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It’s almost show time at London’s Chelsea Flower Show, the garden world’s most prestigious event. Internationally it’s regarded as the place for garden designers and their creations to be seen, yet it remains a 1)quintessentially English event.
There are flower shows all over the world, but it would be hard to imagine any that could top Chelsea. It’s one of the oldest and certainly the most prestigious. The Royal Family always come here, and, of course, its location in the centre of London 2)underlines its cultural significance. But what is it about Englishness and gardens that create such a powerful and lucrative partnership?
Well, history and reputation certainly play a big role. The English have been at the gardening 3)vanguard for centuries, thanks to a combination of empire, geography and climate. Today, international buyers can expect to pay around a million pounds 4)sterling, in some cases five or six times that, for English designs.
This exportability has seen numerous countries knock on the door of one of the UK’s most famous gardens, the Eden Project. At a cost of ￡141 million, it’s the largest greenhouse in the world, and it’s home to some 8,000 species. Since opening a decade ago, it’s welcomed 13 million visitors and generated a 5)reputed ￡1.1 billion for local economy in the southwest of England. Tim Smit (Eden Project Founder): It has been a lot easier exporting Eden because the British are so closely associated with great gardens, whether it be perfume brands, whether it be the 6)décor in far eastern shopping malls, the whole idea of 7)ladies in lavender and great gardens is big stuff abroad. I would say one of our greatest exports is the emotional landscape of gardening, which also reflects the British personality: 8)quixotic, slightly mad and genius all at once.
The irony is that much of what’s found in the gardens of England today is not English at all. In fact, the English garden is something of a 9)horticultural 10)magpie.
Ancestors of these 11)rhododendrons were brought here to Keyes Castle in Cornwall for the Williams family in the late 19th century and early 20th century. They were part of a long tradition of British families who commissioned plant hunters—or plant pirates, really—to travel the world in search of new specimens from North America to China. From the 17th century onwards, an increasing number of English gardeners were populating their plots with foreign 12)booty. The result was a botanical “13)big bang.”
Four hundred years later, what defines a modern English garden?
Andy Sturgeon (Garden Designer): It’s quite hard to really put your finger on it, but it seems to draw very much on the past still, so that tends to be quite formal and structured, but perhaps not necessarily 14)symmetrical in the way that the grand gardens of the past have been. It seems to be that there’s an element of this Englishness required around the world, and it started coming, really, from Russia, 15)predominantly, but also around Europe in general, and the Ukraine. And now the interest is moving more to the sort of southeast of Asia, I suppose. We’ve moved through China and Korea and those countries as well are now very interested.
So what we call the English garden is actually a 16)mongrel set of influences from around the world. So it’s no real surprise to find the international community gathered here at Chelsea to show off their gardens. And certainly, standing here at the Irish Sky Garden, I have to remember that, although Chelsea may be about power, it’s also about plants, beauty and showing off.
