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CONTRIBUTORS
James Alexander-Sinclair James is a garden designer, lecturer, writer, broadcaster, judge and a member of the RHS Council. He visits Pensthorpe’s Millennium Garden on a frosty winter’s day on page 20.
Julia Watson A former editor of The English Garden and Homes and Gardens, Julia now lives and gardens near Loch Tummel in Perthshire. She visits the remarkable garden at Drummond Castle on page 12.
Welcome T
he run up to Christmas has to be one of my favourite times of year, filled with anticipation for the festivities ahead. But as much as I busy myself decorating the house and shopping for gifts, that doesn’t mean there isn’t time to stop and admire wintry gardens – and there is plenty to capture your interest at this time of year. Any form of smart clipping is in its element right now, and the icing on the cake is a light dusting of frost. Drummond Castle in Perthshire makes the point on a very grand scale, while at Queen Anne House in West Sussex, the clipping is more informal but beautiful nonetheless. Frosty grasses are also looking gorgeous now, and in the rolling grounds of Pensthorpe, Piet Oudolf’s Millennium Garden is simply glorious in the winter sunshine. This is also a time of year to look ahead, and make plans for next summer, not least because it is the best time to plant roses, which are a must-have for the traditional English garden look. We’ve dedicated a whole section to these gorgeous plants: how to grow them; beautiful rose gardens from which to glean inspiration; and a tribute to the renowned rose breeder, David Austin. I do hope you enjoy the issue, with its taste of both winter and the summer to come.
IMAGES BEN NICHOLSON; NEIL HEPWORTH
CLARE FOGGETT, EDITOR
Sarah Giles Sarah is a freelance journalist specialising in garden and food writing. She blogs about both at a-cooksplot.blogspot.co.uk from her home in East Sussex, and visits Queen Anne House on page 32.
ON THE COVER Roses are a quintessential feature of English gardens and winter is the time to plant them. Find inspiration from page 51. Cover photo: GAP/Nicola Stocken.
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DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 5
December 2019/January 2020
CONTENTS 20
12
20
91
32
26
Gardens 12 Drummond Castle In the quiet chill of a Scottish winter, this Perthshire garden’s topiary and parterre are iced with frost. 20 Pensthorpe Piet Oudolf’s textured and colourful Millennium Garden sits alongside naturalistic islands and lakes in Norfolk.
65
45
26 The Old Rectory A restored garden in Kent lights up the winter gloom with a flood of aconites, crocuses and special snowdrops. 32 Queen Anne House A moon gate opens onto striking topiary, dark water and crisp reflections at this Sussex walled garden. 91 Writers’ Gardens Agatha Christie’s Greenway in Devon, was a surprising source of inspiration for her crime fiction.
Roses 52 Bare-Root Roses Winter is bare-root planting season – the best time of year to establish new roses in your garden. 56 Wynyard Hall Sir John Hall’s treasured walled rose garden in County Durham is the culmination of his long-held dreams. 65 Poulton House These gorgeous Wiltshire gardens offer space for owner Eugenia Ephson to indulge her passion for roses. 72 David Austin Examining the legacy of the man who revolutionised rose-growing with his repeat-flowering English Roses.
72 6 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Plants 39 Lime Cross Nursery Vicky and Helen Tate sell tiny, potted ‘Bijoux’ conifers, plus more traditional specimens, at their Sussex nursery.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 2020
56 45 Hollies At Hampshire’s Highfield Hollies, Louise Bendall cares for the National Collection of this timeless Christmas plant. 77 Cottage Gardens An exclusive extract from Kathryn Bradley-Hole’s new book, English Gardens.
SPRING OPEN DAY Sunday 3rd May, 2020 Enjoy the beauty that Spring brings to Mitton Manor Gardens. Treat yourself to Afternoon Tea and a glass of beer or champagne to round off the weekend.
Regulars 8 On Location Step off the tourist trail and discover the lesser-known but lovely gardens of Staffordshire and the West Midlands.
IMAGES RICHARD BLOOM; CLIVE NICHOLS; DAVID AUSTIN ROSES
10 Out & About News, events, jobs to do – and the best Japanese gardens to visit. 85 Craftspeople The mild Cornish climate makes Tregothnan ideal for growing some of England’s finest single-estate tea.
NGS OPEN DAY
95 The Reviewer This month’s new books, plus an interview with Rosie Sanders.
Enjoy Tea, Coffee, Cakes or a Champagne Afternoon Tea and help us raise money for nursing and health charities!
98 Last Word Christmas trees are a tradition dating back not quite as long as you would expect, as Katherine Swift explains.
Offers 50 Subscribe & Save Save money when you take a subscription to The English Garden. 76 Discover Europe Enjoy exclusive access to the finest famous gardens of England.
Sunday 5th July, 2020
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DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 7
ON LOCATION
WEST MIDLANDS & STAFFORDSHIRE
The Not-So Black Country Enjoy lovely gardens off the tourist trail in the West Midlands and Staffordshire
Trains from London Euston take under two hours to Birmingham or Stafford, or catch a flight to Birmingham International Airport.
I
t’s the industrial heritage of the Midlands that has shaped this region, offering up a fascinating insight into the country’s transformation from an agricultural economy into one of factories, towns and cities. Take Staffordshire, the epicentre of England’s pottery and ceramics industry in the 18th and 19th centuries, or the Black Country, west of Birmingham, which fuelled the Industrial Revolution
8 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
with its coal mines, iron foundries and glassworks – the soot from all this industry that gave the area its name is thankfully now long gone. The region has beautiful countryside too. Cannock Chase in Staffordshire is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and nearby you will find Mitton Manor, with uninterrupted views of the Chase. If, that is, you can wrestle your eyes away from owner Elizabeth Gooch’s clever layout and
Grandeur in the Italian Garden at Trentham, with an iconic bronze of Perseus holding Medusa’s head.
Great escapes Stay in a smart Georgian hotel, discover the historic pottery industry and enjoy delightful waterside dining STAY IN LICHFIELD The
cathedral city of Lichfield is the ideal base from which to explore Staffordshire. Georgian Swinfen Hall Hotel sits in a 100-acre estate with a deer park and restored walled kitchen garden. Its luxurious rooms and Four Seasons restaurant make for a relaxing stay. Tel: +44 (0)1543 481494; swinfenhallhotel.co.uk
WORLD OF WEDGWOOD Possibly one of Britain’s most famous
IMAGES TRENTHAM/JOE WAINWRIGHT
exports, Wedgwood china, and in particular its matte, blue Jasperware, is instantly recognisable and covetable. You can visit the factory and take a tour to watch the firm’s skilled potters crafting, hand-painting and gilding china. The accompanying museum offers a fascinating insight into the company’s 260-year history too.
well-established planting, which includes avenues of gorgeous cherries. Also in Staffordshire is one of the grandest gardens in the UK: Trentham. This huge estate had been badly neglected but its gardens are now back on the map thanks to a restoration involving big-name designers Piet Oudolf and Tom Stuart-Smith. It’s on a par with Versailles in terms of its grandeur. Lastly, and in keeping with our rosy theme for this issue, a visit to David Austin Roses is a must. June and July are the best times to go, when the rose gardens are at their peak. You’ll be surrounded by roses of all scents and colours: an apt showcase for this leading breeder’s cultivars. There is also a nursery and shop, and wooden-beamed tea rooms to top off the visit with a pot of tea and slice of cake.
FOOD AND DRINK The historic, thatched Holly Bush Inn in the village of Salt on the river Trent, is said to be Britain’s second oldest pub. Look forward to traditional British food and drink sourced from local farmers and brewers. hollybushinn.co.uk. Or for something a little fancier, try the Moat House in Acton Trussell. This pretty 14th-century hotel (left) enjoys a gorgeous canalside setting, and its restaurant offers classic dining, with a five-course tasting menu available. moathouse.co.uk
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 9
DECEMBER/JANUARY
Out & About Phoebe Jayes recommends British gardens to visit inspired by horticulture in Japan and rounds up jobs to do in the garden as well as the latest news
Winter jobs Cut back ornamental grape vines to two buds before Christmas, to avoid pruning wounds bleeding. Rake up the last of autumn’s fallen leaves from your lawn to stop them smothering the grass below. Bring potted hyacinth and daffodil bulbs into the house to encourage flowering over Christmas.
Zen REFLECTIONS Visit this selection of tranquil and beautiful Japanese gardens in autumn for flaming leaf colour, or spring for clouds of delicate cherry blossom Compton Acres
Kyoto Garden
Tatton Park
At the Japanese Garden at Compton Acres (above) in Poole, Dorset, visitors will find swathes of purple, pink, red and white Kurume Hybrid azaleas, maple and cherry trees and a tea house draped in wisteria. Tel: +44 (0)1202 700778; comptonacres.co.uk
Part of London’s Holland Park, the Kyoto Garden first opened in 1992 to celebrate the city’s Japan Festival. Its Japanesestyle landscape and water features offer a serene respite from the noise and bustle of the city. rbkc.gov.uk
Tatton Park’s Japanese garden (below), near Knutsford in Cheshire, can only be entered as part of a guided tour. Its Shinto shrine and various artefacts are reputed to have been brought from Japan, and maples and bamboo are abundant. Tel: +44 (0)1625 374400; tattonpark.org.uk
Cowden Castle This historic Japanese garden in Dollar, Clackmannanshire was vandalised in the 1960s but recently reopened. Its restoration is still a work in progress, overseen by garden designer Professor Masao Fukuhara. Tel: +44 (0)7570 614763; cowdengarden.com 10 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Japanese Garden This tranquil spot near Newquay in Cornwall is home to spectacular Japanese maples, as well as vibrant azaleas and a waterfall that tumbles into a pool of fish. Tel: +44 (0)1637 860116; japanesegarden.co.uk
Clean the greenhouse inside and out to ensure plants can make the most of winter’s weak light. Use a garden disinfectant on the inside walls and remember to scour the corners too. Some summerflowering bedding plants, such as lobelia, pelargonium (below) and snapdragons, benefit from an early sowing in a heated propagator in January, as they need more time to grow.
ORCHID
LONDON’S Royal Parks
Festival at Kew
A new exhibition at London’s Garden Museum explores the history of the capital city’s Royal Parks, including Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens and Green Park. Many were first created to indulge Henry VIII’s love of hunting – Richmond Park is still home to herds of deer – but have played an important role in the city’s history since. During the war, some were turned into agricultural land to ‘dig for victory’ or used for military training, while today the parks and their swimming lidos provide perfect summer relaxation for urban dwellers. gardenmuseum.org.uk
Kew Gardens has revealed the theme for 2020’s Orchid Festival: Indonesia. This region boasts diverse flora – the island of Sumatra is the only place the infamously smelly Titan arum grows in the wild – and at least 4,000 species of orchid. Much of its vast landscape remains unexplored: just last year a Kew scientist discovered and named a new orchid, Bulbophyllum adolinae. The festival will once again transform the Princess of Wales Conservatory into a plant-filled paradise, evoking the sights and sounds of Indonesia and its vibrant culture. The festival runs from 8 February to 8 March 2020. kew.org
Celebrating The MAYFLOWER
IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK; THE HEARSUM COLLECTION; JEFF EDEN/RBG KEW; CLIVE NICHOLS
Mr Fothergill’s has launched a new sweet pea for 2020, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s voyage to the ‘New World’ of America in 1620. ‘Mayflower 400’ is a floriferous Spencer variety, with scented blooms in pastel pink and cream, bred by Keith Hammett. “To have our own sweet pea will add a unique aspect to this commemoration year,” said Charles Hackett, chief executive of Mayflower 400, which is running commemorative events. mr-fothergills.co.uk
ALLWOODS’ 110 years Allwoods, a nursery specialising in pinks, carnations and pelargoniums, is celebrating its 110th birthday in 2020. The firm was originally established in 1910 by brothers Montagu, Edward and George Allwood, and soon became the world’s leading dianthus specialist. The brothers’ breeding breakthrough in the 1900s introduced popular, high-quality cultivars such as wellknown, clove-scented pink ‘Doris’ (right), which is still widely grown and enjoyed today. Nowadays, the nursery’s dianthus collection includes at least 400 different varieties and ranges from tiny alpine pinks to six-foot-tall greenhouse carnations. Current owners Emma and David Sumner-Wilson took over in 1994, and proudly carry on the tradition of producing homegrown plants from the nursery’s Sussex site, while breeding new varieties such as Dianthus ‘Heaven Scent’. allwoods.net DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 11
SLEEPING BEAUTY
In the quiet chill of a Scottish winter when visitors are long departed, Drummond Castle’s astonishing jumble of topiary is iced with frost, its grand parterre glitters in the weak sunlight, and a team of gardeners set about readying it for another season WORDS JULIA WATSON PHOTOGRAPHS RAY COX
12 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
DRUMMOND CASTLE GARDENS
The grand, sweeping vista of the box-edged parterre, which has a St Andrew’s Cross at its heart and emblems from the family coat of arms.
