July 2008 Newsletter: Royal gardens

[Anna_R]

Welcome to the July 2008 Newsletter. This month, as we look forward for the Summer holidays (both our own and of the royals), we'll focus on Royal Gardens. In an overview, we bring you profiles of some of them around the world, including Denmark, England and Brazil.

We hope you enjoy your reading and have a fantastic Summer

The Newsletter Team.
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[Anna_R]

Changes in the Moderation Team

Avalon is continuing to have serious problems with internet access, partly as a result of the political situation in Armenia. She has therefore (temporarily, we hope) stepped down from the admin team again and given up the moderation of her forums. Please don't send her any PMs, because she probably won't be able to read them and her inbox is close to being full. If anyone would like updates on her situation, please feel free to contact any of the admins.

Kimebear has joined the British forum moderation team.


The Royal Book Club

The book club selection for July is Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne by Ben Hills. Anyone who is interested in taking part in the discussion of this book may do so in this thread.

The poll to decide the book club selections for September through December is open and will close on 15 July. There's still time to vote! You can see the list of books and vote for your favourites in the poll in this thread.


The Royal Articles

After a delay of a few months, we have a new article at The Royal Articles. BeatrixFan has written an informative and entertaining article on Royal Death.


Clean-up in Crown Princess Victoria's forum

Over the past months, the Swedish moderators have performed clean-up in Crown Princess Victoria's forum. We have done this to ensure that posts on the same topic are kept together, so people can continue to discuss the subject and have previous context available, long after the current events threads have been closed.

In this time, we have split out a lot of topics that are repeated often in the discussion, we've deleted off-topic posts, posts where the context have disappeared and which doesn't make sense standing alone, or for various other reasons. (If your post count has gone down, and you've been posting in the Swedish forum this might be why)

Subsequently, the number of current events threads for Crown Princess Victoria has gone down from twenty to seven. As a replacement, we have, among other things, Victoria as a Godmother, Victoria the Bridesmaid, Victoria in the military, Victoria and dyslexia, Victoria and anorexia, and a discussion about Victoria's biological clock…

 

[Anna_R]

Birthdays

June 1 - Prince Christian of Hannover (1985)
June 2 - Princess Désirée of Sweden, Baroness Silferschöld (1938)
June 2 - Ex-King Constantine of Greece (1940)
June 3 - Prince Felix of Luxembourg (1984)
June 3 - Prince Tirso of Bulgaria (2002)
June 3 - Countess Leonore of Orange-Nassau, Jonkvrouw van Amsberg (2006)
June 4 - Shaikh Khalifa of Brunei (1977)
June 5 - Princess Astrid of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria-Este (1962)
June 5 - Doña Irene Urdangarin y de Borbon (2005)
June 6 - King Albert II of the Belgians (1934)
June 7 - Prince Joachim of Denmark (1969)
June 8 - Andrea Albert Pierre Casiraghi (1984)
June 8 - Countess Eloise van Oranje-Nassau, Jonkvrouwe van Amsberg (2002)
June 9 - Princess Ragnhild of Norway, Mrs. Lorentzen (1930)
June 9 - Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark (1983)
June 9 - Prince Timotheus Friedrich of Prussia (2005)
June 10 - Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921)
June 10 - Prince Hubertus of Hohenzollern (1966)
June 10 - Prince Hashim of Jordan (1981)
June 10 - Princess Madeleine of Sweden (1982)
June 11 - Queen Fabiola of Belgium (1928)
June 11 - Prince Henrik, the Prince Consort of Denmark (1934)
June 11 - Prince Alois of Liechtenstein (1968)
June 12 - Princess Sibilla of Luxembourg (1968)
June 13 - Infanta Cristina de Borbon (1965)
June 13 - Duke Kirill Friedrich-August of Oldenburg (2002)
June 16 - Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1937)
June 18 - Countess Zaria of Orange-Nassau, Jonkvrouwe van Amsberg (2006)
June 20 - Birgitte, The Duchess of Gloucester (1946)
June 21 - Prince William of Wales (1982)
June 22 - Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Prince of Venice and Piedmont (1972)
June 23 - Maria Carolina de Bourbon-Parma, Marchioness of Sala (1974)
June 24 - Duchess Bibiane Marie Alexandra of Oldenburg (1974)
June 26 - George, Earl of St. Andrews (1962)
June 26 - Yasmine Pahlavi (1968)
June 26 - Princess Marie-Astrid Nora Margarita Veronica of Liechtenstein (1987)
June 26 - Princess Alexia of the Netherlands (2005)
June 28 - Prince Hussein of Jordan (1994)
June 30 - Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg (1964)
June 30 - Shaikh Abdullah of Bahrain (1975)

