National treasure Dame Judi Dench may have spent decades feeling at home on the stage and screen, but it’s her garden where she truly finds ‘solace’, as she tells Jo Whiley during the latest RHS Roots podcast. Dame Judy even uses her personal outdoor space to pay tribute to friends, colleagues and loved ones in a unique and moving way, through planting trees.
‘As friends die, I plant a tree to them,’ Dame Judi tells Jo Whiley, as the pair sit together on a bench in Judi’s garden. One of the trees was planted in memory of fellow legendary British actor, Dame Maggie Smith, and there are at least 100 others in the memorial woodland. ‘That’s a lot of people to have lost, but that’s what happens when you get to 91,’ Judi says.
Another example is a magnolia tree which commemorates a childhood friend, Dingo, who her brother was at school with, and Judi says was ‘always at our house’ growing up. She points out another planted in honour of John Stride, who once played Romeo at The Old Vic theatre opposite Judi as Juliet. A video of the interview pans to show small slate signs hung from branches bearing names including Maggie Smith, Donald Sinden and Bernard Culshaw.
Karwai Tang
Dame Judi Dench at Chelsea Flower Show in 2024.
There are other sentimental details in Dame Judi’s garden connecting to her past, too, including a statue of Queen Victoria. Judi was gifted the statue from the set of the 2017 film Victoria and Abdu, in which she played Queen Victoria. She even has a pool which her family love to come over and swim in. During her conversation with Jo, Judi also reflects on gardens she remembers from growing up, speaking of raking pears from a neighbour’s tree, a greenhouse filled with grapes and the scent of lily of the valley.
Judi says that she enjoys spending time in her garden and agrees that the space has given her ‘solace’, particularly as her eyesight is deteriorating. During their conversation, Jo asks if Judi gains ‘hope and joy’ from being in the garden and Dame Judi says, ‘yes, I think, always.’
Judi credits her gardener, Joe, for looking after her expansive grounds ‘beautifully’ as, despite her love of nature and the outdoors, she isn’t green-fingered herself. In fact, she confesses to having a phobia of worms, after one got into her shoe when she was a young girl. You can watch the full interview above.
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