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 13
I
N WINTER, THE GARDENS OF DRUMMOND
Castle are closed to visitors, its marble statues wrapped against the cold, tall clay pots packed away, beds stripped bare of summer planting. Slumbering under a dusting of snow, or glittering with frost, the topiary shapes of the parterre cast long shadows in the low winter sunshine and look even more magical and otherworldly than they do in summer. The garden may be sleeping, but for head gardener Edith Barnes and her team of four full-time and two part-time staff, the end of the year is always a very busy time. On top of the more usual maintenance tasks, such as clearing leaves and taking cuttings for next year’s pots, they have to tackle the biggest pieces of garden topiary, perched up high on cherrypickers to trim the tallest specimens. “It’s lovely on a crisp winter’s day when we are doing the topiary,” says Edith, who took a holiday job at the garden when she was 15 and has now worked here for over 35 years. “You look out across all the trees with sprinklings of icing on the top.” Today’s garden is a legacy of the Victorian era, and was visited by Queen Victoria herself when she and Albert stayed at Drummond Castle in 1842. Greeted by the estate’s tenants, who were lined along the drive, and entertained in a specially erected pavilion, she approved highly of all she saw, writing in her diary: “Sunday September 11th… We walked in the Garden, which is really very fine, with terraces, like an old French garden”. While she was at Drummond, Victoria planted two copper beech trees in mirror-image spots either side of the parterre. One succumbed quite recently, felled by a
14 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Slumbering under a dusting of snow, or glittering with frost, the topiary shapes of the parterre cast long shadows
Top The West Fountain,
surrounded by pillars of Irish yew, umbrellas of holly and box balls. Above Sid, the castle’s solitary male swan, glides across the castle’s pond.
storm in May 2012, but the other still stands: a ghostly grey presence at this time of year. Evidence for earlier gardens at Drummond is rather patchy. The castle itself dates back to the 15th century, when the first Lord Drummond was given the land and built his ‘fortalice’ – a fortified house – remnants of which still survive in the lower floors of the keep. He was reported to have sent cherries to James IV while the king was hunting nearby.
A view down one of the ‘arms’ of the St Andrew’s Cross, two cut-leaved oaks glowing in the sun.
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 15
A mound of bamboo sits to the right of the bridge, with a fernery peeping through the arches.
16 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Both house and garden expanded under his successors. The imposing obelisk sundial that usually stands at the centre of the parterre (it is currently being restored) is a survivor of what must have been a grand formal garden in the early 17th century. Towards the end of that century it was a Drummond gardener, John Reid, who became the author of Scotland’s first gardening book: The Scots Gard’ner, Published for the Climate of Scotland. Formality was swept away in the 18th century, and it was only in the early 19th century, with the advent of Queen Victoria’s future hosts, heiress Clementina Drummond and her husband, Lord Willoughby de Eresby, that the garden took on its present form.
Its ‘more is more’ exuberance includes a multitude of statues, tons of sparkly quartz edging and a riot of planting In creating their new garden, the couple secured the services of Lewis Kennedy, a landscape gardener who had worked for the Empress Joséphine at Malmaison in France. But architect Charles Barry, who submitted plans for a revamp of the castle, may also have had a hand in the design, which incorporates elements of Italian and French style and a huge dollop of 19th-century ‘more is more’ exuberance: a multitude of statues, tons of sparkly quartz edging and a riot of colourful planting.
Top Pillars of English and
Irish yew and a golden holly, with acers still providing a final blast of autumn colour. Above Glowing in the low sun, bare branches of the woodland trees.
The garden nowadays is not as crammed with plants and shrubs as it was in its Victorian heyday: it was simplified when it was restored in the post-war years, although the layout is the same. Its impact comes from the way you first see it, from high up in the castle courtyard, with the whole parterre suddenly opening out below, its strong central axis appearing to power out into the countryside beyond the bounds of the garden. The pattern of box-edged beds in the parterre has a St Andrew’s Cross at its heart, with emblems taken from the Drummond and Willoughby coats of arms to either side of it. During the summer months, alternating red and yellow roses, family colours, fill the central cartwheel section, the white of the cross coming from massed plantings of lambs’ ear, Stachys lanata, and anaphalis along the pathways. DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 17
SEASONAL ADVICE By Edith Barnes Mulch vegetable gardens with rotted manure and dig them over before Christmas, to allow time for the frost to break up the soil gradually. Don’t try to break it up yourself. This is a good time for edging lawns. The frost means you’ll get a much cleaner cut.
Above The parterre, with The three paths that lead the its wonderful display of eye out across the garden are lined topiary, box-edged beds with an intense blue lavender, Lavandula and roundels of beech. angustifolia ‘Hidcote’, and other Right Bright red berries gleam on one of the sections are planted up with tulips and garden’s many hollies. antirrhinums for the season. Tall, glazed pots embossed with the Drummond coat of arms stand out on the gravel, brimming with She’s about to introduce replacements for yellow and white marguerites and contrasting a band of acers along the eastern edge of the pelargoniums such as ‘Red Lace’. parterre that were attacked by honey fungus and Even at the height of summer, however, what had to be scrapped, and there is also an ongoing catches the eye above all else is the magnificent programme of improvement to attempt to correct topiary: a dizzying array of cones and cylinders, the lean of some of the topiary, which has been tiny spirals and giant lollipops, umbrellas and bent out of shape by the wind. balls, made from English and Irish yew, box and holly, Portuguese laurel and cypress. Colours shift from darkest green to paler shades, and from silver to gold, and every tree, whatever its size, seems to have its own personality. Caring for these myriad shapes takes the gardening team months rather than As for the Queen Victoria tree, the team has days. “We clip the boxwood and beech hedges at been nurturing seedlings from the remaining the end of August and early September,” Edith copper beech, and these are now three feet high. explains. “Then, in October, we do the small The time is ripe, it would seem, for another yews, and it’s only once the garden is closed to ceremonial planting. ■ visitors, in November, December and January, that we bring out the cherry-pickers.” Drummond Castle Gardens, Muthill, Crieff, For Edith, the enduring appeal of working Perth & Kinross PH7 4HN are open on Easter at Drummond Castle lies in keeping such a Weekend (Good Friday, Saturday, Easter Sunday spectacular garden up to standard in the face and Easter Monday) 1pm-6pm and then from of inevitable change. “Things get old and die 1 May to 31 October daily, 1pm-6pm. June, July and get diseases,” she says, “and it can be quite and August 11am-6pm, September and October heartbreaking when you lose some of the older 1pm-6pm. Adult £6; child £2. Tel: +44 (0)1764 ones, like the Queen Victoria tree.” 681433; drummondcastlegardens.co.uk
Topiary is a dizzying array of cones and cylinders, spirals and lollipops, umbrellas and balls
18 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Keep yew columns in shape by running wires round them a foot apart, taking care to turn stray wires inwards so you don’t clip them with shears. Cut back herbaceous planting and mulch around perennials and roses. Fork between the plants first for drainage – it opens up the soil and encourages worms to come up and take the mulch back down. Leave seedheads on lavender for winter protection; don’t deadhead until spring. To prevent wind rock in roses, prune them back to halfheight and then prune properly in spring. Grow your own Christmas decorations. Fronds of hemlock look good sprayed silver or gold, as do poppy seedheads and artichokes. And, of course, there are yew and holly trimmings to take home.
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Banks of frosted grasses combine with the icy lake for an atmospheric winter scene.
Wild at HEART In the rolling grounds of Pensthorpe, Piet Oudolf’s textured and colourful Millennium Garden sits alongside a naturalistic complex of islands and lakes filled with all manner of waterfowl WORDS JAMES ALEXANDER-SINCLAIR PHOTOGRAPHS RICHARD BLOOM
20 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
PENSTHORPE
From the gazebo, all the visitor can see is plants, hiding the pathways and obscuring the water.
T
HERE ARE SOME DAYS THAT ARE
unforgettable. A romantic sunset. A lazy picnic. The day a child is born. A winning cup final. The perfect birthday. Or a wave that breaks in just the right place. As you can see from this set of pictures, at Pensthorpe we have all the elements of horticultural winter ecstasy coming together in exactly the same place at exactly the right time. From the deep winter chill rises something glorious, fuelled by sunshine, clear air and a truly delicious frost. Overnight, a garden that seemed past its best is suddenly given a second wind: grasses that yesterday looked a bit beige and exhausted are now wands of frost-rimed magic, while the fading seedheads of summer flowers are crowned with tiaras of ice. This moment will not last. In a few hours the sun will have warmed the air and the frost will have lost its lustre: carpe diem people; carpe diem. This is the Millennium Garden at Pensthorpe. It was planted in 1999 by Piet Oudolf, the internationally famous Dutch garden designer and plantmeister. However, to understand its existence we must go back 30 years to the early 1970s when the site was owned by a gentleman called Bill Makins. At that time it consisted of fields bisected by the old Fakenham railway line but, in 1974, Mr Makins set about removing around a million tonnes of gravel from the site. This sort of operation usually leaves deep scars on the landscape for many years after the excavations have finished, but, in this case, islands were built and the banks planted to encourage wildlife in one of the earliest examples of ecological planting. Unsurprisingly these newly
Clockwise from top
Molinia caerulea subsp. caerulea ‘Poul Petersen’; flat, frosted seedheads of Aster umbellatus; molinia and calamagrostis surround a trunk of birch; winter sunlight highlights Sporobolus heterolepis.
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 23
created ponds proved welcoming to passing wildfowl and, such is the irresistible charm of a duck, the site soon became a thriving nature reserve and home to flocks of birds. Mr Makins travelled to breeders far and wide and soon there were tufted ducks, longtails, wigeon, harlequins, goldeneye and teal. Visitors swiftly followed: twitchers, naturalists (Pensthorpe hosted BBC Springwatch from 2008 to 2010) and small children eager to feed the ducks. Where there are people there should also be a garden, so Bill Makins went on the hunt for Piet Oudolf who, at that time, was not nearly as famous as he is now and had done only a couple of gardens outside the Netherlands. At first he was reluctant, but the deal was finally sealed in a phone call on Christmas Day. The Millennium Garden is a sea of glorious perennials that sweep elegantly down a slope towards one of the many lakes. There is a network of paths that lead you through the plantings and across the water to a small island, but the best thing is that you cannot see those paths until you’re walking them. You can stand in the shelter of a small gazebo and all you will see are plants. There are birches and stands of tall shrubs that lead on to swathes of shimmering grasses – miscanthus, molinias, stipa, sporobolus and another 18 different species – interspersed with wedges of perennial colour – eupatorium, asters, agastaches, salvias, echinaceas and many, many more. They curve and billow all around you, swooping down to meet the towering Norfolk reeds on the waterside and, from there, the eye surfs across lily pads under the droop of willow and off towards the river. It is, of course, designed to be full of zing and pep throughout the summer but, as you can see from these photographs, it does not end there. No longer are these just dying stems fading away towards the mush of winter; they are suddenly elevated to sparkling starlets. It is as if the lights snap on, the music starts, the sequins shake down from the ceiling and the show begins. There was a time, not all that long ago, when gardeners eagerly cut back everything in what was called the autumn clean-up. Seedheads were severed, grasses guillotined and leaves lopped. We were left with expanses of empty brown ground that stayed that way until the springtime; undoubtedly very tidy but also completely soulless. Looking at this garden that seems completely sacrilegious – hands up who would prefer hoovered neatness to this? Precisely. In 2003 Mr Makins handed over responsibility to Bill and Deb Jordan who have added to the site. There is a new Wave Garden designed by Julie Toll, playgrounds on an epic scale and more wildfowl. One of the Jordans’ schemes was to engineer a replanting of the Millennium Garden in 2008 to take into consideration the changing conditions as trees grew and cast more shade, and also because every garden needs a kick sometimes: nature never stays still and neither do gardens. The garden is Left Eurybia x herveyi
and Persicaria alpina go well together even in their winter guise.
