I: Wondering about the members...



 
Well, Nan, yes I am still gardening, and so busy that I hardly have the time to do anything else- ofr instance ahving a personal life!
I still work for the American academy in Rome as Superintendent of the Garden but basically after having finished the restauration and rejuvenation of the gardens there I became a sort of outer consultant and cut on the time passed there. I now go there once a week to review activities, assign garden tasks, plan etc, except when we undertake serious, important garden projects - in these cases I stay longer. I have a very good team of gardeners and arborists that keep the gardens going.
Meanwhile I became Garden Director at La Mortella (www.lamortella.org) the gardens created by Russell Page and Lady Walton in Ischia,an island off the bay of Naples. Lady Walton, who is now elderly, passed into my hands the total management of the complex - gardens and cultural activities alike;  actually she founded a charity, the William Walton Foundation, to run the gadrens and I work for this charity. 
I basically live in this island most of the time now, and yes, I do mediterranean gardening quite a lot, not only because the island is in the middle of the eponymous sea, but also because I started a major project to transfrom  several parts of the garden into  "waterwise" areas. 
La Mortella  is  divided into two parts, the moist, shady, tropical looking, sheltered valley with stunning collections of tree ferns, palm trees, tropical cycads etc, and the sunny, dry-ish, windy, exposed hillside - that I am developing into a serious Med-garden. 
I have  a lot of fun experimenting with plants, and in a way I see this garden as a trial ground to test plants for gardens in the South. I am building a sort of living archive; just to mention a few, I currently grow  about 40 different vars of  Japanese maples (Acer palmatum and japonicum) growing in a shady corner of the oriental garden, I decided to test them because I had read somewhere (possibly on Pacific Hort?) they are the only maples that can stand southern climates and I can now confirm they can actually make it in our extreme conditions - in almost full shade. I am doing the same with roses - huge climbing roses such as Laevigata, La Follette, Gigantea but also smaller ones- and clematises, the texensis and viticella group, plus some species clem. I recently planted a small arboretum of Oaks from hot areas, and a few months ago we received as a gift a collection of Aloes that I intend to develop; you can read the story on our website, here: http://www.lamortella.!
 org/content/view/74/188/lang,en/.
During the last 3 or 4 years  we built an open air theatre, besides several other garden features, and made the total of this steep, vertical hill garden wheeelchair accessible. We built ramps everywhere, a huge (and expensive) effort, as we made a point in integrating the ramps into the landscape and make them look as though they were part of the original dry stone walls.
The place has an intense musical programs run in conjunction with music schools and conservatories, with about 80 concerts a year plus masterclasses and residencies, and we have open air concerts with youth orchestras (we only work with young musicians and students).
I oversee all this as well.
We  have 6 gardeners and various other staff for a total of 25; the garden is open to the public from april to november and has about 65.000 visitors a year.
There would be more to say, but maybe it is enough for now.
So you see I do not have much time to contribute to the discussions, but I read you all a lot!
Best to everyone,
Alessandra



Alessandra Vinciguerra
Bass Superintendent of Gardens
American Academy in Rome
http://www.aarome.org/#place5


Director 
Giardini La Mortella
The William Walton Trust
Fondazione William Walton e La Mortella
www.lamortella.org





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