Interview with Linda Larson, Founder  

of A Traveling Gardener,  

         wandering, wondering, noticing . . . 

Much concern has been raised in recent years about the increasing concentration of tourism, with more and more travelers visiting the same places and even the same categories of places as crowds keep increasing.  

In this travel rush, the simplest but the most rewarding of joys tend to fall by the wayside, which is why today we talked to Ms. Linda Larson, the Founder of A Traveling Gardener. She explores gardens both in the USA and all over the world, featuring them as one of the most rewarding and authentic ways of experiencing any destination. 

Travelers today enjoy unprecedented freedom of movement with a plethora of transport, rent-a-car, taxi and private transfer options everywhere they go, and visiting these hidden natural gems found in local gardens is a fantastic way to unwind and brighten your day, whether you’re traveling to a different city or a different continent. 

Tell us a bit more about your background as A Traveling Gardener. How did you become interested in writing about this topic? 

I have always loved flowers. I have a black-and-white picture of me in a little dress and white shoes, bending over the daffodils that lined the sidewalk path to my grandmother’s front door. It is, I believe, my earliest vivid memory. I have always been attracted to flowers. I have been gardening in Arizona for over 30 years.  

Years ago, my husband and I took a road trip cross-country to see my family in Indiana.

On the return, we visited some other relatives of his, that we didn’t really know well, and for entertainment, they took us to a casino and a shopping mall. I could not be more miserable anywhere than in a casino.  

After we left them, our next stop was at the Dallas Botanic Garden. We arrived early in the morning and didn’t leave until 6 in the evening. It made me so happy, and I turned to my husband and said: “this is so wonderful, to spend time in the garden when you’re traveling. I should tell people about this.”  

And I got out my journal, wrote: “A Traveling Gardener wandering, wondering, and noticing…” That’s how it began. As a retired public speaking instructor and a passionate gardener, I had a topic and a skill.  

I was in the Master Gardener program and the group had a monthly newsletter, so I wrote my first column for the Master Gardeners. Then I developed my own website and began posting about a garden each month. I have been doing that for 18 years now. 

Gardens and parks are often low on travelers' bucket lists despite providing great experiences. Do you think this is changing these days, especially with developing sensibilities about nature and ecology? 

Gardens and parks are not always seen as a traveler’s destination. But my experience has shown me that visiting gardens truly helps me understand what I experience in visiting a new place.  

People have said to me, “Why do you keep going to gardens? Don’t you just see the same plants over and over again?” No, I don’t. What I do see is a new environment, a new climate, a new place.  

I might be on a mountainside or in a valley overlooking a beautiful scene over a river valley. I may be in the south of France or in New Zealand. But in a garden, I am in the land experiencing what that ground is like. It might be rocky, steep, flat, or dry. In addition, the garden's architecture will tell you something about the social history of the time. The garden may surround a Palladian house in Ireland or the grand Alhambra in Spain. It may be in the Cayman Islands where you would see a small house with doors and windows designed symmetrically so that, in times of a great storm, the wind can blow through without damaging the home. You might be at Pierre DuPont’s French Château, which has the grandest French garden in the US. The variety of architecture is always of interest. 

In addition, there are the stories of the gardeners who planted the garden. How did they come to own this land, or perhaps they didn’t own the land, and they created it for the land owner. 

One of my most memorable stories is about the Thirty acres of land needed to be cleared for the Norfolk Botanic Garden, with the goal of planting 5000 azaleas creating a garden for citizens of the community. This garden was a WPA project made possible because a group of more than 200 African American women and 20 men were assigned to the Azalea Garden project. Laboring from dawn until dusk, the labor crew cleared dense vegetation and carried the equivalent of 150 truckloads of dirt by hand to build a levee for the lake. The laborers were paid twenty-five cents an hour for their hard work. These workers did this with their bare hands. After they completed this work, they were not allowed to see the results and the flowers they planted. Because they were black in the South, where in 1938 racism ruled.

It’s this kind of story that I discover in gardens, and it continues to inspire me to explore. Yes, there are also plants, lots and lots of plants, and in each environment, plants that may be small or struggling in one place can be thriving in a different climate, but there are also such wide varieties that I always discover something new. 

What is one place in the world that you think is underrated and does not get as much fame for its parks as it deserves?  

After 18 years of traveling to explore the world through gardens, my husband and I have now visited over 1,200 gardens in 60 different countries and all 50 United States. My explorations include a six-week driving trip in New Zealand. Personally, I think New Zealand has the best gardeners of all the countries that I have visited. I’m sorry, England, you have a great reputation, but New Zealand is, without a doubt, a horticultural paradise.

I have also seen the gardens in Japan, Singapore, France, Italy, and Germany. Spain has remarkable gardens, as does Portugal. 

I also recognized how important it is for parks and Gardens to be available to a country's citizens. I noticed this specifically in Romania and Hungary. After years under a dictator’s rule, with all money directed toward political interests. Today, children are playing in parks that are in ruins and uncared for. 

It shows you that a government that cares about its citizens will make parks and gardens available. And those who do not care about people will not provide green space to nurture their souls. 

What do you think can be made to promote parks and gardens as integral, inherently valuable parts of urban development and tourism? 

I am not sure how we get people to think more about visiting parks and Gardens. There is, I believe, a bit of nature blindness that people are living with. We are so accustomed to pavement and sidewalks that few people really seek a different path.  

I once was walking back from a lunch date with a friend, and as we came down from the three-store parking garage, I stopped in my tracks and pointed to the most incredible tree with such interesting branching. I commented on how beautiful it was. My lunch companion looked at me oddly and said: “I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone talk about a tree being beautiful.”  

This sums up my concern of individuals not noticing the beauty of nature. Children are being kept inside, and schools barely have windows where a tree could be blowing in the breeze as their minds noodle new ideas together. Today, few playgrounds include grass and trees. 

Nature restores my soul. Nature calls me outside every morning. I am fortunate to have my own private garden, and even in the worst of weather, I have to go outside to see how my plants and my garden are doing. It has always been so. Since I was a small child, I have been looking for flowers.  

I hope that, in writing The Traveling Gardener, I am showing people a beautiful world through gardens. I know not everyone can travel, I know not everyone will travel to gardens. However, I also know that I have convinced even a retired military arms executive to consider visiting gardens. It was never part of his world before. So people can be inspired. 

How do you see A Traveling Gardener developing in the years to come? 

I enjoy doing presentations for community groups and garden clubs. I have five different programs that I present. And I hope to do this for a few more years. I have had hesitation due to the chaos the world seems to be experiencing, especially here in the US. I feel reluctant to encourage travel.  

On the other hand, I realize that seeing plants and gardens can bring people joy even in difficult times, and that sometimes you can find amazing places without having to go too far. So I continue with my writing as the Traveling Gardener.  

My presentations include: 

• In Search of Wonder, Traveling 1000 Gardens
• Masterpiece Gardens 
• The Illustrated Story of the History and Fashion of Flowerpots 
• Remarkable Trees, a Journey Around the World 
• The Best View of our World is Through a Garden

But in the end, as a professional speaker who taught public speaking and media presentations for over 30 years, I simply enjoy sharing these stories. 

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We would like to express our sincere thanks to Ms. Larson for taking the time to share these insights with us, and we wish her all the best in her future work in promoting appreciation for nature. 

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