Pensthorpe’s
BEST SEEDHEADS Some plants excel at standing proud in a frost. These ones all hold their heads up high
ASTILBE Beacons of brightness in summer, with plumes of frosted fluff in winter, astilbes grow best in moist soil.
ECHINACEA Pensthorpe mix white and pink coneflower varieties for extra longevity. Both look wonderful glazed with frost.
ERYNGIUM BOURGATII Very spiky and sculptural – like good gin, they are even better with a bit of ice.
CALAMAGROSTIS BRACHYTRICHA A really good grass for a sunny spot, with greyish-pink feathery flowers.
24 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
now run by Jonathan Pearce with the help of one other gardener and a bevy of volunteers. His job is twofold – to preserve the Oudolf garden, while extending the gardens in his own style: it is a nice mixture of curation and creation. Jonathan has put in new bridges, which have brought an entire island into the garden. “I always took photographers over there,” he explains, “because it gave the best view back to the garden. It seemed right to make it easier to access.” He has taken the spirit of the Millennium Garden and reinterpreted it in his own way using divisions from the original plants. So the burning question is: when can you cut down all this bejewelled frostiness, for it cannot stay forever? Jonathan and team attack it in January once everything is starting to look limp and tired – as do we all by new year. There used to be compost heaps for the large piles of prunings, but Jonathan has incorporated that area into the garden and has come up with a simpler solution. All plants are cut down to the ground in small bites and the clippings are left as a mulch to quietly rot back into the soil. Gardening in a nature reserve has revealed interesting pest problems. “We have trouble from the greylag and barnacle geese as they love bulbs and happily eat plants,” explains Bill. “They tend to eat the things that the muntjac and voles ignore!”
Top Textured solidago, asters and eupatorium with Miscanthus sinensis ‘Malepartus’. Above Kalimeris incisa with golden Molinia caerulea subsp. caerulea ‘Edith Dudszus’.
Pensthorpe is always worth a visit: through the zingy colour of high summer into the mellow plumpness of autumn
As a solution, the Jordans have tried to subtly fence in the garden. That aside, an advantage of living in a wildfowl park is that there are no slug or snail problems: if any mollusc dares raise its head, there is usually a duck on hand to sort it out. Pensthorpe is always worth a visit: from the spring when the first green shoots show their heads, through the zingy colour of high summer and into the mellow plumpness of autumn. But we must remember that it doesn’t stop there and we occasionally get days like this: days when we need to be spontaneous. Crisp, cold days like this seldom announce their coming, so jump in the car, grab a woolly hat and get outside to feast upon the frost. ■ Pensthorpe Natural Park, Pensthorpe, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 0LN. Open all year, except Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, from 10am. Tel: +44 (0)1328 851465; pensthorpe.com DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 25
The Old Rectory presides over pretty swathes of snowdrops, winter aconites and early Crocus tommasinianus. 26 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
THE OLD RECTORY
Magic CARPET Christopher and Karin Proudfoot have transformed a neglected garden in Kent into a spectacular space that lights up the winter gloom with a flood of aconites, crocuses and special snowdrops WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS NICOLA STOCKEN
E
NSCONCED IN A PATCHWORK OF FIELDS
and copses, this is a garden that stirs slowly as the first light penetrates a skirt of woodland and, glade by glade, reveals carpets of frosted snowdrops, golden aconites and silvered crocuses. The garden at The Old Rectory in Fawkham, Kent, was already known for its winter flowers, but present owners Christopher and Karin Proudfoot have increased their numbers to create a breathtaking show. “At first, I simply left well alone,” explains Karin. “It wasn’t until later that I began to see snowdrops as individuals, rather than just a wonderful display each winter.” The couple moved into the 19th-century Old Rectory in 1983. “The garden was neglected, with daffodils peeping above tangled grass, overgrown shrubs and hybrid tea roses that we removed,” Karin recalls. Although aware of the winter display, they were still amazed as it unfolded the next February. “Recently, a mini-bus driver brought a group from London and stood rooted to the spot, open-mouthed – he’d never before seen the like,” she adds. The one-and-a-half-acre garden and woodland wraps around three sides of the house, shielded from 28 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Above Ferns and bergenias provide the foliage in a bed of specialist snowdrops. Below The Old Rectory’s owners, Christopher and Karin Proudfoot.
the road by a handsome, layered sycamore and an oak grown from an acorn collected by the daughter of the last rector. On the fourth side, only barbed wire used to separate the drive from fields. “We were exposed to the northerly winds that whistle up the valley, so one of our first tasks was to plant a hawthorn hedge,” says Karin. It was only when the hawthorn whips were nibbled away to almost nothing that she realised how many rabbits lived here. Nonetheless, the hedge did establish itself, albeit more slowly than hoped. Early inspiration came from The Well-Tempered Garden by Christopher Lloyd. “It was the first gardening book I read – my mother was keen but I don’t recall her reading about gardening, whereas my father would prune our vine, secateurs in one hand, and an RHS guide in the other.” Gardening on the North Downs with free-draining soil, Karin was heartened by Beth Chatto’s The Dry Garden. “Despite a good depth of alkaline loam above chalk, plants still struggle in hot spells – putting the right
“It wasn’t until later that I began to see snowdrops as individuals, rather than just a wonderful display” plant in the right place is key to survival,” she notes. Luckily, the many trees produce leafmould to bolster the soil, while the garden is run to organic principles. “Each year, thousands of ladybirds hibernate around the windows of the house,” she says. Initially, with a young family to raise, Karin simply left the snowdrops and aconites undisturbed, to multiply and spread freely. “But their presence dictated where I cut out borders, although, with time, they’ve spread there anyway,” she reveals. After a while, she added a few Crocus tommasinianus, an early crocus that has spread, injecting clumps of silvery lilac flowers among snowdrops and aconites – a combination she especially loves. “I recently visited Welford Park, which is an impressive sea of white snowdrops, but somehow I felt Clockwise from top something was Sedums and grasses are left intact over winter missing,” she admits. in the frosted parterre; It was at the turn Crocus minimus ‘Spring of the millennium that Beauty’ opens its buds Karin started collecting in February and March; Galanthus nivalis with special cultivars. Eranthis hyemalis; Acer “At first, Christopher griseum is a superb tree questioned why for winter, with its I was doing it when cinnamon peeling bark. DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 29
I already had a garden full of snowdrops,” she recalls. As a result, she focused on the most distinctive varieties, heeding the words of plant hunter, Tom Mitchell, who advised that any snowdrop that cannot be picked out from three metres away isn’t worth having. Each special new snowdrop is planted in compost in an aquatic pond basket that is sunk into the ground, enabling the roots to spread out through the mesh. “Each basket is easily lifted when dividing snowdrops, and is carefully labelled. As a backup, I also have a paper plan,” she explains. Among her collection are several yellow cultivars, including G. plicatus ‘Bill Clark’ (named after the warden who spotted it in the nature reserve at Wandlebury Ring in Cambridgeshire) and ‘Spindlestone Surprise’. Others are chosen for their singular form and foliage. Karin is especially fond of ‘Natalie Garton’, so much so that she accidentally bought it twice. “It has bold foliage and generously rounded flowers, and does very well here,” she notes. Another unmistakable, early-flowering cultivar is ‘Daglingworth’, with its tall, bluegreen leaves and a dotted, ruffled inner skirt; it was originally discovered in a church flower arrangement, picked from a nearby colony. ‘Hunton Giant’ lives up to its name, being around 38cm tall with unusually broad, upright, longlasting greyish leaves. It was found in a rectory garden in the village of Hunton. Visitors often ask how the naturalised snowdrops are maintained. “I tell them the important thing is to delay cutting the grass until late spring,” says Karin. Another question she is frequently asked concerns the optimum time to move snowdrops. “There are two schools of thought,” she explains. “One is to move them in January when they are just peeping above ground, and the other is to wait until after the foliage has died down, in late June or July.” With trees along three sides of the plot, shadeloving plants thrive, especially bergenias. “I used to find them hideous,” says Karin, “but I’ve come to love them because their evergreen leaves are so handsome, spreading to cover the soil.” Among her favourites are Bergenia ‘Claire Maxine’, with gleaming, puckered, green foliage that reddens in winter, and ‘Eden’s Magic Giant’, which goes limp in frost, but soon recovers. Then there is ‘Godfrey Owen’, with unusual brown-purple leaves. In one corner it is grown with a snowdrop of the same Clockwise from top
Ground frost adds lustre to the snowdrops and aconites; scented Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’; the variegated box spiral has been clipped to shape for 25 years; cheerful Eranthis hyemalis is the perfect partner for the many snowdrops.
30 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
NOTEBOOK
Finishing Touches Timeless, original ornaments give this garden a settled and well-established feel, in which to enjoy a collection of choice plants
1
name, and G. elwesii ‘Margaret Owen’, named for Godfrey’s wife, a famous galanthophile. “I call it my Owen family group,” says Karin. Spring is heralded by more shade-lovers: hepaticas, trillium, pulmonarias, epimediums, hellebores and corydalis, interspersed with daffodils that have naturalised through the decades. Among the most useful plants are hardy geraniums and, with many gaps to fill in the early days when faced with a blank slate, Karin followed advice from renowned plantswoman Margery Fish: ‘When in doubt, plant a geranium.’ “Initially, I rather overdid it, but I’ve since weeded out all but the best,” she says. Summer brings double peonies, eryngiums, acanthus and clematis, followed by a lull. “There’s always a gap in July, which is hot and dry, but things pick up for autumn with asters, persicarias, helianthus, sedums, colchicums and ornamental grasses,” she explains. Two grasses, Calamagrostis brachytricha and Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Avalanche’, energise a small box parterre. “They are transformed by frost, alongside the skeletal sedum heads and rose hips,” says Karin. Nearby the parterre stands a variegated box spiral, which, over the course of 25 years, has been coaxed into a fine, two-metrehigh form. It seems to symbolise the patience, resourcefulness and artistry underlying a beautiful garden that is a joy to all who visit. ■ Above A clump of early-flowering Iris reticulata ‘Harmony’ adds a burst of blue.
The Old Rectory, Valley Road, Fawkham Longfield, Kent DA3 8LX. Open in February 2020 in aid of the National Garden Scheme: see ngs.org.uk for details. Other visits can be arranged by appointment, for groups of up to a maximum of 20 people. Email: keproudfoot@gmail.com
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3
4
1 A metal arch supports the silky seedheads of Clematis tangutica ‘Helios’. 2 The most remarked-upon snowdrop in the garden is Galanthus elwesii ‘Big Boy’, with flowers up to 48mm long. 3 These rusted rollers were found by Christopher, while searching for Victorian lawnmowers to add to his 300-strong collection. 4 Inherited ornaments are often the most cherished: this bench belonged to Christopher’s grandparents.
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 31
QUEEN ANNE HOUSE
Undulating hedges and aesthetically pleasing yet sturdy plant supports are hallmarks of an Arne Maynarddesigned garden.
