From Life to Life, A Garden for George

[yerblues1968]

Olivia and her husband George Harrison.


OLIVIA HARRISON PAYS TRIBUTE TO BEATLE HUSBAND IN FLOWER SHOW


chinapost.com

By Paul Majendie, Reuters
Tuesday, May 20, 2008



LONDON -- George Harrison's widow created a special garden in memory of the former Beatle at Britain's Chelsea Flower Show on Monday and felt the labor of love had brought her much closer to her late husband.






"I really cannot think of a more joyful thing to do for George and I know he would approve," Olivia Harrison said as she tip-toed barefoot through the garden putting the finishing touches to her floral tribute.





"I do feel close to him in the garden," she told Reuters at the world's most famous flower shower which Harrison eagerly attended every year. He died of lung cancer in 2001.





"He was a passionate gardener," she said of her husband who loved to tour the show grounds, taking copious notes on the plants that took his fancy.





His horticultural playground was their Victorian neo-Gothic country home near Henley in southern England. He was a keen landscape designer and the family nicknamed him Capability George after famed designer Lancelot "Capability" Brown.





The Chelsea garden was created in conjunction with family friend and garden designer Yvonne Innes, a Chelsea gold medal winner and wife of musician Neil Innes. It is being sponsored by Harrison's Material World Charitable Foundation.





"I hope it is a reflection of his spirituality," she said of the garden which is being opened by fellow Beatle Ringo Starr at the lavish London showground on the banks of the River Thames.





The guitarist from the world's most famous pop band always felt at peace gardening.





The dedication in his autobiography I Me Mine was To All Gardeners Everywhere.





Harrison's song lyrics are interwoven through the Life to Life show garden.





As she scuttled round the site tidying up any stray plants, the sun rose on cue behind the giant Here Comes The Sun emblem next to a sepia print of Harrison framed in cascading water.


www.chinapost.com.tw/art/music/2008/05/20/157273/Olivia-harrison.htm

itn.co.uk/news/5c573e251bb9c961b08ee82deb2c0dac.html

[yerblues1968]

A MAGICAL MYSTERY GARDEN IN MEMORY OF BEATLE GEORGE


Mail Online
May 19, 2008



Meanwhile, earlier today George Harrison's widow Olivia joined Starr in a garden devoted to the memory of the late Beatle, alongside the daughter of Sir Paul McCartney, photographer Mary.





Something in the way she grows: George Harrison's widow Olivia and Mary McCartney in the Chelsea garden dedicated to the Beatle.





Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and George Harrison's widow Olivia take some time to reflect in the garden dedicated to the former Beatles memory.





Called From Life To Life after a line in the Beatles' song It's All Too Much, it has four distinct parts representing phases in Harrison's life.





As Mrs. Harrison put the finishing touches to her creation, Mary, a professional photographer, took pictures of the garden entitled From Life To Life.





Designed with Yvonne Innes, it recalls Harrison's life from his birth in Liverpool to his post-Beatle years in Henley.





In Memory: George Harrison's widow Olivia and designer Yvonne Innes created a garden to celebrate his life.




George Harrison memorial Garden featuring George's words -
"floating down the stream of time from life to life with me." (2:16 minutes)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2BOidFmLKA




Silent footage taken on May 20, 2008 of the Chelsea Flower Show
showing images of George Harrison's Life to Life Garden. (8:25 minutes)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsrXKGc5ejQ


www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-567303/The-Fab-Three-Topiary-Beatles-missing-drummer-Ringo-removed-repairs-following-vandalism.html

[yerblues1968]

GEORGE HARRISON: CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW HOMAGE TO LATE BEATLE


telegraph.co.uk

Last Updated: 12:01am BST
20/05/2008



It may not be rock 'n' roll, but he liked it. Judith Woods on the Chelsea tribute to George Harrison.





How should we remember one of the greatest pop musicians of the 20th century? A gala concert? A blue plaque, or a digitally remastered retrospective of his finest work?



Ringo Starr and wife Barbara Bach
at the Chelsea Flower Show


Well, according to the widow of George Harrison there is no more appropriate way to commemorate his life - and afterlife - than a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show.





Embracing one of the Season's most popular events may not sound very rock 'n' roll, but Olivia Harrison is clear that this was where his heart lay.

"I wouldn't like to say whether gardening was as important to him as music," she recalls, speaking at the family home in Friar Park where he spent so many happy hours, "but when he was home he was always either in the recording studio or in the garden. Both were places where he became utterly absorbed and we didn't like to disturb him."




A Garden for George at Chelsea Flower Show.


The Harrison garden takes its place this year alongside a number of show-stopping creations including The Daily Telegraph's tranquil Japanese-inspired pondscape.





Entitled From Life to Life, A Garden for George (the name comes from the Beatles' song It's All Too Much), the horticultural homage to Harrison is planted with scrubby thistles and allotment vegetables, brightly clashing perennials, white-stemmed birches and scented roses.





The garden is divided into four tiers that Olivia says represent his life, music and philosophy; it takes visitors along a Venetian glass mosaic path from Harrison's post-war boyhood in Liverpool (symbolised by a child's old bike and rough grass), through the heady days of Beatlemania (where there is a 6 ft. glass sun).

Then it's on to the singer-songwriter's more mature years (represented by ferns and silver birches), and, finally, to his spiritual life, represented by a white Indian pavilion.





From the age of 27, Harrison devoted much of his time to landscaping the 35 acres surrounding Friar Park, a 12-room neo-Gothic Victorian pile outside Henley-upon-Thames. But he first gained his love for making things grow on his father's allotment in Liverpool.

"Sometimes George would see that something he'd planted in one place suddenly sprang up in another instead," says American-born Olivia, 59. "He'd always be amused at this confirmation that he was facilitating nature rather than controlling it.





"I feel that George has been by my side as I've worked on this project," adds Olivia, who worked on the garden with designer Yvonne Innes (it has been sponsored by Harrison's Material World Charitable Foundation). "I've learned a lot about the English from their gardens. No matter how small the patch of ground they have, people take great pride in making it beautiful."





Harrison married Olivia, his second wife, in 1978, and they had a son, Dhani, now 29 and himself a musician.

After being diagnosed with cancer in 1997, Harrison had growths removed from his throat and lung, but in 2001, his cancer returned and was diagnosed as terminal. Towards the end of his life, the garden gave him great comfort.





"I know he would have loved nothing better than for a garden to be created in his name," says Olivia, "although he always fought shy of things being about him.

"We spent so many years together working on the garden at Friar Park that I know which plants he would and wouldn't like and how he would want them to be planted. We've taken elements of the garden he created at home and brought them here and I think it really captures something of George's essence. I hope visitors to Chelsea will enjoy it."


www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2008/05/20/ftgeorge120.xml

www.georgeharrison.com/garden/