伦敦的切尔西花展马上就要开幕了，这是世界园艺界最有声望的盛事。这个花展在国际上被视为花园设计师及其作品被众人观摩的最佳场所，而它同时又是一次非常典型的英式盛会。
世界上有许许多多的花展，但你很难想象有哪个能超越切尔西花展。它是世界上历史最悠久，而且毫无疑问是最享有盛名的花展之一。英国皇室成员总会亲临花展；当然，它地处伦敦市中心区的事实也彰显了其文化的重要性。那么，英国特色与花园这一对影响力超强且又能赚钱的搭档究竟有什么特别之处？
这个嘛，历史与声誉当然是举足轻重的。数百年来，英国人一直都是园艺方面的先行者，这是拜大英帝国、地理位置和天气条件等因素所赐。如今，国际买家想购买英国花园的设计方案，要支付大约一百万英镑的费用，有时还要花上这个价钱的五六倍之多。
多个国家蜂拥而至，纷纷来到英国最出名的花园之一伊甸园——这正是英国花园出口能力的明证。伊甸园是世界上最大的温室，造价一亿四千一百万英镑，园内培植有八千多种花卉。自十年前开业以来，伊甸园已经接待了一千三百万游客，更为英格兰西南部的地方经济赚取了可观的十一亿英镑。
提姆·斯米特（伊甸园创办人）：输出伊甸园非常容易，因为在世人眼里，英国人与漂亮的花园密不可分。不管是香水品牌，还是远东购物中心的装饰风格，其所呈现的英国富庶田园生活和好看的英式花园在海外都大受欢迎。我敢说，花园输出最了不起的一面是依附于园艺的情感因素，因为它同时反映了英国人的特性：集想入非非、些许癫狂和天聪于一身。
可讽刺的是，当今英国花园里所见的大多数花卉却并非出自本土。事实是，英国花园是一个园艺大杂烩。
这些杜鹃花的祖先由威廉姆斯家族在十九世纪末到二十世纪初引进到康沃尔的基斯堡。这种做法有着悠久的传统——英国家族聘请植物搜寻者，或者准确地说是植物走私者，到世界各地去寻找新品种，他们的搜寻范围包括从北美洲到中国的广泛地区。从十七世纪开始，越来越多的英国园丁在花园里种植从国外得到的品种。这种做法导致花园里的植物品种迅猛增加。
四百年过去了，当代的英国花园有什么特点呢？
安迪·斯特金（花园设计师）：这个东西很难定义，不过它似乎还是与过去联系紧密，因此，花园多数结构呈规则的几何图形，布局井然，却又不像过去的花园那样有很强的对称性。如今，似乎世界各地对英国特色元素都有一定的要求。这种要求当初主要来自俄罗斯，而欧洲总体来说，以及乌克兰也有这种要求。我觉得，现在这方面的兴趣更多来自东南亚一带，中国和韩国等国家对此也有浓厚的兴趣。
这么说，所谓的英国花园实际上是世界各地风格的混合体，因此，也难怪国际社会都云集切尔西花展展示他们的花园。身处爱尔兰天空花园，我必须牢记一点：切尔西花展固然与其影响力有关，但它也是植物和美的展示地，更是人们炫耀园艺技艺的一个好机会。翻译：丁一
There are flower shows all over the world, but it would be hard to imagine any that could top Chelsea. It’s one of the oldest and certainly the most prestigious. The Royal Family always come here, and, of course, its location in the centre of London 2)underlines its cultural significance. But what is it about Englishness and gardens that create such a powerful and lucrative partnership?
Well, history and reputation certainly play a big role. The English have been at the gardening 3)vanguard for centuries, thanks to a combination of empire, geography and climate. Today, international buyers can expect to pay around a million pounds 4)sterling, in some cases five or six times that, for English designs.
This exportability has seen numerous countries knock on the door of one of the UK’s most famous gardens, the Eden Project. At a cost of ￡141 million, it’s the largest greenhouse in the world, and it’s home to some 8,000 species. Since opening a decade ago, it’s welcomed 13 million visitors and generated a 5)reputed ￡1.1 billion for local economy in the southwest of England. Tim Smit (Eden Project Founder): It has been a lot easier exporting Eden because the British are so closely associated with great gardens, whether it be perfume brands, whether it be the 6)décor in far eastern shopping malls, the whole idea of 7)ladies in lavender and great gardens is big stuff abroad. I would say one of our greatest exports is the emotional landscape of gardening, which also reflects the British personality: 8)quixotic, slightly mad and genius all at once.
The irony is that much of what’s found in the gardens of England today is not English at all. In fact, the English garden is something of a 9)horticultural 10)magpie.
Ancestors of these 11)rhododendrons were brought here to Keyes Castle in Cornwall for the Williams family in the late 19th century and early 20th century. They were part of a long tradition of British families who commissioned plant hunters—or plant pirates, really—to travel the world in search of new specimens from North America to China. From the 17th century onwards, an increasing number of English gardeners were populating their plots with foreign 12)booty. The result was a botanical “13)big bang.”
Four hundred years later, what defines a modern English garden?