Cutting EDGE A moon gate opens into a wonderful world of strikingly clipped topiary, dark water and crisp reflections at this distinctive walled garden in Sussex
WORDS SARAH GILES PHOTOGRAPHS RICHARD BLOOM
D
EEP IN THE ROLLING WEST SUSSEX COUNTRYSIDE ,
a few miles from the edge of the South Downs, there’s a charming garden with an unexpected quirk: a series of box hedges clipped into delightfully organic, fluid shapes that take the unwary visitor by surprise. Part of a 32-acre estate surrounding an early 18th-century house, the garden covers eight acres with a walled garden of about an acre and a half at its heart – and it’s here that the fun begins. Ben Pope has been working full-time as head gardener here for the past 11 years, alongside two other full-timers and two part-timers. Having studied art and design before becoming a student at RHS Wisley, and then working as a horticultural advisor to landscape designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd in London, he was well-placed to apply for the job. He remembers approaching the lovely moon-gate entrance on the day of his interview and glimpsing tiny, newly planted box plants edging the beds in the walled garden beyond. His interview was with garden designer Arne Maynard, who had been brought in a few months before to revamp the walled garden, where previously the walls had been covered in ivy, the paths had been overtaken by grass and there was just one small working vegetable bed. Arne’s design kept closely to the original layout, which had a central avenue lined with old apple trees of varying sizes leading from the moon gate. This is then intersected at 90° by another path halfway down, cutting the garden into four distinct quadrants that are now edged with step-over apples. A perimeter path runs all the way around the walls, and is backed by four-metre deep herbaceous borders. Having given Ben the job, Arne stayed involved with the garden for about a year but was then happy to hand it over to him and to the garden’s owners, who are very much involved with its ongoing development. In the years since the interview, the box plants have grown up into handsome DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 33
Top Step-over apples edge beds sown with green manure in winter. Above Head gardener Ben Pope remembers seeing tiny box plants on the day of his interview.
hedges that form the backbone of the walled space, and they are now clipped into what Ben describes as essentially ‘a wobbly line’ that works well as a contrast to the linear structure of the rest of the garden. “We start clipping by eye and then refine the shape, taking care that it doesn’t become too uniform,” Ben explains. “In just a few years it has evolved into the organic hedge you see today, and really it’s just a question of following the contours now. We take it in turns to do the clipping, with one of us tackling the sides of the box while someone else does the tops. It’s done in September, which is quite late, but it’s the only way we can fit it in around everything else.” Three of the four quadrants in the walled garden are used for vegetables, and here phacelia is grown as
34 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
green manure over the winter, before being dug in at the end of January. “We’re on light sandy soil which is very hungry,” says Ben, “so we mulch a lot, too.” The fourth quadrant is ornamental, with masses of grasses that look wonderful when low winter light hits them. Rosa glauca is grown as a thicket here, to add a wild feel as a counterpoint to the surrounding formality, and three topiarised beech trees add structure and interest in winter with the beech holding on to most of its leaves until spring. In the centre of this space is a rather lovely sunken picnic lawn, partially hidden from view until the grasses are cut down with a hedge-trimmer in February. Where the two paths meet in the centre of the walled garden, four curving box shapes are clipped with crisp, flat tops to accentuate the feel of this being a stopping point, and their uniformity only serves to accentuate the wonderful, billowing feel of the other box hedges around them. Along the main
Clockwise from top
The moon gate beautifully frames the garden beyond; a mix of Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gracillimus’ and ‘Malepartus’ provides long-lasting seedheads; Ben’s calmly dramatic reflecting pool; the frosted, toothed leaves of Cynara cardunculus.
path, the old apple trees, although no longer very productive, add to the atmosphere of the garden in winter, with their gnarly, lichen-covered trunks and fingers, and Ben has recently added sarcococcas at the base of the walls. “I’m really looking forward to them becoming properly established,” he says, “because the precious scent should be beautifully trapped inside the walls on a frosty morning.” In the herbaceous borders, seedheads of Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea ‘Transparent’, monarda and veronicastrum are left in place for winter interest. Once these are cut down, hyacinths go in and ‘Amethyst’ is a particular favourite of Ben’s. “We plant it with Chionodoxa ‘Pink Giant’, and they make a great combination,” he says. In summer, cut flowers and herbs are grown for the house in raised beds and attractive seedheads are left in place here for as long as possible too. They’re often pressed into action as part of the Christmas DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 35
Above left Box cubes mark the corners of the sunken pond. Above right The aged sepia flowerheads of Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’. Left Red-leaved Leucothoe ‘Zeblid’ and a fountain of Carex testacea in a winter pot. Below Stunning globular forms in the box hedge.
36 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
garlands that Ben makes for the house every year: “Nigella damascena works particularly well for this, with its seedheads sprayed with fake snow!” he says. Soft fruit is grown in the shelter of the walled garden, too, and the gooseberry and cherry fans, redcurrant cordons, autumn raspberries and trained thornless blackberries are supported by attractive, sturdy oak posts and rails (aesthetically pleasing plant supports being an Arne Maynard trademark), so they look good in winter, even when the plants are leafless. “I’m a big fan of trained fruit,” says Ben. “It’s so productive, the fruit is easier to pick and it looks beautiful even in the depths of winter.” Between the rows of soft fruit are narrow grass strips: “They’re very fiddly to mow, but at this time of year they come into their own and really add to the layout – so I don’t mind.” Being at the bottom of a gently sloping valley, the garden is in a frost pocket. “The sides of the valley tend to protect us from air frosts,” Ben says, “but once the soil gets cold in winter, we tend to stay cold here for a long time – and that can be a problem if it is also very wet. It means we can lose some of the tender plants, but I’ve learnt to work around that.” A dovecote built in 1626 – pre-dating the existing house – backs onto one wall and is a focal point in the garden. It’s currently used only for storage of ladders and pots but, according to Ben, it has a very special atmosphere. At the far end of the walled garden is a covered area where leeks are cleaned and onions hang in the colder months, along with
Queen Anne House WINTER INTEREST
Shrubs for berries and cold-weather blooms
SARCOCOCCA CONFUSA
RUSCUS ACULEATUS
Has glossy evergreen leaves and spicily perfumed flowers, whose tiny size belies their scent’s incredible strength.
Sharply pointed leaves cover the branches of this evergreen shrub, which also bears scarlet berries in winter.
pumpkins and gourds, until temperatures really drop. Out from here, a path lined with Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’, whose sepia-coloured flowerheads have been left on the plants, leads to the rose garden with a sunken pool surrounded by four neatly clipped box cubes at its centre – Ben and his team have resisted the urge to shape these, and the classical effect is very pleasing. Beyond the rose garden, a new area has recently been created. With buttresses of yew on either side, a steel-edged rectangular pool – Ben’s brainchild – has been added and perfectly reflects the winter silhouette of an English oak tree. Black vegetable dye ensures the water stays clear, to mesmerising effect. And then onto what is arguably the real pièce de résistance: a jaw-dropping, 58-metre-long stretch of sinuous box hedging, running across the front of the house, put in by Arne Maynard in 2006 and echoed in similarly clipped box balls around the steps. Made up of individual plants that have grown into each other over the years, so that the effect is of one long, continuous, snaking expanse, clipping the long hedge is a labour of love that takes an hour for every metre. “After a few years, the shapes had started to lose definition,” says Ben. “So we brought in a Japanese topiary specialist and I shadowed him. He taught me to go in vertically around each shape first and then round and over the top to keep the shape of the individual hummocks. It’s all done with Niwaki shears that are a joy to use – but even so, I have to admit that I’m quite glad when we get to the end of that hedge each year!” ■
Above The beautiful
17th-century dovecote pre-dates the house and gives the walled garden a unique focal point.
CALLICARPA ‘PROFUSION’
GARRYA ELLIPTICA ‘JAMES ROOF’
Clusters of berries in an unreal shade of purple are produced by this large deciduous shrub in autumn.
The best garrya cultivar for long pendent tassels of flowers, borne throughout the winter months.
VIBURNUM X BODNANTENSE
ROSA ‘HERBSTFEUER’
A superb shrub with fragrant flowers. Try ‘Dawn’ for dark-pink blooms or ‘Charles Lamont’ for pale-pink ones.
Semi-double, dark-red blooms in summer, and occasionally autumn too, turn into glossy pear-shaped hips.
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 37
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BOOKING NOW Garden Makers Day 14 November with Sarah Wain & Jim Buckland, Rory Dusoir and Nigel Dunnett
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Garden of Medicinal Plants – Chelsea Physic Garden
Photo: R Alexander
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GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS
ONE YEAR GOOD GARDENING DIPLOMA
Wednesday & Thursday 22/23 April and 6/7 May 2020 BOOKING NOW
September 2020 – end June 2021
Covers the best in planting design while training in the more serious aspects of horticultural techniques. Practical sessions held at Arundel Castle under the guidance of head gardener Martin Duncan and at Sandhill Farm House, Rogate. Lectures by many leading gardening personalities and regular visits to exclusive private gardens. Students also learn to draw up planting plans. (1 day a week (Tues), 10.30am–3.15pm, over three terms)
One of our most popular courses, led by master horticulturalist Ben Pope, which aims to take each student through all the practical elements of caring for a garden from soil, tools, maintenance, seed sowing and propagating, weed control and pests and diseases. The first 3 days will be spent at the Chelsea Physic Garden and the final day will be spent gaining practical experience in Rosemary Alexander’s much praised garden near Petersfield and the garden nearby, where Ben is in charge. Participants will be given a chance to prune, plant, sow seeds and regular maintenance tasks will be discussed. A light lunch and refreshments will be provided daily.
GARDEN DESIGN & CARING FOR YOUR GARDEN
Distance Learning Courses study anytime, anywhere in the world
ESSENTIAL GARDEN DESIGN DIPLOMA January – March 2020 BOOKING NOW
A stepping stone to a new career. These two correspondence courses are a step by step guide to either designing your own garden or learning how to plant and maintain an existing garden: drawing up plans, hard landscaping, site analysis, planting, month by month tasks etc. Taught through a comprehensive course book, with projects submitted by post. 1-3 years to complete and individual assessment.
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Based at the Chelsea Physic Garden and led by Rosemary Alexander and architect Catriona Rowbotham, the course is an overview of Garden Design, covering all the elements needed to rethink an average garden. Taking students step by step through site surveying, using the grid, horizontal and vertical features, garden layouts and planting plans, costing and specification, plus drawing tuition and homework on design and plant portfolios. Tutors are well respected in the industry and will guide students on how to succeed in this diverse profession. (2 days a week (Wed & Thur) 10.30am-3.15pm, plus 2 days homework)
Not sure which Diploma course is for you? Come along to an information session to see our location and find out more.
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www.englishgardeningschool.co.uk Email: info@englishgardeningschool.co.uk • Tel: 020 7352 4347 Long established as the leader in all design and gardening tuition and based at the unique and historic Chelsea Physic Garden
LIME CROSS NURSERY
Family Trees At Lime Cross Nursery in East Sussex, sisters Vicky and Helen Tate have collaborated with two French sisters to sell tiny, potted ‘Bijoux’ conifers alongside a breathtaking range of traditional specimens WORDS JACKY HOBBS PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS
The stock beds at Lime Cross Nursery, filled with miniature conifers of every shape and shade.
