Audrey Hepburn

Breakfast at Tiffany's

May 4, 1929
Today is the birthday of Academy Award-winning actress and gardener Audrey Hepburn.

The Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) star appeared with Penelope Hobhouse and Graham Stuart Thomas on the 1991 PBS special "Gardens of the World." The series featured sixty gardens over eight episodes. They included Monet's garden at Giverny, the Villa Gamberaia (“Vee-la Gahm-bur-eye-ah”) in Florence, the old rose garden at Graham Stuart Thomas' garden at Mottisfont Abbey, the Roseraie de L'Haÿ (“rose-uh-ray du lay-ee”) south of Paris, Saiho-ji (“Sy-ho-jee”) - the famed "Moss Temple" garden - in Kyoto, and Hidcote Manor (“hid-cut”) in Gloucestershire, England.

Additionally, Audrey wrote the forward to a companion coffee table book also called Gardens of the World by Penelope Hobhouse and Elvin McDonald,, the volunteer director of special projects for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
In the forward, Audrey wrote,

“We all have within us a need to create beauty. And we all can - in a garden, however small. Perhaps - if we now take a closer look at our gardens, we will, at last, awaken to the fragility of our beautiful planet and better understand our lovely earth."

In 1991, the Spring Hill nursery in Peoria, Illinois, created a rose variety named for Audrey Hepburn. The Audrey Hepburn rose was marketed as an exceptionally vigorous rose, with highly fragrant 4-inch apple-blossom pink flowers. It was featured on display at the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Botanical Gardens and was available for mail-order purchase exclusively through Spring Hill Nurseries.

And here’s a little-known fact about Audrey Hepburn: one of the most beloved quotes about gardening is attributed to Audrey Hepburn, whose 92nd birthday would have been today.
She wrote,