These secateurs, once used by the mother of Hazel Gardiner, are a simple but powerful reminder of the everyday love of gardening and the constant and meticulous pruning undertaken by thousands of amateur gardeners. Worn through use, they speak to years of pruning and cutting to sustain a garden over time.
Secateurs are among the most essential tools of the gardener, enabling quick and easy care and maintenance.
Their significance is in their connection to lived experience and signify floral designer and gardener, Hazel Gardiner’s journey to a successful career as a garden designer inspired by her mother.
Hazel says “My mother sadly has dementia now, but we can still talk about gardens together and I can see it really lights her up. She hasn’t forgotten that passion and I understand her more now that I garden myself.”
Within the Garden Museum’s collection, such objects highlight the importance of ordinary tools in telling the story of gardens and the people who tend them.