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 39
LIME CROSS NURSERY
C
onifers bring untold magic and nostalgia to the home or garden, particularly around Christmas when their outstretched, needleclad limbs are imbued with resinous scent. Sisters Vicky and Helen Tate offer a variety of fascinating trees at their specialist conifer nursery, Lime Cross in Herstmonceux, East Sussex, where they are busy preparing for their seasonal festivities. Christmas lunches are served throughout December, while Helen hosts festive tastings of locally sourced organic wines. There’s also carol singing and Christmas tree decorating competitions. The traditional wreath-making workshop begins with a forage for ingredients in the nursery’s woodland and pinetum, where armfuls of boughs, cones and other natural ingredients are gathered. Alongside the seasonal range of traditional pre-cut Christmas trees, is a year-round selection of conifers with far greater longevity. The sisters have amassed more than 600 different and unusual conifers, many hand-grafted or grown from seed. “There’s literally a conifer for every garden,” enthuses Vicky. “Whether you have a shady or a sunny site, dry or
40 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Above left Helen Tate, co-owner of Lime Cross, carrying tiny conifers from the ‘Bijoux’ range. Top right Pinus contorta ‘Chief Joseph’ is a slowgrowing pine that turns brilliant yellow in winter. Above right Almost spherical Pinus strobus ‘Minima’ can cope well with dry conditions.
waterlogged ground, or a large or small pot, there will be something precious to fit the bill.” And top of the bill at the moment is Lime Cross’s recently introduced and charming range of ‘Bijoux’ conifers: exquisite potted miniature trees from Champagne in France, which are most covetable. They make the perfect portable Christmas gift for enthusiasts and discerning gardeners, and will be a treasured focal point on even the smallest balcony. Lime Cross was founded in the 1940s by Vicky and Helen’s grandparents, who grew wallflowers and tobacco. It was the sisters’ late father, Jonathan Tate, who introduced conifers and established first a wholesale, and then a retail, nursery. Helen and Vicky are keen to continue their family heritage. “We were privileged to grow up in a horticultural family,” acknowledges Vicky. “I’ve been passionate about plants since I was tiny, sitting in the greenhouse potting up spider or money plants.” Vicky studied horticulture and worked at the Auckland Botanic Gardens, New Zealand, while Helen graduated in viticulture and oenology. Jonathan Tate was an expert grafter, who travelled the world in search of rare shrubs and
Lime Cross’s pinetum, which Vicky describes as: “So peaceful in the early morning… a magical carpet of greens and texture.” SEPTEMBER 2018 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 41
LIME CROSS NURSERY
French Connection How a collaboration brought ‘Bijoux’ conifers to Lime Cross
Pascale and Marie-Laure
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Bijoux conifers are particularly
Gombault on a British
enchanting at Christmas. Some
Conifer Society tour of Ireland in
specimens’ colour makes them
2014. Their instant connection led
appear dusted with snow, while
to a commercial collaboration
others are imbued with the pine
between the two nurseries, with
aroma associated with Christmas.
the Tates exchanging their prized
Most popular is snowball-shaped
Pinus montezumae ‘Sheffield
Abies koreana ‘Silberkugel’, with
Park’ with the Gombaults’
tiny snow-white buds and an
miniature ‘conifères Bijoux’, true
intense resinous fragrance. Abies
miniature conifers, each in its own
koreana ‘Kohout’s Ice Breaker’
hand-thrown, terracotta pot.
is another winter wonder with
elen and Vicky Tate met
These petite specimens were an
With their year-round appeal,
white-frosted needles. Pinus
ingenious response to a gap in
aristata ‘Sherwood’ has a rotund
the Parisian market, where there
Christmas tree silhouette, while
was high demand for small,
standard velvety Chamaecyparis
year-round, potted plants that
lawsoniana ‘Gnome’ and Abies
could withstand balcony living.
koreana ‘Blauer Eskimo’ are
But their appeal has spread
reminiscent of miniature lollipop
beyond that. Pascale and Marie-
bays. Pinus strobus ‘Sea Urchin’,
Laure now select more unusual,
meanwhile, is shaggy, with a
slow-growing conifer varieties to
character all of its own.
showcase, with top-work grafted
These conifers are the jewel in
onto more disease-resistant
the nursery’s crown and give a
rootstock. Each is neatly clipped,
somewhat nostalgic group of
to enhance its diminutive frame,
plants a very modern twist. Look
and the frost-proof pots are filled
out for Helen and Vicky’s
with sufficient compost and
horticultural events nationwide,
slow-release nutrients to support
where they showcase smaller
the tree for up to three years,
specimens from Lime Cross
during which time it will simply
Nursery’s unique collection.
need watering. After three years,
Or visit the nursery to join in
the tree will need repotting, root
seasonal festivities and pick
trimming and soil replenishment.
up the perfect present.
Chamaecyparis lawsonia ‘Gnome’
Pinus strobus ‘Sea Urchin’
42 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Above The incomparable trees, many of which Korean fir Abies koreana he propagated at the ‘Silberkugel’ has tiny nursery. These striking snow-white buds and specimens, including an intense fragrance. the llama-like weeping Siberian spruce, Picea omorika ‘Pendula Bruns’, are planted in the nursery’s pinetum, where the beauty and diversity of this often maligned genus is wonderfully showcased. Vicky describes the pinetum as: “So peaceful in the early morning; a myriad of uprights, balls and columns; a magical carpet of greens and texture. The conifers are tactile, textural and tough – treasured qualities that are often unnoticed or overlooked.” “Dad had the ability to pick out unusual witch’s brooms and potential new garden cultivars to put into production,” explains Vicky. Witch’s brooms are spontaneous ‘sports’ found high up in ancient trees, sufficiently different to merit their own nomenclature. Pinus wallichiana ‘Vicky’, was one such find. Discovered at Wakehurst Place, its thick pony-like mane reminded Jonathan of his daughter’s mass of wild red hair. He also propagated Picea koyamae ‘Bedgebury Cascade’, a broom found by Bedgebury Pinetum’s dendrologist, Dan Luscombe and the only pendulous Picea koyamae in existence. Jonathan’s expertise was also called upon to rescue rare and endangered species. He successfully propagated from a 100-year-old Pinus montezumae ‘Sheffield Park’, one of the last specimens, bringing this ancient tree back into circulation. ‘Sheffield Park’ is the nursery’s flagship pine and is now part of a conifer exchange between the Tate sisters and twolike minded French sisters, Pascale and Marie-Laure Gombault, from specialist conifer nursery, Pépinières des Laurains. ‘Sheffield Park is now available to the French market, while the French ‘Bijoux’ conifers are now available from Lime Cross (see panel left). And it’s this fusion of preservation and enterprise that makes Lime Cross so special. ■
Lime Cross Nursery, Herstmonceux, Hailsham, East Sussex BN27 4RS. Cut Christmas trees, Christmas decorating competitions, Christmas lunches and other festive events are available during December. Tel: +44 (0)1323 8332299; limecross.co.uk
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foremost flower school. Judith, author of 17 books on flowers, is renowned worldwide for her ability to pass on her enthusiasm and inexhaustible knowledge of flowers. The school is accredited by the British Accreditation Council (BAC) and the American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD). Other Courses We offer a variety of one day courses and a two-week professional business course after which many participants open up their own business. Online Courses Judith’s online courses are perfect for distance learning with up to 20 videos each 30 minutes long. You also have your own personal tutor. You can choose from the professional, the wedding and the design diploma course. A recommended accommodation list is available on request.
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PLANT FOCUS A favourite holly with reliable scarlet berries, Ilex aquifolium ‘Pyramidalis Aureomarginata’.
Holly Days With its bright berries and evergreen foliage, holly takes a starring role during Christmas festivities – but its appeal is timeless. At Hampshire’s Highfield Hollies, Louise Bendall cares for the National Collection PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 45
PLANT FOCUS
B
edecked with berries in winter and clothed in glossy leaves all year, hollies make a handsome garden addition. It is easy to imagine a time when, along with ivy, mistletoe and yew, they were the only evergreens gracing the English countryside, their presence in winter imbued with mysticism. Hollies are still symbols of Christmas, but their value in the garden shouldn’t be underestimated. Clip sprigs of their foliage to decorate the Christmas pudding or make a festive wreath, but also consider hollies’ year-round presence, their wildlife value – berries and predator-proof shelter for birds – the ability of variegated cultivars to light up dim corners and their amenability to being topiarised and you’ve got a fantastic all-round garden plant.
46 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Above With its bright, cream-white margins and red berries, Ilex aquifolium ‘Argentea Marginata’ makes a vibrant garden shrub.
At Highfield Hollies in Hampshire there are hollies in infinite variety – owner Louise Bendall holds the Plant Heritage National Collection of the holly genus, ilex. Her collection began in 1992 when she set up a holly nursery with the aim of supplying mature hollies for instant impact. Originally a farmer – and still an ‘animal person’ with rare-breed sheep and bantam hens on her smallholding – Louise had come to find modern farming too wearing, and it was while she was looking for something to do instead that she came up with the idea of growing holly. “Nobody grew big holly in this country for that ‘instant’ look, so I ordered some plants,” she says. “I knew nothing about gardening, but I plunged in.” It was only after the first batch of 100 plants arrived that the timescales involved became clear. “I realised it was going to take an awfully long time for them to grow, so I opened up another acre of land and planted another 700, a real mixture,” Louise recalls. And so, over time, the Highfield Hollies offering expanded to include hollies of all shapes and sizes, becoming a renowned destination for lovers of these diverse shrubs in the process. Although it’s no longer an active nursery, visitors can still explore the holly collection, which grows in groves on rolling slopes, many clipped and topiarised, along with interesting trees from other genera – liquidambars, cornus and magnolia – dotted in between. For such a large genus, Louise was surprised at how hard it was to acquire some hollies in the early days. “Nobody was growing them and everyone in the trade told me they were unpopular – but that just made me keener. I went to Holland to buy plants and went on planting, hoping to grow them into decent-sized trees. The trouble was, there was no one ahead of me to learn from. I was doing something nobody else did – holly out in open fields – and I made all sorts of mistakes.” Weed-proof mats stopped rain reaching the hollies’ roots, hoeing weeds accidentally cut through their shallow feeder roots, and it’s obvious why Louise calls plastic plant ties “wretched”, but despite the teething problems, she learnt, and the hollies grew. Professional propagators based in the New Forest were employed to take her plant material and strike cuttings which she grew on in a polytunnel
Far left One of the best
for yellow berries is Ilex aquifolium ‘Bacciflava’. Left Black-berried Ilex crenata ‘Carolina Upright’ is suitable for topiary with its small dark leaves. Below left Rounded Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Howick’. Below right The spiniest of them all, ferocious Ilex aquifolium ‘Ferox Argentea’.
before planting into the open ground. Customers came from across England and Wales and all was going well until 2008’s financial crash when orders slowed and the business had to be revaluated. Now Louise offers group visits and topiary courses, wreath-making and talks, and the collection she built up remains one of the best places to explore a diverse and wide range of hollies. Spiky-leaved Ilex aquifolium is familiar to most gardeners. It’s native to Britain and known as the common holly – with its red berries it’s the one that looks so perfect atop the Christmas pudding. It makes a handsome large shrub or small tree, thriving in country air or city pollution. Louise likes variegated cultivars such as I. aquifolium ‘Argentea Marginata’, which she describes as “freefruiting, and a real lady”, and ‘Handsworth New Silver’, which has longer leaves. The new leaves of I. aquifolium ‘Flavescens’ emerge pale and golden at first. “They’re the most beautiful, then it develops a DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 47
PLANT FOCUS mottled look and people think the plant is unwell, but that’s just what it does,” Louise explains. For those who prefer holly spine-free (important if you’re using them in flower arrangements) there are the Highclere hollies, Ilex x altaclerensis. The popular cultivar ‘Golden King’ is one of these, with beautiful green leaves edged with a broad margin of creamy yellow. “When everything is really miserable, that holly will still give you a lovely, sunny feeling,” Louise says, “although my second husband couldn’t stand it and used to call it ‘custardy’,” she adds. This is the cultivar often cited when describing one of holly’s idiosyncrasies: that it has male and female plants, and a female needs a male plant in
Right Highfield Hollies is the perfect place to see hollies in variety, growing naturally or clipped into shapes.
GROWING ADVICE
Cultivating hollies Louise Bendall’s straightforward guidelines for success with this prickly genus Holly is a big, generous plant. One of the reasons it became unpopular was that after the war, all the hollies the Victorians had planted grew and grew into awful shapeless masses because there were no gardeners left to come and clip them. You can cut holly right back and can shape it how you want it. In olden times there was a myth that if you cut holly down you would have bad luck – I can’t imagine the reason behind that because it just springs back. Don’t prune when it’s frosty as that’s the only time the frost can get into it, especially if the plant is young. If a young holly with a late flush of growth gets hit by a very sharp frost, you must cut back to where it stops being brown, or you’ll lose the whole plant. Always buy a healthy-looking plant. A miserable holly in a pot will never do anything other than die slowly and miserably. Take it out of its pot and check the roots aren’t encircled inside.
Although they love a moist, well-drained soil, the one thing hollies can’t take is being drowned. If their roots remain under water for more than a couple of weeks, they will die. Once they’re established, they will cope fine on their own, but when hollies are still growing they really do benefit from feeding. Young holly is very greedy: I’ve had so many customers ringing me for advice on what to do with hollies that have been in the ground for ten years and haven’t done anything. When they’re young, give them a high-potash fertiliser, but really anything is better than nothing. It’s the nothing that’s going to lead to disappointment. Stake hollies in strong winds but don’t leave the stake and tie in place or it will damage the bark, which is actually quite tender and nutritious – and therefore tempting – to animals. Protect young hollies from rabbits and deer until the plants have grown up.
