LILIES - RHS Lily Group
LILIES - RHS Lily Group
LILIES - RHS Lily Group
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view of the world’s events.<br />
During World War 2, he was<br />
in naval intelligence, alongside<br />
Commander Ian Fleming, later<br />
author of the James Bond series,<br />
where he helped provide the<br />
model for 007. This justifies<br />
the witticism that was current<br />
between his friends, “but are you<br />
more greenfinger or Goldfinger? ”<br />
After naval intelligence he<br />
was diplomat, Tory MP, Under<br />
Secretary of State, and, lastly,<br />
Secretary General of the Council<br />
of Europe. He was a passionate<br />
European along the lines<br />
expressed by Winston Churchill,<br />
but his opinions clashed with<br />
those of Anthony Eden.<br />
He found comfort away from<br />
his political life in gardening.<br />
Sir Peter and Lady Smithers<br />
at Vico Morcote in October 2001<br />
A keen interest in plants and gardens was always a constant in his life since<br />
his school days. Everywhere he went, in Washington, Mexico, Winchester,<br />
Strasbourg, and finally in Vico Morcote he gardened. In Vico Morcote he created<br />
a small eco-system of magnolias, peonies, rhododendrons, wisterias, lilies and<br />
countless magnificent plants.<br />
I met Peter for the first time, 30 years ago; I desired to know more about<br />
peonies than I could find at that time in books which were scarce and dated from<br />
the beginning of the [twentieth] century. A mutual British friend said to me “but<br />
there is Smithers who knows everything about peonies”!<br />
He became my Mentor in the world of peonies but not only that. As a gift for<br />
his 90 th birthday I translated into Italian his book The adventures of a gardener<br />
and with some friends we succeeded in publishing it: he was really enthusiastic<br />
about it.<br />
Sir Peter Smithers gardened for nearly 80 years. He made remarkable gardens<br />
in Hampshire, Mexico, Strasbourg, Lugano and West Palm Beach. He grew an<br />
impressively wide range of genera, he collected extensively and bred many new<br />
plants.<br />
I mourn a friend, a great gardener and, without rhetoric, a master of living<br />
– we say in Italy, magister vitae.<br />
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