Gardens

The expanse of sculpted white marble titled “The Poet’s Dream” struck me as pretty awful. Located near the Palais de la Découverte, just off the Champs-Élysées, it depicts 19th-century poet Alfred de Musset swooning over his past lovers — affairs now forever cast in stone, albeit the massive sculpture’s 1910 creator, Alphonse Emmanuel de Moncel de Perrin, is little remembered and rightfully so, or so I thought as I turned to leave. 

After visiting Japan 10 times, my husband, Clyde, and I gave up our annual trips in 2009 due to the continuing unfavorable rate of exchange. However, after the dollar gained in value against the yen, for six weeks in March and April of 2014 we visited the Kansai region of Honshu, the island of Miyajima and the less-frequented provinces of Shikoku and Kyushu (including Beppu) to view sakura, or cherry blossoms. 

12-day, 11-night lecture tour led by British historian Prof. Leland Bellot, April 27-May 8, 2015. Deluxe accommodations. Highlights: In West Berkshire, Victorian-style Highclere Castle/in Yorkshire, Castle Howard/in Derbyshire, Chatsworth House/in Oxfordshire, Blenheim Palace and Gardens/in Kent, Sissinghurst Castle Garden/in Buckinghamshire, Stowe Gardens/in Kew, Royal Botanic Gardens. Land, $5,090 ppdo. Single supp., $1,200. East-West International Tours (Laguna Beach, CA; 800/359-6719, www.eastwest-tours.com).

Completed in 1873, the Royal Greenhouses on the grounds of the Royal Palace of Laeken in Flanders, Belgium, were built to resemble a glass city, with rotundas and cupolas harboring exotic plants, some of which were brought back from the Congo.

Each year, while the azaleas are in bloom, the Royal Greenhouses are open to the public for three weeks only. In 2015, they will be open April 17-May 8. Entry costs €2.50. Tickets cannot be purchased in advance. Contact the Flanders tourism office (phone +32 0 2 513 89 40, www.visitflanders.us).

A friend and I took an English garden tour in May 2011. We did research in English magazines at our library and on websites and settled on one with Brightwater Holidays (Eden Park House, Cupar, Fife, Scotland, KY15 4HS, UK; phone +44 01334 657155, www.brightwaterholidays.com). 

Opening April 19, 2008, in Greater London at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew (Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB, UK; phone 02 8332 5655, www.kew.org), the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art will be the first of its kind open to the public year-round.

Works from Sherwood’s collection of more than 200 contemporary artists, together with a selection from Kew’s 200,000 items of historical botanical art, will be on display.

12 days/11 nights, April 7-19 & April 24-May 5, 2008. Payment due Feb. 2.

Highlights: From London, drive through Berkshire, visit Manor House at Upton Grey/Bowood House & Garden/Salisbury Cathedral/in Cornwall, visit gardens at Endsleigh, Trebah, Glendurgan, Trevarno, Pine Lodge/ Eden Project/optional day trip to Scilly Isles and Tresco Abbey gardens/in Devonshire, fishing villages, Docton Mill Garden, Italian fantasy garden at Tapeley Park/Forde Abbey/Cerne Abbas Giant/Sir Harold Hillier Arboretum & Gardens.