Topic: Sad news

[Val]

Writer and gardener dies aged 84 
 
Christopher Lloyd at the nursery at Great Dixter
Writer and gardener Christopher Lloyd has died just months after launching a £3m campaign to preserve the house and garden to which he devoted his life.
Mr Lloyd, who was 84, died in hospital in Hastings, East Sussex on Friday. He had a stroke after surgery on his leg, his great nephew Chris Lloyd said.

Great Dixter, at Northiam, near Rye has been in the Lloyd family since 1910 and Mr Lloyd wanted to ensure it survived.

He set up the Great Dixter Charitable Trust to take over when he died.

  My hope is that future generations will share the dynamic and exciting spirit that is Great Dixter today

Mr Lloyd said his great uncle was regarded as the pre-eminent plantsman among the horticultural community.

"He devoted his lifetime to creating one of the most experimental, exciting gardens of our time," Mr Lloyd said.

For over 40 years his great uncle wrote a column in Country Life Magazine and he was a regular contributor to the Guardian's gardening pages. He also wrote about 25 gardening books.

In 1998 he was awarded the OBE for his services to horticulture and he held the Royal Horticultural Society's Victoria Medal - the highest accolade the society can bestow.

Mr Lloyd owned only 40% of Great Dixter, in Northiam, near Rye, which had a record 44,000 visitors last year.

The remaining 60% will need to be bought from Mr Lloyd's niece.

 
The Lloyd family have been at Great Dixter since 1910

The house at Great Dixter dates from about 1460, and was bought by Mr Lloyd's father Nathaniel in 1910.

He employed the architect Edwin Lutyens to restore the original building and extend it by dismantling a smaller house from the same period and transporting it from nearby Benenden, in Kent.

Mr Lloyd was born there in 1921 and studied horticulture at Wye College, near Ashford.

Later he set up a nursery at Great Dixter and developed the garden originally laid out by Lutyens.

"My hope is that future generations will share the dynamic and exciting spirit that is Great Dixter today," he had said.

"I don't want the place to become a museum.

"The garden is sure to change. It has changed a lot in my time and so has the house.

"That's fine, so long as it is appreciated as it deserves."

Perry Rodriguez, spokesman for the trust, said the appeal was started in November, and it was too early to say how well it would take off.

"The garden is one of the best in the UK. We have got friends and people worldwide who love the garden," he said.

"So far we have had a decent amount of interest."

[Mrs Ava]

Oh No!  I didn't know!  Oh, how very very sad.   His garden is beautiful, and they way he used colours and textures was always so refreshing.  That is terribly sad.  :'(

[SueM]

Oh gosh! Christopher Lloyd was my gardening guru. The first gardening book I ever bought was 'Foliage Plants', about 30 years ago, and the second was 'The Well-tempered Garden'. As far as I'm concerned no-one ever came up to his standard of garden writing - I must have just about everything he ever published. I always meant to write and tell him how much his books have meant to me and influenced the way I think about gardening, and now it's too late.
 
However, no-one lives for ever and he was getting very frail. His books and his garden will live on, thank God, and I get the impression that he enjoyed his life and his gardening to the full

Sue

[Lord Steve]

Thanks for posting that Val. What a legend and an inspiration and what a legacy he leaves.

[Kerry]

oh no! he was quite a timeless character for me. i have collected most of his books and he has been an inspiration to me both with his ideas and ethos. he was an excellent writer and conveyed his enthusiasm so well.
MUST get to see great dixter. it's on my 'list'.

[Dan 2]

Oh my goodness! I can't believe him, I was discussing his work only two days ago. I can't believe it! Very sad news.

Dan

[Palustris]

It is a great loss to the gardening world. I too have read all his books. It was and still is an ambition to visit Great Dixter.

[vee]

How sad. I read his articles every Saturday in the Guardian and keep saying 'must go and see the garden'. I hope it stays the same.

[rosebud]

I did not know of his passing, how very sad , i really liked him .
When he was on TV, i always felt relaxed after watching and listening to him.
He had a wonderful garden, God bless him.

[Val]

He was a lovely person as well as a great gardener, I always felt yep my kind of person whenever I saw him on the tele.Its so sad

[flowerlady]

He was a truly gentle man, an inspiration to us all.  He will be greatly missed.  :'(

Thank you for tell us Val.

[Plocket]

Thank you for telling us Val because I missed the news. What a loss, to the gardening world and of course Great Dixter. I hope that I will still get an opportunity to see Great Dixter one day, and that the Charitable Trust will continue to keep GD as Mr Lloyd would have wished.