Jim Fox and Bruce Bond have teamed up to lead horticultural tours. Read on for a sample itinerary of our planned tour of glorious English gardens and to learn more about both of us.

Limited to 10 people, the tour starts in London with day trips in and out of the city: a private day at Great Dixter, the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, the Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden, Winkworth Arboretum, and a private tour with Dan Pearson of his London garden.

Then it's on to East Anglia where we stay in Bury St. Edmunds with day trips to Saling Hall, lunch in the garden at Feeringbury Manor, the Beth Chatto Nursery and Gardens, a tour East Ruston Old Vicarage, Foggy Bottom at Bressingham, and vineyard wine tastings.

The third leg of the journey goes to the Cotswolds through Bedfordshire with a stop at Kathy Brown's The Manor House gardens. We stay in Warwick for more day trips to the iconic Hidcote (serene in Autumn), the Organic Garden Ryton, a tour of The Old Rectory gardens with designer Mary Keen, along with stops for perry and cider tastings, and a surprise or two to other gardens.  

We will stay at three hotels during the trip, with free time at each location allowing for exploration of the city or town's attractions.

Travel dates are not yet fixed. If you are interested, contact us at bruce@vertumni.com or 206-371 -7746. Itinerary is subject to change.

Our mission - designing horticultural tours to show all aspects of horticulture, stimulate conversation, provoke thought about what makes a garden and what does a garden do for us. These are accomplished by visiting a wide range of gardens: historic and modern, public and private, naturalistic and formal; seeing plants in the wild; visiting nurseries; stopping to see and taste produce from the garden; visiting museums to examine art and artifacts relating to horticulture.

We design our tours to include visits with garden owners, gardeners, and designers, often with tea or lunch in the garden with our host, and talks with local botanists and plant authorities.

Small groups allow for a more intimate experience as well as entry into many small gardens not open to larger groups.

 Jim Fox, a Seattle area horticulturalist and life long student of plants, gardens and gardeners, writes and lectures nationally. He was seminar coordinator for the Northwest Flower and Garden Show and has led garden and wild flower tours in Alaska as well as in Seattle area private gardens. In 2006 he organized and led a tour to England visiting nurseries, gardens, and collecting plants. He has been a rose buyer and is currently the bulb and the rhododendron buyer for a local nursery.

Bruce Bond, owner of Vertumni Fine Landscaping & Gardening has been a professional horticulturalist for over twenty years, fifteen of those in Seattle. He studied at the Edmonds Community College Ornamental Horticulture Program and has a background in the Classics from St. John's College, Santa Fe. An abiding passion for the natural world and the love of the visual arts come together in his dedication to the garden. A life-long travel and polyglot, he brings a robust knowledge of art history, language, and food to the tour.