Goldstone Hall Hotel Guests at this

Rest & Be THANKFUL

Guests at Goldstone Hall Hotel in Shropshire will be enchanted by the treasures yielded by its gardens: from masses of roses, to colourful edibles and a fragrant herb walk

WORDS ADVOLLY RICHMOND PHOTOGRAPHS JOE WAINWRIGHT

Above Surrounded by roses, the oak-framed building makes a lovely setting for the many weddings held here. P ull into the car park at Goldstone Hall – an award-winning hotel and restaurant in north Shropshire – and you are greeted with densely planted rose beds, all warm-orange hues, enclosed in low box hedging. In one bed at the entrance is the charming vermilion Rosa ‘Warm Welcome’, while a mixture of Rosa ‘Whisky Mac’, ‘Hot Chocolate’ and ‘Rumba’ fill the others. In an area by the house is a lovely collection of plants including the bronzepurple-leaved Ligularia dentata ‘Desdemona’, the regal fern Osmunda regalis and echiums. It’s a tantalising hint of what is to come.

The Georgian manor house hotel is run by John Cushing and his wife Sue, along with their daughters Victoria and Katie, and their generous hospitality has earned the hotel a place in the Good Hotel Guide for Britain and Ireland. The house was originally bought as a private residence by John’s parents in 1978, but after her husband’s death in the early 1980s, Helen Ward, John’s mother, resolved to turn Goldstone into a business.

In partnership, John and Helen started running a bed and breakfast that also served other meals and then moved into wedding catering, building a customised space where weddings could take place. “We wanted to create a beautiful, natural space within the garden, so we built a fully oak-framed building with a massive fireplace, which opens onto the rose and walled gardens,” John explains.

Helen was a passionate gardener and took it upon herself to create the garden. John says: “My mother was a massive reader of books and a great follower of Beth Chatto and John Brookes. She particularly enjoyed propagation and seed rearing.”

The main garden lies behind the hotel and covers an area of five acres including the one-acre kitchen garden. The main lawn is the ideal place for guests to linger and admire Top right The blush the abundant borders pink flowers of Rosa with their distant ‘Ballerina’ smother the views out towards the plant’s stems in summer. Right More roses, neatly Shropshire Union Canal contained in beds edged and the surrounding by low box hedges. countryside.

“We built a fully oak-framed uilding ith a massi e fireplace hich opens onto the roses

There are two main borders separated by a narrow grass walk. The long border is set against a south-facing red brick wall that is almost hidden behind massed plantings of hollyhocks, delphiniums and scrambling roses. These are intermingled with Clematis ‘Paul Farges’, C. flammula and C. x triternata ‘Rubromarginata’. “We let the May- and June-flowering climbing roses do their thing uncluttered and then the clematis come in during late summer and autumn,” John explains. At the height of summer, the second herbaceous border adjacent to the lawn is based on a palette of whites, pinks, purples and blues. The planting here is enhanced by repeated clumps of Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’, Salvia nemorosa ‘Amethyst’, Anthemis tinctoria ‘E.C. Buxton’ and Rosa ‘Ballerina’.

Head gardener Nick Huxley has been managing the gardens at Goldstone Hall for some 20 years, having arrived from another lovely garden just seven miles down the road – Wollerton Old Hall. Over the years, Nick has introduced many new ideas and under his management the gardens have flourished. He has also introduced numerous new plants into the gardens, one particular favourite being the glorious Chamaenerion angustifolium ‘Album’, which is more commonly known as white rosebay willowherb. Its tall, slim stems carry spires of gorgeous, brilliant white flowers that can last well

Top left Fringed, silken, mauve flowers and plump seedheads of Papaver somniferum. Above right Catmint, salvias and delphiniums add shades of purple to the herbaceous border. Above left In the herb walk, a mat of thyme is smothered with flowers. into late summer, creating the perfect setting for wedding photographs.

Formal rose beds set in box hedges surround the entrance to the oak building where wedding ceremonies are held. Here you’ll find Rosa ‘Tickled Pink’, ‘Silver Wedding’, ‘Iceberg’ and ‘Rhapsody in Blue’. In early spring they are underplanted with scillas and primroses.

