🪻 When a garden becomes part of the conversation⁠ ⁠ As part of our ongoing American 250 series, Marianne Willburn set out to explore an unexpected question—what role can a garden play in diplomacy? Her conversation with John Sonnier led somewhere more revealing than expected.⁠ ⁠ Sonnier, who manages the gardens at the British Ambassador’s Residence, described how landscapes quietly shape human interaction. Not symbolically, but practically. The way a space feels can shift the tone of a conversation, sometimes more effectively than words.⁠ ⁠ He calls it “soft diplomacy.”⁠ ⁠ A window framing a ginkgo in autumn can diffuse tension. A layered border can create just enough privacy for a candid exchange. Even something as small as a patch of clover at your feet can interrupt a moment and reset it.⁠ ⁠ And then there are the orchids—nearly 1,000 of them, grown in greenhouses where music plays continuously. Many are named as gestures of recognition and connection. Not decoration. Relationship-...