Weddings and Anniversaries

June 4 - Hugh Van Cutsem & Rose Astor
June 5 - Princess Désirée and Baron Niclas Silfverschiöld
June 6 - Princess Alexandra & Jefferson von Pfeil und Klein-Ellgut
June 10 - Queen Margrethe & Prince Henrik: 10 June 1967
June 10 - King Abdullah of Jordan and Queen Rania: 10 June 1993
June 19 - King Carl Gustaf & Silvia Sommerlath - June 19th 1976
June 19 - Prince Edward and Sophie-Rhys Jones: 19 June 1999
June 21 - HRH Prince Charles-Philippe d'Orléans and Diana, Duchess of Cadaval, 21 June, 2008.
June 24 - Princess Badiya of Jordan & Khalid Blair
June 29 - Prince Akishino and Kiko Kawashima of Japan
June 29 - Princess Caroline of Monaco and Phillipe Junot / June 29th, 1978

Activities

June 1-9 - The Earl of Wessex carried engagements in Manitoba and Ontario, Canada

June 3-4 - State visit of The King of Spain to Germany

June 5-6 - State visit from Vietnam to Norway

June 6 - Sweden's National Day

June 10-12 - State visit of The King and Queen of Belgium to Estonia

June 10 - Queen Margrethe II received Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung in a private audience at Christian IX’s Palace, Amalienborg

June 14 - The Spanish Royal Family officially opened Expo Zaragoza, who'll take place until September 14th and will be visited by several royals

June 14 - Trooping the Colour, UK

June 16-19 - The King and Queen of Norway visited Nordland

June 17-19 - Crown Prince Frederik, Crown Princess Mary, Prince Christian and Princess Isabella toured Denmark aboard the Royal Yacht Dannebrog

June 17 - 20 - Royal Ascot 2008

June 21-27 - : Crown Princes Haakon, Frederik and Crown Princess Victoria visited Svalbard

June 23 - The Prince of Orange and Princess Maxima were received for an informal dinner by the Princes of Asturias in their residence

June 24-26 - State Visit of Queen Beatrix to the Republic of Lithuania

June 24 - Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Maxima were the first royals to visit the Expo Zaragoza in Spain. They came to celebrate "The Netherland's day"

June 25 - King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, together with Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia received Prince Albert II of Monaco for lunch in connection to his visit to Expo Zaragoza 2008

June 26 - Prince Albert visit the Expo Zaragoza on "Monaco Day"

June 27-30 - 350th anniversary of the Royal Danish Guardsmen.

June 29 - Marie Chantal gives birth to a boy.
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[Anna_R]

