urseryman and plant breeder John Massey might never have made a garden, had it not been for meeting the late Princess Greta Sturdza, force of nature and creator of Le Jardin de Vasterival in Normandy. “She was mad about hellebores, came over to the nursery to buy some and invited me to visit her garden – although the first time she asked I came up with some feeble excuse because I felt way out of my comfort zone,” John recalls. The second invitation came with the warning that it would be the last, so John accepted: “Her garden was the greatest I’ve ever seen, and I learnt so much from her,” he says. “Afterwards I had to make a garden. I had