48 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
the vicinity if it is to bear berries. Despite its name, ‘Golden King’ is a female, berry-bearing plant; conversely, spiny Ilex aquifolium ‘Silver Queen’ is male. Whoever named these hollies in the first place must have had a perverse sense of humour, as they have confused gardeners ever since. If space is limited, choose one of the few cultivars that are self-fertile, so don’t need a male variety nearby. ‘J.C. van Tol’ is a good example, with glossy, darkgreen leaves and shiny, scarlet berries. The genus has plenty of oddities and rarities, too. More unusual in the UK are Ilex cornuta, the horned holly and its varieties, with vigorous shoots of new, upright growth; the young leaves appearing almost triangular before they fatten up and become more rectangular in shape. “Some of them make the most magnificent hedging,” Louise says, “but when I was trying to widen people’s ideas for hollies, everybody was tremendously conservative and couldn’t take on board this different-looking leaf. But they grow very densely and their prickles really mean business.” Now 82, Louise’s passion for hollies is undimmed, even though she now has ‘young men’ who come to keep the trees trimmed, rather than climbing ladders herself. “I’m fond of them all, even if they’re not terribly popular or they’re difficult to come by or to keep and grow,” she says. “But that’s the point of the National Collection – making sure they’re still here for people to know about.” ■ Highfield Farm, Hatch Lane, Liss, Hampshire GU33 7NH. Visits are by appointment only, with details of special talks and events to be found on the website. Tel: +44 (0)1730 892372; abtek-it.co.uk
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TOP BACKROUND & TREE © CIENPIES DESIGN/SHUTTERSTOCK; GREY BACKROUND © ALEXSEI SOLOVEV/SHUTTERSTOCK
THE PERFECT
A Celebration of Roses
IMAGE WORDSCLIVE CLARE NICHOLS FOGGETT IMAGE GAP/HOWARD RICE
WIth beautiful flowers and ravishing scent, roses are an English garden essential. The onset of winter is the perfect time to plant, letting you sit back and anticipate summer’s abundance
R The luscious, dusky pink flowers of ‘Jubilee Celebration’ have old-rose appeal.
omantic and evocative, there is nothing quite like a rose in full flower to conjure the feel of an English garden. As winter is the ideal time to plant bare-root roses, we bring you a special section devoted to these gorgeous plants, explaining how to get them off to the best possible start if adding new rose bushes to your garden over the next month or two. Inspiration comes from one of Britain’s newest and most exciting rose gardens, Wynyard Hall in County Durham, and we profile the man who has done so much to change rose growing worldwide, David Austin, who died a year ago in December 2018. DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 51
BARE-ROOT ROSES
Summer Promise Winter is bare-root planting season, the best time of year to establish new roses in your garden, ensuring beautiful displays of wonderfully fragrant flowers for years to come
Beautiful roses at Parham Gardens in Sussex; bare-root types will establish fast to create displays like this in just a few years.
52 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
T
Above Rose ‘Eye of the Tiger’ is a Gold Standard Award winner. Left Bare-roots may look unpromising, but are full of potential. Below right Regular deadheading pays off. Below left Gold standard winning variety ‘Olivia Rose Austin’.
IMAGES GAP PHOTOS/JOHN GLOVER; ALAMY; DAVID AUSTIN ROSES
hink of roses and summer months spring to mind, when gardens are filled with their gorgeous colour and scent. In winter we couldn’t be further away from their flowering season, yet this is the best time of year to create new rose displays: it’s the start of bare-root season. Bare-root roses (those that are dug up from the nursery’s fields during dormancy and come without soil around their roots) are delivered from November onwards and can be planted throughout the winter. Now is the time to order for the widest choice of varieties and, come summer, the reward will be the most colourful, fragrant and quintessentially English garden flowers there are. If you are new to rose gardening, do not be put off by a perception that roses are complicated. Think of them merely as a flowering shrub, and the prospect immediately becomes less daunting. Also, be heartened by the fact that starting with bare-root roses is the best possible way to establish new plants. The only problem is likely to be deciding which rose – or roses – to grow. There are thousands to choose from. Nostalgic, old-fashioned varieties and species roses definitely have a place in the garden, but they often flower only once and can be more vulnerable to disease. That said, many gardeners will argue that a few black-spotted leaves are worth tolerating for these roses’ magnificent, usually heavily scented, flowering display. More modern
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 53
Left Don’t deadhead roses grown for their vibrant autumn hips. Above Avoid the fungal disease black spot by choosing modern varieties and pruning hard (see below).
Simple rose pruning Proper pruning feels drastic but brings great results
P
runing roses isn’t as complicated as many gardeners fear. A good general rule for all rose bushes is to cut them down by half in January or February, before buds burst. Although it seems drastic, the vigorous new stems that result have much greater flowering potential. It also removes old stems that can harbour fungal disease. When roses are more mature, you can thin out some of the oldest stems, too, removing them at the base. Just be sure to complete the task before the buds open or the plant will have wasted its energy producing shoots that will be pruned away. Climbers and ramblers are slightly different. Tie in the
strong new stems of climbers and remove older ones as necessary, pruning last year’s flowering shoots back to three or four buds. Ramblers can be pruned the same way if you need to check their growth; if not they can be left alone.
54 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
varieties repeat flower and have normally been bred with health and diseaseresistance a priority. Most also have excellent scent. David Austin’s English roses are well known, beautifully combining the best qualities of both old and new varieties, but other new roses are produced by equally well-regarded breeders across the country. One good way to tell if a rose is worth growing is to be guided by the Gold Standard: tough trials, judged by rose growers, to assess new roses’ qualities, from disease resistance to vigour, flower scent, colour and how many are produced. Each year the best one is awarded Rose of the Year. You might also want to look up the International Rose Trials, held annually in Glasgow, where new roses are also put through their paces and judged by experts to assess the very best. Of course, the other way to find your next rose is simply by falling in love with one in a summer garden – by their nature, many prove irresistible. All roses fare best in an open, sunny site where they will benefit from good air circulation: just don’t put them anywhere too exposed. Roses are hungry plants, so prepare the soil well by adding plenty of well-rotted manure or compost – soil rich in organic matter is key to their success – digging to a depth of at least 40cm. A good rose should reward you for at least 15-20 years, so it pays to be thorough with your preparation at this stage. Dig a large hole and work a handful of bonemeal into the base. Before planting, soak the roots of the rose in water for 20-30 minutes. Also, check the roots over and prune off any damaged ones. Most roses are grafted onto a rootstock. When planting, ensure the graft union (the join between rose and rootstock) is 5.7cm below soil level. This stops the rootstock putting out vigorous shoots, also known as suckers. The graft union is easily spotted – it’s the bulge at the bottom of the shoots. Firm the rose in with your heel to get rid of air pockets in the planting hole and water in well. Then prune the shoots of bush roses back to about 20cm. Another benefit of bare-root roses is that they do not need to be planted straight away. If the parcel arrives from the nursery and you can’t plant that day, or the ground is frozen, simply ‘plant’ them temporarily into a bucket of damp compost and because they are dormant they will happily wait. Just don’t let the roots dry out. Although the tuft of twigs poking out from the soil after planting won’t look particularly promising,
IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK; ALAMY; GAP PHOTOS/VISIONS/ROB WHITWORTH; DAVID AUSTIN ROSES
BARE-ROOT ROSES
in spring, buds will burst, stems will grow, and flowers won’t be far behind. Water newly planted roses thoroughly, especially during dry spells. Small applications of water tend to encourage rose roots to come to the surface, rather than heading downwards, so give them a good watering can-full each time you water. Once roses are growing, feeding and mulching will help ensure their best performance. All roses appreciate fertile soil, especially those that repeat flower, so in addition to initial soil preparation, you should spread a thick layer of well-rotted manure or compost around the base of the bushes in spring every year. Work a specialist granular rose fertiliser into the soil around the bottom of the plants at the same time, repeating in midsummer. A healthy, established rose can get by on relatively little water, but in very hot spells a good soaking will help. Keep summer displays looking good by regularly removing the old, dead blooms. Many, if they’re not too thorny, will simply snap away in your hand, but if the rose you’re deadheading is multi-headed and you just remove the spent flowers, you will leave behind a stalk, so use secateurs to cut back to the first Below Improve the soil true leaf. With oncewith lots of organic flowering roses, don’t matter and dig a large deadhead if you want hole to accommodate autumn hips. ■ the roots of your rose.
Recommended ROSES Britain’s rose growers select their favourite varieties for planting this winter
‘MORTIMER SACKLER’ is a different rose with lovely dark foliage, dark stems and very few thorns. Michael Marriott, David Austin Roses
‘LOVESTRUCK’ was 2018’s
ROSA MUTABILIS has a long season and its varying flower colour is lovely. Grow it as a shrub or a climber. Tina Limmer, Peter Beales Roses
‘ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS’ is such a good rose. It has a lovely perfume and will grow in a pot or in the garden. Keith Jones, C&K Jones
‘CHANDOS BEAUTY’ has fragrance and beautifully shaped buds that are equally beautiful opening out. Alison Cunningham, Pococks Roses
‘JACQUELINE DU PRÉ’ is charming. She flowers early and she flowers long – absolutely gorgeous. Philip Harkness, Harkness Roses
Rose of the Year and is such a healthy variety, flowering until late in the season. Colin Dickson, Dickson Roses
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 55
WYNYARD HALL
A League of its Own Long-held dreams of former football club owner, Sir John Hall, have come true following the transformation of the walled garden at Wynyard Hall in County Durham into a magnificent rose garden WORDS JACKY HOBBS PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS
56 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
In the ‘Stepped Plats’, red rose ‘L.D. Braithwaite’ and apricot ‘Lady of Shalott’ set the colour themes in their raised beds.
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 57
WYNYARD HALL
Above Tall cedarwood pillars evoke the feeling of a Greek or Roman cloister garden in the upper section, which is dominated by pink and purple planting.
T
he once abandoned, walled garden at Wynyard Hall in County Durham is now a vivid masterpiece, painted with profuse swathes of perfumed roses. This joyous garden overflows with roses of every hue, deftly partnered with a precise palette of complementary perennials. Floral abundance is interrupted only by glittering fountains, which tinkle musically. This is the longcherished rose garden Sir John Hall held in his dreams for decades, now come to wondrous fruition. “In my youth, I lived in a mining village with long narrow gardens where families grew vegetables to supplement their meagre incomes. I developed an interest in roses that I grew in a five-metre strip my father gave me. I tried to bud and graft the rose
58 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
bushes, without success, but never lost the love of them and vowed one day to fill an entire garden with roses,” says Sir John Hall. A visionary tour de force, property developer and legendary life-president and former chairman of Newcastle United Football Club, Sir John acquired the Wynyard Hall estate in 1987. With characteristic zeal he revitalised the property first, creating a luxury country house hotel in the former home of the Londonderry family. It was Wynyard’s redundant walled garden that handed him a chance to fulfil his life’s ambition and create a dream rose garden. There had formerly been a rose garden on the estate, devised in the early 1900s by the pioneering Lady Theresa Londonderry. Sir John found the old plans for her Italian rose
gardens. “They spurred me to develop my dream of the rose garden you see at Wynyard today,” he says. Sir John and Lady Theresa not only shared the same love of roses, they both shrewdly recognised the importance of revenue creation. Under Lady Theresa’s stewardship from 1884 to 1919, the productive walled garden, which housed Europe’s longest lean-to glasshouse, produced over four tonnes of tomatoes and 20,000 cut chrysanthemums for market. What were then significant ornamental gardens were also open to the paying public. But with the outbreak of World War II, the gardens were abandoned until Sir John’s appropriation more than 50 years later. A Marquee Garden was created in 2014, on the former site of Lady Theresa’s rose garden, while
Top A stepped rill cascades past white rose ‘Kew Gardens’ and lemon yellow ‘Poet’s Wife’ with Stipa gigantea on the right. Above Mark Birtle, Wynyard Hall’s head gardener, religiously deadheads the roses.
