THE late Queen Elizabeth once said, “Gardening is a great leveller. It absorbed equally every section of society.”
Greenfingers is a 2000 movie available on SBS on Demand. Evidently the origins of having “green fingers” is a British saying, while having a “green thumb” is an American and Australian saying, meaning that a person has a good knowledge of plants and flowers and is successful with their plantings.
Not something I would normally consider for this column, however it’s a fictional story, loosely inspired by a 1998 article in The New York Times about a gardening program in Leyhill, a real open prison in the Cotswolds in England.
“The beauty and the delicacy of a flower seems in stark contrast to the rough exterior of a prison inmate, but these two images are brought together in Greenfingers, a story of redemption that not only tickles the funny bone, but touches the soul.” (Internet)
The film is a light hearted look at a man who has given up on life, nearing the end of a long sentence and being transferred to the new minimum security prison at HMP Edgefield, an open prison in the Cotswolds.
This prison was designed to be a rehabilitation for prisoners, a place where they could learn skills that would benefit them in the outside world after they were released.
Colin Briggs receives an unwanted packet of seeds as a Christmas present from an old lifer, his elderly and wise room mate Fergus. Colin is not the least bit interested in gardening at all, but the old man then gets him to plant the seeds and in due course the plant grows and beautiful double violets bloom in the Spring.
The warden is inspired by their efforts and as there was no garden at the prison, decides to have Colin and a few of the inmates cultivate the first flower garden at the prison. They handed a list of requests for tools etc. to the warden, however this was rejected and they were directed to an old tool shed in the grounds where they found most of what was required to start a new garden.
At times the prisoners were “lent” out, to help the elite with some of the upkeep of the huge gardens in the area. It soon comes to the attention of gardening expert Georgina Woodhouse (Helen Mirren) and is so taken with the unconventional gardening of the prisoners style that she goes before The Royal Horticultural Society and says that she wants to sponsor them in their first show garden at Hampton Court.
The movie was able to secure a site at the next show, just five weeks away. And managed to create a roadside scene with an old car and masses of wildflowers, just in time.
With plants and flowers thriving under the nurturing touch of “greenfingers” Colin and his garden inmates, he begins to gain a new lease on life and so does his love for Georgina’s daughter.
It’s a delightful movie that will go down well with those who are keen on gardening.
Maybe after watching this movie, it may give you a further insight into that age old hobby of gardening, and how gardening has a direct influence on our wellbeing.
As our late Queen Elizabeth once said, “Gardening IS a great leveller.”
