garden rooms became a thing, in 1967, combining Nicolson’s structured design with Sackville-West’s passion for plants.
A garden room, much like a room in a house, is an area with its own identity, as it were. Instead of floor-to-ceiling walls, though, garden rooms are delineated by hedges or trees or manmade structures such as rock walls. They also tend to focus specific plant selections, be it terms of color or size or variety. Perhaps the best-known of Sissinghurst’s garden rooms is the White Garden, which Sackville-West decided would feature only the colors of white, green, gray and silver.
What: A presentation by Troy Scott Smith, the head gardener at Sissinghurst Castle Garden.
When: 2-3:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21; doors open at 1:30 p.m.
Where: Roosevelt High School, 6941 N. Central St., Portland
Tickets: $25 for HPSO members, $35 for nonmembers at hpso.memberclicks.net/2025-sissinghurst#
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