the 2.5-acre walled garden next door was to be filled with roses of every kind. “The design was developed with my daughter, Allison, who shares my love of roses, and award-winning landscape architect Alistair Baldwin, who introduced modern design and structures,” Sir John relays. Alistair’s groundbreaking design, now managed by head gardener Mark Birtle, was realised eight months after its inception and opened to the public in August 2015. Since then it has blossomed into an uplifting celebration of roses. A fanfare of David Austin’s repeat-flowering English Roses is applauded by thousands of perennials thronged around but arranged with pinpoint precision. At its richest in early summer, it enchants from spring to autumn. At face value, Wynyard’s rose garden is simply stunning, but it is also ingenious, comprising many layers of nuance. It is structurally engineered to soften a 6m diagonal drop from top to bottom, imperceptible and accessible changes in level ameliorating the descent. Uppermost, the Pillar Garden is an interpretation of the cloistered gardens of ancient Mediterranean civilisations. It incorporates fountain-filled rectangular pools from which dancing water flows down stair-cased rills inspired by the refreshing water features of Islamic and Persian paradise gardens. Clipped hornbeam, Carpinus betulus, delineates the space, which is perfumed by pink roses ‘Gentle Hermione’, ‘Rose de Rescht’ and ‘Scarborough Fair’. Cedarwood pillars, DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 59
WYNYARD HALL
representing the columns of Greek and Roman cloister gardens, are entwined with mauve rambling rose ‘Veilchenblau’ and pink climbing ‘Mortimer Sackler’. In between, the roses graduate in tone from dark to pale while their undercurrent perennials wash in colour-reverse. Formality dissipates in The Wild Garden where Alistair has planted copses of sugar-scented Cercidiphyllum japonicum and shade-tolerant perennials such as rodgersia, astrantia and geranium, sequinned with wild species rose Rosa moyesii. A central grassy glade opens up; a breathing space before the next sensory onslaught. The gridded ‘Stepped Plats’ regiment the lower garden and reference the traditional kitchen garden. Sixteen massive, metal-clad raised beds, 7m x 7m, are boldly filled with colour-coordinated roses and perennials, visible from every side. The White Garden, an Arts and Crafts inspired pergola 60 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Top Pale apricot rose ‘Port Sunlight’ in the Pillar Garden, teamed with white delphiniums and Kniphofia uvaria. Above A vibrant mix of rose ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ and Salvia ‘Amethyst’.
walkway linking a series of yew-hedged rooms, divides the upper and lower gardens and is multifunctional. “It obscures the garden’s full view and draws visitors through while simultaneously blocking any potential colour-clashes between the two halves of the garden,” explains Alistair. It also serves as a bridal walkway to the Marquee Garden, a rose-strewn guard-of-honour, courtesy of elegant white rambler ‘Adélaïde d’Orléans’ and blushing climber ‘The Generous Gardener’. There are more than 3,000 individual roses here in total, and some 135 different cultivars, almost half of which are Sir John’s favourites: David Austin’s English Roses. But the garden showcases most rose types, including simple species, modern shrub roses, groundcovering varieties such as ‘White Flower Carpet’, climbers and ramblers. Rose expert Michael Marriott, head rosarian and rose garden designer at David Austin Roses, has ensured that every single rose cultivar selected measured up to Alistair’s exacting planting plan. “At the outset I wasn’t particularly a rose fan, and relied on Michael to provide, accurate-to-palette, infallibly beautiful, strong-performing roses, imbued with as much perfume as possible,” admits Alistair, whose personal strength is colour. He devised the garden’s bespoke rose-colour philosophy: “An ombré wash surges across the garden, from the pale yellow of ‘The Pilgrim’ and ‘The Poet’s Wife’, through blush-pink roses such as ‘Scarborough Fair’ and ‘Queen of Sweden’, to rose, deep and dark pinks, culminating in coral. Once that was in place, I perfected a perennial planting plan to complement every single bed,” he explains. Height,
Wynyard Hall’s WONDERFUL ROSES Beautiful roses delight at every turn, with sumptuous flowers and sublime fragrance
‘PORT SUNLIGHT’
‘GENEROUS GARDENER’
‘ANNE BOLEYN’
Rich apricot blooms are produced all summer long on this free-flowering English Rose with red young foliage.
Pale pink flowers with an old-fashioned fragrance of musk and myrrh are held on this climber’s graceful stems.
Rosettes of warm pink flowers with just a hint of gold at the centre are held in sprays on a low mounding shrub rose.
‘GERTRUDE JEKYLL’
‘MOLINEUX’
A classic and popular cultivar with beautifully scented bright-pink flowers on a medium-sized upright shrub.
This golden-yellow-flowered rose is a compact grower, good for small spaces and containers at around 90cm tall.
‘PRINCESS ALEXANDRA OF KENT’
‘LADY OF SHALOTT’
‘QUEEN OF SWEDEN’
‘COMTE DE CHAMBORD’
Peachy-orange flowers with a warm, spicy tea scent are held on the arching stems of this fast-growing, bushy rose.
Shallow, shell-pink, cup-shaped flowers open from delicate buds on this upright, bushy grower, ideal for small spaces.
A prickly-stemmed old rose, dating from 1860, with characteristic quartered flowers that release a strong fragrance.
Layer upon layer of petals form cupped flowers with a fresh tea fragrance.
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 61
WYNYARD HALL
KEYS TO ROSE SUCCESS By Mark Birtle
shape, flowering-length and time, This contemporary masterpiece Top Climber ‘The Generous Gardener’ as well as colour harmonies, were is an intricate horticultural work and rambler ‘Adélaïde crucial factors in the fastidious of art, a beacon in modern garden d’Orléans’ on pillars in selection process. “The hue of the design that respects the past but the White Garden. flower spikes of Salvia nemerosa manages to shine a light on rose Above right Yellow ‘The Poet’s Wife’ and orange ‘Amethyst’ is a precise match to the gardens of the future. “It goes ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’ blooms of Rosa ‘Princess Anne’, way beyond my thoughts and with Stachys ‘Big Ears’. while the supporting slender spires expectations,” comments Sir John. Above left Rose ‘Harlow of Veronicastrum virginicum “I am absolutely delighted with Carr’ decorates a bench. ‘Lavandelturm’ carries her through how the garden has developed chromatically to the next paler roses.” and I’m sure that it will continue to create as Linear flower shapes are key to offsetting much enjoyment for visitors as it does for myself the cupped and globular rose silhouette and and my daughter. It makes me feel nostalgic. At include Nepeta nervosa ‘Pink Cat’, salvias 85 I am very proud of what has been realised ‘Amethyst’ and ‘Purple Rain’, veronicastrum, here. It makes me feel as much a part of the Agastache ‘Cotton Candy’ and ‘Black Adder’, history of Wynyard Hall as my predecessors Actaea simplex ‘Atropurpurea Group’, phlomis, the Londonderrys were.” ■ astrantia, and lythrum. Masses of grasses – Carex testacea, Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Wynyard Hall, Stockton-on-Tees, Billingham, Foerster’, Stipa gigantea, Miscanthus ‘Morning County Durham TS22 5NF. Open seven days Light’ and Stipa tenuissima – are a backdrop a week, from 10am to 4pm, November to April; to the second flush of roses, their golden haloes 10am to 5pm, May to October. Tel: +44 (0)1740 accompanying repeat blooms until Christmas. 644811; wynyardhall.co.uk 62 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Soil preparation Deep-digging broke through the garden’s historic hard pan allowing plants to grow through newly applied estate topsoil. The roses were planted at the optimum time, in winter, with copious amounts of manure. Deadheading This is done religiously as it redoubles blooms and maintains high aesthetics. We call in staff from across the estate to help. Combat rust Problems with rust are quickly countered with preventative spraying in April when leaves are in bud. Early pruning Pruning begins in January and is finished by early April. This results in a staggered, second flush of roses, which travels through the garden like a Mexicanwave – a delightful consequence of not having many pairs of hands! Perennial care The 12,000 perennials have proved more challenging than the roses. Salvia ‘Amethyst’ flopped, but behaved once cut back hard. Perennials with a tendency to clump up, like agastache and phlomis, are divided.
Gardeners Escape Enjoy a fabulous weekend in the Gardener’s Cottage at Wynyard Hall. Set within the exquisite Rose Garden, home to over 3000 David Austen Roses, The Gardener’s Cottage is a quintessential English country cottage, complete with hot tub! Check in Friday and enjoy Traditional Afternoon Tea served in the Library. Savour a delicious 3-course dinner in our 2 AA Rosette Wellington Restaurant on your first night with us and the following morning a Full English and Continental Breakfast will be served in the main Hall. As a special treat, our Head Gardener will personally take you on a tour of the Gardens and wider estate. Enjoy lunch in the Garden Café on Saturday and for your evening meal, our team of renowned chefs will prepare a 5-course tasting menu with wine pairings in the Wellington Restaurant. Enjoy a full Traditional Sunday Lunch before checking out Monday.
Full package above from £1250 per couple Wynyard Hall | 01740 644811 www.wynyardhall.co.uk | Tees Valley, TS22 5NF
SCOTLAND
— 2020 TOUR PREVIEW — British Isles
Scotland: Dumfries and Galloway England: Hadrian’s Wall, Lake District Wales: Snowdonia National Park, Welsh Castles Ireland: Dublin, the magnificent Neolithic site at Knowth in Bru Na Boinne, Belfast
May 9-22, 2020 • 13 Nights • $5,795
17th Annual Outlander Tour® Based on the book series by Diana Gabaldon. Time travel back to the 18th-century Highlands, where history and fantasy come face to face. See secret places & magical sites off the beaten path.
June 25-July 6, 2020 • 11 Nights • $4,995 Sept. 26-Oct. 4, 2020 • 8 Nights • $3,995
Deluxe escorted tours 16-guest maximum
Western & Northern Isles of Scotland
A combination tour of the popular Lords of the Isles and Viking Treasure. Skye, Lewis, Harris, Orkney, the Northwest and Northeast coasts, and the Highlands. Includes the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
August 12-27, 2020 • 15 Nights • $5,995
Photo by Howard Rice
703.941.6455 • www.CelticJourneys.us • Email: Judy@celticjourneys.us
A L I S T A I R
W
B A L D W I N
L A N DSCA P E A RC H IT EC T UR E | G A R D E N D E S IG N
www.alistairwbaldwin.co.uk | enquiries@alistairwbaldwin.co.uk | 01423 319 093 PRIVATE AND PUBLIC GARDENS • COUNTRY ESTATES • NEW COUNTRY HOUSES • BOUTIQUE HOTELS 84 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
POULTON HOUSE Purple catmint, Centranthus ruber ‘Albus’ and Rosa gallica ‘Versicolor’ combine in deep, floriferous borders
Summer Arcadia The gardens surrounding Poulton House in Wiltshire offer plenty of space for owner Eugenia Ephson to indulge her passion for roses, as Cinead McTernan discovers PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 65
POULTON HOUSE Right The elegant, wisteria-clad Queen Anne house. Below right Sweet peas, potatoes and fruit trees in the vegetable garden. Below left Roses scramble over pergolas and arches. Below The pale pink rose ‘Alan Titchmarsh’.
66 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
A Lutyens bench draws the eye to the end of the garden, while a neatly clipped box parterre frames a central path.
