Planting stories

AS one might expect when the Chelsea gold medal-winning designer Jo Thompson is involved, there are plentiful roses in the garden at The Old Rectory in Norfolk’s Waveney valley. Miss Thompson is well known for her love of the flower—and, indeed, it would be a sin not to have them growing up and around the white-walled house, the oldest part of which dates back to 1637—but they have a special resonance, too, for the owner, Miss Thompson’s friend and client Justine Picardie.

The former editor-in-chief of, Miss Picardie also has seven books under her belt, the latest (). Originally intending to write about the great French designer Christian Dior, it was instead his elusive sister, Catherine, to whom she was drawn: a courageous woman who joined the French Resistance during the Second World War, was tortured by the Germans and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. After the war ended, she became a flower seller in Paris and then a renowned grower near Grasse in Provence, where she supplied roses and jasmine for her brother’s perfumes, most notably Miss Dior, which was named after her. She died aged 90 in 2008, having remained largely silent about her horrific experiences.