Andy Sturgeon (Garden Designer): It’s quite hard to really put your finger on it, but it seems to draw very much on the past still, so that tends to be quite formal and structured, but perhaps not necessarily 14)symmetrical in the way that the grand gardens of the past have been. It seems to be that there’s an element of this Englishness required around the world, and it started coming, really, from Russia, 15)predominantly, but also around Europe in general, and the Ukraine. And now the interest is moving more to the sort of southeast of Asia, I suppose. We’ve moved through China and Korea and those countries as well are now very interested.
So what we call the English garden is actually a 16)mongrel set of influences from around the world. So it’s no real surprise to find the international community gathered here at Chelsea to show off their gardens. And certainly, standing here at the Irish Sky Garden, I have to remember that, although Chelsea may be about power, it’s also about plants, beauty and showing off.
伦敦的切尔西花展马上就要开幕了，这是世界园艺界最有声望的盛事。这个花展在国际上被视为花园设计师及其作品被众人观摩的最佳场所，而它同时又是一次非常典型的英式盛会。
世界上有许许多多的花展，但你很难想象有哪个能超越切尔西花展。它是世界上历史最悠久，而且毫无疑问是最享有盛名的花展之一。英国皇室成员总会亲临花展；当然，它地处伦敦市中心区的事实也彰显了其文化的重要性。那么，英国特色与花园这一对影响力超强且又能赚钱的搭档究竟有什么特别之处？
这个嘛，历史与声誉当然是举足轻重的。数百年来，英国人一直都是园艺方面的先行者，这是拜大英帝国、地理位置和天气条件等因素所赐。如今，国际买家想购买英国花园的设计方案，要支付大约一百万英镑的费用，有时还要花上这个价钱的五六倍之多。
多个国家蜂拥而至，纷纷来到英国最出名的花园之一伊甸园——这正是英国花园出口能力的明证。伊甸园是世界上最大的温室，造价一亿四千一百万英镑，园内培植有八千多种花卉。自十年前开业以来，伊甸园已经接待了一千三百万游客，更为英格兰西南部的地方经济赚取了可观的十一亿英镑。
提姆·斯米特（伊甸园创办人）：输出伊甸园非常容易，因为在世人眼里，英国人与漂亮的花园密不可分。不管是香水品牌，还是远东购物中心的装饰风格，其所呈现的英国富庶田园生活和好看的英式花园在海外都大受欢迎。我敢说，花园输出最了不起的一面是依附于园艺的情感因素，因为它同时反映了英国人的特性：集想入非非、些许癫狂和天聪于一身。
可讽刺的是，当今英国花园里所见的大多数花卉却并非出自本土。事实是，英国花园是一个园艺大杂烩。
这些杜鹃花的祖先由威廉姆斯家族在十九世纪末到二十世纪初引进到康沃尔的基斯堡。这种做法有着悠久的传统——英国家族聘请植物搜寻者，或者准确地说是植物走私者，到世界各地去寻找新品种，他们的搜寻范围包括从北美洲到中国的广泛地区。从十七世纪开始，越来越多的英国园丁在花园里种植从国外得到的品种。这种做法导致花园里的植物品种迅猛增加。
四百年过去了，当代的英国花园有什么特点呢？
安迪·斯特金（花园设计师）：这个东西很难定义，不过它似乎还是与过去联系紧密，因此，花园多数结构呈规则的几何图形，布局井然，却又不像过去的花园那样有很强的对称性。如今，似乎世界各地对英国特色元素都有一定的要求。这种要求当初主要来自俄罗斯，而欧洲总体来说，以及乌克兰也有这种要求。我觉得，现在这方面的兴趣更多来自东南亚一带，中国和韩国等国家对此也有浓厚的兴趣。
这么说，所谓的英国花园实际上是世界各地风格的混合体，因此，也难怪国际社会都云集切尔西花展展示他们的花园。身处爱尔兰天空花园，我必须牢记一点：切尔西花展固然与其影响力有关，但它也是植物和美的展示地，更是人们炫耀园艺技艺的一个好机会。翻译：丁一