Birthdays

July 1 - Birthday of Diana, Princess of Wales (1961)
July 1 - Birthday of Charles Armstrong-Jones (1999)
July 3 - Birthday of Prince Maximilian, Margrave of Baden (1933)
July 3 - Birthday of Princess Marie Louise of Baden (1969)
July 4 - Birthday of Prince Michael of Kent (1942)
July 4 - Birthday of Princess Chulabhorn of Thailand (1957)
July 4 - Birthday of Queen Sonja of Norway (1937)
July 7 - Birthday of Prince Nicholas of Montenegro (1944)
July 9 - Birthday of Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark (1965)
July 11 - Birthday of Prince Kyrill, Prince of Preslay (1964)
July 11 - Birthday of Prince Jean-Christophe Napoleon (1986)
July 12 - Birthday of Count Jefferson von Pfeil und Klein-Ellguth (1967)
July 14 - Birthday of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden (1977)
July 15 - Birthday of Camille Gottlieb (1998)
July 15 - Birthday of Prince Lukas of Bulgaria (1997)
July 15 - Birthday of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei (1946)
July 16 - Birthday of Princess Marie of Liechtenstein (1975)
July 17 - Birthday of Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall (1947)
July 17 - Birthday of Crown Prince Alexander Kara?or?evi? (1945)
July 17 - Birthday of Felipe Juan Froilan de Marichilar y Borbon (1998)
July 18 - Birthday of Muna Juma of Jordan (1996)
July 18 - Birthday of Prince Alexander of Belgium (1942)
July 19 - Birthday of Prince Ernst-August Jr. of Hannover (1983)
July 20 - Birthday of Crown Prince Haakon of Norway (1973)
July 20 - Birthday of Princess Alexandra of Hannover (1999)
July 22 - Birthday of Prince Felix of Denmark (2002)
July 23 - Birthday of Princess Georgina Maximiliane Tatjana Maria of Liechtenstein (2005)
July 24 - Birthday of Princess Sarvath of Jordan (1947)
July 25 - Birthday of Lord Nicholas Windsor (1970)
July 25 - Birthday of Princess Maria Olympia of Greece and Denmark (1996)
July 27 - Birthday of Archduke Bartholomeus of Austria (2006)
July 27 - Birthday of Princess Mafalda-Ceceilia of Bulgaria (1994)
July 28 - Birthday of Crown Prinxe Vajiralongkorn of Thailand (1952)
July 28 - Birthday of Samuel Chatto (1996)
July 30 - Birthday of Young Crown Prince Hridayendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev of Nepal (2002)
July 30 - Birthday of Infanta Maria del Pilar (1936)
July 30 - Birthday of Carlos Morales y de Grecia (2005)
July 31 - Birthday of Marina Ogilvy (1966)
July 31 - Birthday of Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern (1932)

Anniversaries

July 1 - Wedding Anniversary of Archduke Maximilian of Austria and Maya Askari
July 2 - Wedding Anniversary of King Albert II & Donna Paola Ruffo di Calabria of Belgium
July 3 - Wedding Anniversary of Prince Alois of Liechtenstein & Sophie Duchess in Bavaria
July 3 - Wedding Anniversary of Clarissa zu Toerring-Jettenbach & Prince Tassillo
July 6 - Death of Edward VI
July 6 - Death of Henry II
July 6 - Wedding Anniversary of King George V and Queen Mary
July 7 - Death of Edward I: 07-07-2008
July 7 - Wedding Anniversary of Prince Bernhard van Orange-Nassau and Annette Sekreve
July 8 - Wedding Anniversary of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester
July 8 - Wedding Anniversary of Princess Alexia and Carlos Morales Quintana
July 8 - Wedding Anniversary of Alexandra zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn & Count Stefano
July 12 - Wedding Anniversary of King Mohammed VI & Salma Bennani of Morocco
July 14 - Wedding Anniversary of Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones and Daniel Chatto
July 17 - Wedding Anniversary of Prince Constantin of Liechtenstein & Marie Countess Kálnoky
July 18 - Wedding Anniversary of Lady Helen Windsor and Timothy Taylor
July 23 - Wedding Anniversary of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson
July 26 - Death Anniversary of Shahanshah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
July 29 - Wedding Anniversary of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer
July 29 - Wedding anniversary of Reigning Prince Hans Adam II and Countess Marie Kinsky
July 30 - Death of Emperor Meiji
July 30 - Death Anniversary of late King Baudouin of Belgium
July 31 - Enthronement Anniversary of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei

Events
July 3 - Prince Philippe of Belgium to visit Expo Zaragoza 2008
July 14 - Celebration of the Victoria Day, Sweden
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[Anna_R]

The Danish Gardens

In Denmark, quite a few parks are associated with the royals. The Rosenborg Castle gardens, primarily known as Kongens Have (or the King's Gardens) are a focal point in spring and summer in Copenhagen. Friends and families gather in the gardens for picnics, a beer or two, or a game of bocce.

