• For many a Briton, gardening is second only to the weather when it comes to making small talk. They simply adore it, and thus boast some of the world’s loveliest gardens. Not a petal is out of place at the Kew, 300 acres of botanical delights on the south bank of the Thames River in southwest London. Officially established by Princess Augusta in 1759, its grounds include Kew Palace, where King George III was quarantined during his fit of madness in the early 1800s; the Waterlily House, full of tropical ornamental aquatic plants and climbers; the Princess of Wales Conservatory, a greenhouse with ten climatic zones; the Rose Garden, with fifty-four rose beds; and 250-year-old ginkgo biloba trees reportedly undergoing sex changes.
“All of the plants were brought back to Kew not just to satisfy curiosity or to increase the royal menagerie but to attempt to recreate the garden of Eden by uniting all of the plants of the world,” says Nicole Fraser, an American who took up gardening soon after moving to Great Britain. “I love to take tea in the Orangerie on an inevitably wet day, looking out over the gardens. It is necessary for survival while living in London.”
• The English are also quite proud of Sissinghurst Garden in Kent, designed by poet Vita Sackville-West. A bisexual who counted Virginia Woolf among her many lovers, Sackville-West wrote about gardening for years in her column in The Observer. Her (gay) husband did much of the architectural planning for this sumptuous garden, while she did all the planting. It is laid out as a series of rooms, each with a different theme or color, and the high hedges serve as walls.
• Kyoto, Japan showcases four types of traditional gardens: funa asobi (created for water “pleasures” like boat outings), shuybe (for strolling), kansho (for contemplation), and kaiyu (for all of the above). Daisen-In in Kita-ku, Murasakino, Daitokuji-cho (near Kitaoji station) is considered a masterpiece in Zen gardening and is far less crowded than the more famous Ryoan-ji. Its carefully-placed stones in white sand represent natural wonders like waterfalls and mountain lakes. Also visit the nearby Koto-In, a moss garden filled with bamboo and maple trees. Then take Bus 33 from Kyoto station to Nishikyo-ku, a seventeenth-century villa with tea houses set around a large pond and gardens (the forty-minute tour gives a detailed historial background). If you’re lucky enough to be in Japan during plum or cherry blossom seasons in March and April, visit the fabulous (and free) Kyoto Imperial Palace Park.
• Known as the Kyoto of China, Suzhou features rock and water gardens with great names like Pavilion of the Surging Waves and Garden to Linger In. Popular consensus is that the Garden of the Master of the Nets off Shiquan Jie on Wangshi Yuan is the best garden in Suzhou. Laid out in the twelfth century, it was abandoned for centuries before being restored in the 1900s. In the evenings, hop from pavilion to pavilion, watching traditional performing artists. Then check out the Couple’s Garden on Ou Yuan near the Museum of Opera and Theater and stroll hand-in-hand with a lover or friend along the ponds, bridges, and canals.
• Every Russian, it seems, is born with an emerald thumb. Most families keep gardens in their dacha—or countryside cottage—that at minimum include tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, peppers, and mounds of dill. Urban dwellers, meanwhile, grow seedlings on their balconies and line their floors with jars of homemade pickles and jellies. Spend a significant amount of time in Russia and you’re almost assured to land an invitation to a dacha; otherwise, hop a train to the countryside, where you can view the bountiful gardens, and the kerchiefed babushki tending them, from the window.
• To experience gardening in a pagan light, visit Manhattan’s Lower East Side during a solstice or equinox for an Earth Celebration. Held by members of the fifty-plus community gardens, these pageants feature belly dancers, fire dancers, opera singers, and giant puppets who parade throughout the neighborhood beseeching passersby to “save our gardens” from developers. All events evolve into giant street parties, complete with drum circles and bonfires.