Princess Greta Sturdza
21 December 2009
Princess Greta Sturdza, who died aged 94 on 30 November 2009, was a gardener and plantswoman of international repute. Her garden, Le Vasterival at Varangeville-sur-Mer, a few miles west of Dieppe in Normandy, became a magnet for gardeners seeking to learn from her skills and gardening know-how.
A passionate, hands-on gardener, she was once described as a woman of demonic energy regularly rising at 6am to work all day in her garden which, from the original 3ha (7.5 acres) expanded to the present 12ha (30 acres) while another 5ha ( 12 acres) awaits planting.
She loved all kinds of plants and her garden benefited accordingly from the many nurseries she regularly dealt with as well as from her numerous gardening friends whose challenge was to present her with a plant she did not already have.
To celebrate her 90th birthday a gathering of friends assembled a collective present of 90 new plants which she accommodated in a special extension to her garden. All plants were given her personal attention which was the foundation of her garden’s success. She ran a strict regime of planting, feeding and tender loving care reflecting her maxim: “spend three sous on the plant and 30 sous on the planting.”
Her success was amply demonstrated at Le Vasterival where trees, shrubs, perennials, climbers and bulbs flourished in a series of woodland glades. As one visitor once put it, the Princess had 'mulch' written on her heart and in strategic places hidden among the shrubs she prepared great heaps of organic refuse and manure. She called this her caviar and remorselessly applied it to beds, borders, individual trees in grass and to all new plantings.
There were few plants she did not enjoy or appreciate in her collection of more than 5,000 different kinds. But Le Vasterival was not just a plant collection. With her eye for both the dreamy and the dramatic and her hard-earned practical experience, the Princess used each plant effectively and according to its needs so that each season brought its own special delights. To all who visited Le Vasterival, Princess Sturdza was a commanding presence. Erect if slight of build, her sharp-eyed countenance dared you not to pay attention as she stood ready to begin a tour with a few introductory words and, as often as not, armed with a long-handled, three-pronged tool which she used against any weed that dared to show its head.
She worked in and led tours of her garden in all weathers, treating with a faint disdain those visitors who dared come poorly shod or otherwise unprepared. Those who lasted the course left with a feeling of awe and admiration and an experience to treasure.
Born Grete Kvaal on 30 April 1915 in Oslo, Norway, she grew up without a garden but with a keen interest in natural history, especially birds, encouraged by walks in the country with her father. She studied English at Oxford, where she met Prince Georges Sturdza of Moldavia, her future husband. They married in 1936, returning to Moldavia, now a region of Romania, to live. During the Second World War she helped her mother-in-law care for orphans and was much involved with La Croix Rouge (The Red Cross), becoming its president. When the communists came to power after the war’s end she and her family fled to Norway and then to France where, in 1955, they bought Le Vasterival.
Her interest in gardening began in Moldovia but really took flight after her arrival at Le Vasterival where, advised and encouraged by experienced gardening friends, she cleared scrub and drained marshland before beginning an ambitious planting scheme.
Her membership of the International Dendrology Society brought her new mentors and experiences, she later served as President (1997-2002) and in 1992 was made an Honorary Life Member and President Emeritus.
A long-term member of the RHS, she was awarded its Gold Veitch Memorial Medal in 1987 for her achievement at Le Vasterival, later (1992) becoming a Vice President.
For many years she was a much-loved and respected judge at Les Journees des Plants de Courson (Courson Flower Show) and in 2008 was awarded the Worshipful Company of Gardeners’ Trophy for her significant contribution to the Show’s success. She published two books, Le Jardin d’une Passion in 1997 and Le Vasterival -The Four Season Garden in 2006 in which she explained her ideas of gardening as developed to such a high art at Le Vasterival. She is survived by three sons and leaves behind a host of gardening friends, old and young, whose lives she touched.
Roy Lancaster