The gardens were first planted at the same time as construction commenced on Rosenborg Castle, in the 1600s. It was King Christian IV who ordered the construction stated, and in the first few centuries, the gardens were solely for the use of the Royal Family. However, as the usage of Rosenborg Castle by the royal family declined, the gardens were opened to the public in the beginning of the 18th century.

Just as Kongens Have is in frequent use in Copenhagen today, so is also Frederiksberg Have. It is the park surrounding Frederiksberg castle. The park and castle was constructed during King Frederik IV’s reign. It changed from the baroque to the romance style in the early 19th century, and King Frederik VI who spent a lot of time at Frederiksberg castle, had a special affinity for the gardens. The King liked to walk in the gardens to be close to his subjects. The castle is no longer in royal use, and the park today is open for everybody.

When Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Ingrid of Denmark took over the use of Gråsten in 1936, Crown Princess Ingrid, who was known to be a lover of gardens and flowers, started a renovation of the gardens. She used inspiration from her Swedish background: the gardens at Drottningholm and the gardens at Sofiero where she was raised. Sofiero was known for its rhododendrons, and Ingrid used rhododendrons in her gardens both at Gråsten, but also at Fredensborg. But Ingrid’s ideas for landscaping did not solely come from Sweden, but also by way of England, and the gardens at her maternal grandparents’ residence of Bagshot Park.. For more information on the gardens at Gråsten: click here

North of Copenhagen, the Palace of Fredensborg is also known for its gardens. The reserve gardens is the private garden of the royal family, and as Queen Ingrid took a great interest in landscape gardening, she left her mark on the gardens at Fredensborg. As a result, the reserve gardens are also in the style of an English garden.

The garden is open to the public in July, when the royal family isn’t in attendance at the Palace.

~Norwegianne
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[Anna_R]

The Garden at Highgrove

When the Prince of Wales bought the Highgrove estate in 1980, the gardens, such as they were, had been neglected for a long time. This gave the Prince an opportunity to create a garden more or less from scratch, in accord with his ideas about working with nature to create a pesticide- and chemical-free organic garden that would be productive as well as beautiful and would also serve as a haven for wildlife.

At an early stage in planning, the Prince consulted with Lady Salisbury, a friend with experience in organic gardening, and developed some ideas about how to create the sort of garden he wanted. With the help of another expert gardener, Miriam Rothschild, whose speciality is wildflower gardening, the Prince turned a meadow near the house into a spectacular setting for wildflowers and bulbs.

The Prince and Lady Salisbury created the walled kitchen garden which grows fruit, vegetables, and herbs for use in the house, as well as roses and other fragrant flowers. The flowers help attract pollinating insects to the garden, as well as ladybugs and other predators of insect pests, which is important in a pesticide-free garden. The garden contains many traditional varieties of fruits and vegetables, including old English varieties of apple trees which are becoming rare in the country as a whole. Lady Salisbury also helped the Prince to create a rose garden near the house, surrounded by yew hedges to give some privacy which did not exist in the original garden. Mature yew hedges make for a very effective barrier to photographers with their long lenses! Hedges and hedgerows also attract nesting birds, and the hedges at Highgrove have been planted with a view to providing a home for birds and other wildlife as well as for privacy. An ambitious tree-planting programme has also helped bring birds to the property.

Behind the house, the Prince converted a long gravel walk into a path made of stone and brick, with different varieties of thyme planted at the borders of the path - another example of the use of fragrant plants that attract beneficial insects to the garden.

One of the more unusual parts of the garden at Highgrove is the sewage garden, an reed-bed area where the waste from the house is collected and treated. Consisting of an area of reeds and an area planted with basket willows, together with marsh marigolds to create some visual interest, the reed bed drains into a pond that has been landscaped with water plants which attract dragonflies. The water that emerges from this treatment is clean enough to be safely discharged into the river.

Sir Roy Strong has referred to the Highgrove garden as the most important garden created in Britain in the 1980s. Although the garden is not open to the public, groups from charities and gardening associations may visit by appointment. The garden has been evolving since its inception and will doubtless continue to do so.