Move through the main garden and around the corner and you’ll come to the large cutting garden, which shares its space with some very unusual

vegetables happily mingling with the flowers. Tall perennial yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius) is grown for its sweet roots as well as its clusters of bright yellow flowers in autumn. The tubers of Tropaeolum tuberosum, which has fiery red and orange flowers, make fabulous roasted vegetables, and then there is Oxalis tuberosa, or oca, with its vibrantly coloured lemon-tasting tubers. These curious edibles are intermingled with bright calendulas, dark-leaved

Curious edibles are intermingled with bright calendulas and darkleaved Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandaff’

Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llanda ’ and ‘Bishops’ Children’ and vivid clumps of sweet Williams – all destined for the hotel rooms or the restaurant, where they will help provide guests with a diverse and immersive dining experience.

To the north and east of the cutting garden is the kitchen garden, which began as just two cages in a field and is now one of the largest hotel kitchen gardens in the country at just over one acre. Heritage vegetables, heirloom fruit, grapes and salads are grown in abundance and this large volume of seasonal fresh produce supplies the kitchen and is an essential part of head chef Liam Philbin’s creative and memorable dishes. The major highlights of the summer garden at Goldstone are its gravelly herb walks, which are not only stunning to look at but also smell gorgeous. “The idea for the herb walks came about as a result of discussions with Nick,” says John. “Nick’s relaxed and convincing determination that he could keep such as a large variety of herbs under control won the day!” Now three areas in the shape of a ‘T’, which are planted with more than 100 herbs, are set across sloping ground that drains well and receives the plentiful sunshine that is needed for these mostly Mediterranean plants to thrive. Although a selection of the herbs are used in the kitchen, these aromatic borders are now maintained as a beautiful ornamental feature of which Helen Ward would surely have approved, given its use of the gravel paths advocated by her garden heroes Beth Chatto and John Moore.

The herb walk’s main path is planted with a wonderful selection of fennel, Foeniculum vulgare, Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’ and several varieties of thyme, but the low-growing Thymus Coccineus Group is especially striking against the grey foliage of the curry plant Helichrysum italicum. All happily spill into the river of gravel paths and when you inevitably step on them, their pleasant

Above Gently encroaching into the gravel path, the herb walk’s largely Mediterranean plants thrive in this sunny spot. Top right Bold flowers of hemerocallis bring warm colour to pastel borders.

aroma fills the air. The Right In the kitchen borders are punctuated garden, edibles mix with with standards of flowers for picking, such as English marigolds and Rosa ‘Blessings’, the sweet Williams. tall silvery foliage of Below Spires of tall, deep cardoons, Cynara blue delphiniums marry cardunculus, and well with pastel roses. Anthemis tinctoria ‘E.C. Buxton’, which provides a sharp contrast to the purple beech hedging.

Other sections of the herb walk to the left and right are crammed with a huge variety of mints, lavenders and thyme, including the lovely apple mint, Mentha suaveolens and its variegated cultivar pineapple mint, M. suaveolens ‘Variegata’. Mentha x piperita ‘After Eight’, meanwhile, has dark green leaves with a strong aroma and there is also the lovely silver mint, M. longifolia, which is much loved by bees and butterflies.

This is a garden that’s really well worth visiting, further exploration revealing that it is not only beautiful but also incredibly useful – every area helping to support and enhance the activities of the hotel in every capacity.

Goldstone Hall, Market Drayton, Shropshire TF9 2NA. The gardens are usually open from March to October, Monday to Thursday, 10am to 5pm, and for the National Garden Scheme twice a month, May-September, but check the website for updates. Tel: +44 (0)1630 661202; goldstonehallhotel.co.uk

NICK’S Rose Regime

For lush foliage and flush after flush of abundant blooms, follow Nick’s tips for successful rose-growing

We were introduced to Uncle Tom’s Rose Tonic seven years ago by international rose breeder Chris Warner, when despairing over a black-spot-infested, leafless ‘Iceberg’. It is a natural foliar feed containing potassium phosphate, and can be obtained from many rose nurseries or online.

We apply the non-toxic tonic spray (it does not contain fungicide or insecticide) to all our roses every fortnight from March through until the end of October. The leaves are always healthy, shiny and green as a result. They produce masses of buds with vigorous second and third flushes of flowering that last into November. Using sharp, clean secateurs, we take some height out at around the end of October to avoid any snow or wind-rock damage.

We prune again in February and March and apply farmyard manure around each rose as we prune. Some roses are underplanted with Scilla siberica and primroses, which give us colour during March and April, and then disappear under the canopy of leaves.

We deadhead weekly and prune lightly after the first flush in July. We make the roses work hard so an application of granular rose fertiliser at budding for the second flush of flowers is essential.