More information about the garden at Highgrove, including some photos, may be found here and here. A couple of books have been written about the garden and farm at Highgrove, with cooperation and participation by the Prince; these are Highgrove: Portrait of an Estate and The Garden at Highgrove. For members who are interested in discussing this garden, we have a thread here.

~Elspeth
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[Anna_R]

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, although it's maybe one of which we know less about. A lot has been said about its shape and dimensions, but no detailed description or any archeologic traces were ever found besides a very uncommon well that seems to have been used to pump water.

The tale tells that the Gardens were composed by six mounds of artificial land, with terraces that contained trees that were sustained by columns that had between 25 to 100 meters and that the Garden was built by king Nebuchadnezzar II in order to please and offer some comfort to his favorite wife, Amitis, that had been born in Media, a neighboring kingdom and constantly missed the firelds and forests of her hometown. To get to the Gardens, people used a marble staircase. The terraces were built one above the other and were fueled by water that was pumped from the Eufrates river. In those terraces there were tropical flowers and trees and streets formed by very tall palms. From the Garden it was possible to have a priviledged view of the town. The date of its destruction isn't known, but it is believed that it happened around the same time that the palace of king Nebuchadnezzar II was destroyed, since there were rumours that the Garden was built on top of the palace.

The Gardens of Versailles

The gardens of Versailles are certainly as famous as the palace itself. This patrimony has been the witness of history and its most brutal episodes. Since the Revolution, the park of Versailles covers 815 hectares (8000 before the abolition of Monarchy) 93 hectares of which are dedicated to the beautiful and blossoming gardens.

The idea of creating such a place came in 1661 when Louis XIV was invited by Nicolas Fouquet to visit Vaux-le-Victome. The King was extremely impressed by the beauty of the gardens and became immediately jealous. On his return, he summoned the best gardeners, architects and painters in France to start working on a project. He wanted his palace to be the most magnificent in all of France, something which no one could compete with. Many aspects of the garden have been remodeled through the years, contributing to the tremendous result that 3.3 million tourists come to admire each year. The rigorousness of the geometrical lines mixing with the fantasy of the patterns created a unique atmosphere where Apollo has his throne , thanks to the well-known gardener of King Louis XIV, André Le Nôtre. With its 200,000 trees and 210,000 flowering plants added each year, 50 fountains, 620 water jets, 2 100 sculptures, the park is undoubtably the most amazing in France. It has been said that unlike English gardens, which work with nature, the garden at Versailles is the supreme example of a garden that was intended to dominate nature.

 

[Anna_R]

Rio de Janeiro's Botanical Garden

The Prince-Regent D. João created in the old "Engenho da Lagoa", that belonged to Rodrigo de Freitas, the Jardim de Aclimação, that aimed to acclimate the spice plants brought from Eastern India, brought to Brazil by the Royal Family when the court was transferred to Rio de Janeiro when the royal family fled Portugal to escape from Napoleon.

On that same year, it was given the name of Real Horto (Royal Garden) and it s administration was handed to the Marquis of Sabará and then to Lieutenant General Carlos Napion.

After Brazil was declared independent from Portugal, the Royal Garden was opened to the public, with its name changed one more time, this time to Royal Botanical Garden. It was then the home of several studies concerning Brazilian and foreign plants.

Nowadays, the Garden is one of the most beautiful and better preserved green areas of Rio de Janeiro. There it's possible to see around 6,500 species (Brazilian and foreign, some under risk of extinction). It's also one of the most traditional tourist attractions of the city.

Tijuca Forest

During D. Pedro II's term, the court started to worry about the deforestation caused by the coffee farmers because it was impacting the supply of potable water of Rio de Janeiro.

Major Archer, of the military police, was in charge of the reforesting operation ans started to work in 1861 with six slaves. They planted 100 mil trees in 13 years, most of those were native of the tropical forest.

After Major Archer, the task was handed to Baron d'Escragnolle, that developed a landscaping project, that turned the forest into a beautiful park, destined to public use that had leisure areas, fountains and lakes.

Nowadays the forest attracts mostly people that are fans of sports as trekking or climbing as well as many tourists.