T
he grounds at Poulton House in Wiltshire were already quite established when Eugenia and Martin Ephson bought the elegant Queen Anne property ten years ago. While most of its seven acres had been landscaped and filled with herbaceous borders, mature trees and shrubs, Eugenia, an enthusiastic and experienced gardener, was quick to spot where she could improve or develop areas in the garden to reflect her passions – and those of her family. Eugenia’s first project satisfied the family’s love for home-grown produce. Identifying a suitable plot, a field situated behind the old stables, she created a sizeable productive garden with four large beds connected by gravel paths. “We had a vegetable plot at our previous house and absolutely loved eating freshly picked produce whenever we could or using gluts to make chutney, preserves and jams,” explains Eugenia, “so it was a priority for us to grow our own here at Poulton.” Given the extensive grounds and rural location, it transpired that it wasn’t only the family who enjoyed the bountiful harvests. “We had to put in a continuous hornbeam hedge to surround the vegetable garden to keep out the marauding
deer,” says Eugenia. It proved to be a useful windbreak to protect the crops, too. Other practical yet decorative additions were two impressive fruit cages, both designed by Martin to house raspberries, strawberries and currants, as well as a small timber and lead pavilion that provides a spot from which to admire this part of the garden. Head gardener, Bob Davison, and his assistant, Lee Cradock, prune the hornbeam hedge in late summer to maintain its shape. It is a time-consuming job and this hedge is just one of an array of evergreens and topiary that need skilled attention throughout the year. From umbrella- and column-shaped yews, ballshaped box and the perennial shrub Lonicera nitida, Bob and Lee have developed tricks to ensure they create straight vertical and horizontal lines. “The best way is to eye it up against the lines of walls and gutters,” Bob explains. Despite the time-consuming nature of this work, they still find time to include creative touches here and there, and mow wonderful patterns into the lawn in the orchard of apple, crab apple and greengage trees. The evergreen structure of the garden is striking and provides an effective backbone throughout the year, from frost-covered silhouettes in winter to subtle backgrounds for the
Above Evergreens, such as the columnar yews that back this border, divide areas and provide yearround structure.
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 67
POULTON HOUSE Perfectly symmetrical, the rill was inspired by Geoffrey Jellicoe’s design at Shute House in Dorset.
68 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
billowing clouds of herbaceous perennials and roses that are in flower from spring through to autumn. Roses are very much a favourite for Eugenia. “I absolutely love their scent and their colour,” she muses. “I have a particular fondness for varieties such as ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ and add them to the garden whenever there is an opportunity.” Creating a rose garden in the old walled garden was another early project taken up by Eugenia. Situated next to the house, this part of the garden is used by the family to entertain friends. “It is a glorious spot,” she says, “with roses trailing over arbours and climbing up walls, all surrounded by white lavender.” It is a spectacular combination of varieties, including a standard form of the rambling rose, ‘Félicité Perpétue’, covered with clusters of white pompon blooms all summer long, as well as shrub and peony roses, too. “If there is a space, I can find a rose for it,” laughs Eugenia. “We have a lot of walls here, so climbing roses work really well.” Eugenia was given a rambling rose for a northfacing wall, ‘Seven Sisters’, appropriately named for the seven shades that can be seen on its flowers at any one time – from the deepest cerise through to pale mauve and ivory white. She planted it to cover the wall in the vegetable garden. She has also made a feature of a rose ‘Leo’s Eye’, which was in the garden when they bought the house. “It is a rare climber with exquisite apricot blooms, which we discovered growing up an old tree. Over the years we have removed ivy to expose it and make it more of a feature,” she explains.
Above In the rose garden, clematis entwines with roses, which clothe every available surface. Left Bright pink rose ‘Princess Anne’. Below Large-leaved hostas, iris and striped Phalaris arundinacea thrive in damp soil.
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 69
POULTON HOUSE
BOB’S GOOD ROSE SENSE ■ To keep your roses
in fine condition, feed them twice a year. We use Toprose, a granular, slow-release food, in the spring and autumn to help maintain healthy plants and blooms. ■ While it is good to
add well-rotted organic matter such as manure to feed the roses, it is very important to keep it well away from their stems so it doesn’t scorch the plant. ■ Promote better
flowering by tying the branches of climbers – either horizontally or downwards. ■ To reduce the risk of
disease, keep secateurs sharp when pruning and deadheading. Tearing stems can leave a jagged, open wound, which can then become infected. ■ When picking or
pruning the roses in the garden, be aware of who might hear your cursing if you prick yourself on the thorns!
of native flowers and grasses. “The meadow Another area in which Eugenia and her constantly evolves as some varieties thrive and gardeners have worked their magic is the bog others take a back seat,” she explains. “It is garden. “It was a forgotten part of the garden part of its charm.” While there is a natural ebb down by the river that was quite boring,” she and flow of varieties that appear each year, all explains. Given its position, the ground was competing for light and space, they do implement naturally wet and perfect for marginals and bogloving specimens. “We looked at all the bog plants traditional methods to help it thrive, as well as redress the balance. “Initially we used plenty of that were available and shortlisted the varieties yellow rattle to keep the grass from smothering we liked best that would provide structure and interest,” she recalls. For Eugenia, the contrasts of the more delicate flowers and we have had to thin upright foliage, provided by iris and rodgersia, the out varieties like ox-eye daisy which, although gorgeous as it sways in the breeze, can be a thug bold broad-leaved plants of Gunnera manicata and overwhelm the other wildflowers.” and rheum, as well as cool but frothy green ferns Eugenia has opened the garden in the past such as the ostrich-feather fern are delightful. for the National Gardens Scheme and currently “It is a lovely, cool part of the garden and is a arranges for three gardening groups to visit peaceful area to enjoy,” she reflects. each year to raise money for local charities such Water appears in other areas, too, with a as the Wiltshire Bobby Van Trust, which helps striking rill created by the previous owner. “It is elderly and disadvantaged people in the area. a wonderful addition hidden in thick planting, which introduces an element of surprise,” Eugenia “I love meeting the gardening groups. They’re always so knowledgeable and interesting,” says explains. The feature was inspired by the rill at Eugenia. However, the garden is essentially a Shute House in Dorset, created by Sir Geoffrey private space for the family, which was evident in Jellicoe. Commissioned in 1969 by owners Lady one of Eugenia’s recent projects – to grow flowers Anne and Captain Michael Tree, the design is for her daughter’s wedding and get the garden in thought to have been a favourite of Jellicoe’s. tip-top shape to feature as an integral The wildflower meadow is Above The gardeners, element of the marquee. “We do testament to Eugenia and her Bob Davison and see the garden as more than just a gardeners’ combined expertise, with Lee Cradock, mow space,” she explains, “it has its ever-changing combinations of engaging patterns a character all of its own.” colour and texture from the mix into the orchard lawn.
70 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Poulton House STYLE POINTS
Classic topiary and sculptures are the finishing touches in a garden that is perfect for its setting
A BACKBONE OF EVERGREENS
EYE-CATCHING SCULPTURE
Evergreens and topiary are valued for their contribution to year-round interest and structure. Here, domed umbrellas of closely clipped Prunus lusitanica guarantee that this area looks good even when the underplanting – a billowing carpet of lavender ‘Hidcote’ – is not in flower.
Eugenia makes expanses of lawn more pleasing to the eye with judiciously placed sculpture. The bronze, Chain of Events, by sculptor Tony Cragg, sits in the lawn between the rill and main drive.
THE BEST BACKGROUND The garden’s old walls, with their light covering of ivy, are the perfect backdrop for yet more pieces of art. This well positioned marble sculpture is Heraclitus by Emily Young.
WONDERFUL RILL PLANTS FOR PLACES Bog-garden plants were the natural choice for the moist soil found by the river. Largeleaved moisture lovers such as gunnera and rheum thrive, while a fountain brings the area to life and oxygenates the water.
Tiny chutes in the faces of the Jellicoe-inspired rill cause the water trickle from each level rather than plummet, adding to the atmosphere in this special part of the garden. Set in a dip and surrounded by plants, it provides an element of surprise. ■
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 71
DAVID AUSTIN
Part of the gardens at David Austin Roses near Albrighton in Shropshire, designed to showcase the rose in all its forms.
72 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Rise of the Rose In the 1960s, rose growing was all about formal Hybrid Teas despite the bare stems and ground they left behind. David Austin was the man who changed all that with his English Roses, and his legacy lives on today
IMAGES CLIVE NICHOLS; EXPRESS AND STAR
L
years, most nurseries refused to stock Austin’s roses. ike a well-established rambler, roses By 1969, when he coined the term English Roses, he are inexorably entwined through had refined his breeding process so the plants would England’s history and culture. So when repeat flower, but he had to supply them to the public in 1969 David Austin needed a name himself, packaging the plants on his kitchen table. for the first of his new repeat-flowering Competition with other rose nurseries was tough, roses, the answer was obvious: English Roses. The and it took time for his new style of rose to catch on. French have their Gallicas, the Scottish have Scots The breakthrough came in 1983, when Austin Roses, so why can’t the English have a group of exhibited the three new roses he was launching that roses to call their own, he reasoned. Why indeed? year at the Chelsea Flower Show. It was just before That year, the first David Austin English Roses were Michael Marriott, David Austin Roses’ technical launched – and the rose-growing world would never manager and senior rosarian joined the nursery. be the same again. “That year he introduced three very good roses: Fifty years later, after the launch of more than ‘Graham Thomas’, ‘Mary Rose’ and ‘Heritage’,” 240 cultivars, David Austin and his English Roses says Michael. “In particular, ‘Graham Thomas’ are household names, not just for gardeners in struck a chord with the public. The press wrote England, but across the world. Yet in the 1960s, enthusiastically about it and all the visitors to Austin was regarded as something of a maverick. Chelsea wanted to see this wonderful new rose. The rose industry then was in thrall to Hybrid Teas Before that he had been a tiny nurseryman in the and Floribundas – they sold in their millions. The depths of Shropshire, known only established rose breeders and growers of to a small group of aficionados, the time couldn’t understand why Austin Below David Austin in 1989, among the roses but when ‘Graham Thomas’ was was spending his time producing roses that had been his passion introduced people read about it that looked ‘old-fashioned’, but he had since his twenties and and came flocking. The other rose hit on something that struck a chord would form the basis of growers couldn’t believe it really, this with gardeners. a lifelong career. His family had a farming background and Austin had always loved plants, but it was when his sister gave him a copy of EA Bunyard’s Old Garden Roses for his 21st birthday that he fell in love with roses and started to grow them – as a hobby at first. Mainly these were Old Roses: the romantic and beguiling Gallicas, Centifolias, Damasks and more, many with wonderful scent and all with a superb, but more often than not, once-yearly flowering display. Growing a few Hybrid Teas alongside them let him compare the two types and he recognised they had attributes the Old Roses lacked: mainly that they came in a much wider colour range and could repeat flower. That was when he realised there could be a market for an entirely new rose: one that combined the beauty and fragrance of the Old Roses with the more varied colours and ability to repeat flower of modern varieties. It was the start of a lifelong passion and a breeding project that would go on to transform the rose industry. The climber ‘Constance Spry’, his very first rose, named after the similarly pioneering famous florist, was ready to be introduced in 1961. In those early DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 73
upstart grower who had suddenly got a whole load of attention for this ‘funny’ old rose they thought nobody would want.” Michael wasn’t particularly taken by roses when he came for his job interview as nursery manager in 1985. He had a similar farming background to David Austin and had always loved plants and gardens, “but roses didn’t feature in my thoughts on gardening at all, especially since my grandparents’ had the classic beds of Hybrid Teas, too far apart, their leaves falling off before you could turn around,” he says. “As far as I was concerned, they were a waste of time.” He must have kept that thought to himself during the interview, for he was offered the job and was soon immersed in the heady world of rose breeding and growing. “There is nothing more exciting than having 350,000 seedlings growing that no one has ever seen before,” David Austin once said. Michael oversaw the breeding process – for every rose that is launched, some 120,000 seedlings will have been discarded – and the subsequent production of plants on the nursery, which was rapidly expanding as the firm capitalised on the 1983 success. “As the nursery 74 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Above Meeting Her Majesty The Queen at one of the firm’s many medal-winning Chelsea Flower Show exhibits.
grew bigger he devolved responsibility to other people in terms of growing and marketing and he spent more time on the breeding side,” says Michael. “His passion always was the breeding.” Over the years that followed, the nursery grew and grew. Modern packing sheds replaced draughty barns and old greenhouses were upgraded. A rose garden was developed too, expanding over time to become one of the finest showcases of roses in the world as more and more gorgeous roses were introduced. “Another breakthrough was ‘The Mayflower’, which was very healthy in its day, and then more recently ‘Olivia Rose Austin’, which is super healthy,” says Michael. ‘Olivia Rose Austin’ was named for David Austin’s granddaughter, the pale lemon climber ‘Claire Austin’ for his daughter, but of all the roses he bred, he didn’t have a favourite. “He always got quite cross about that question and would say it’s like being asked to name your favourite child,” Michael recalls. More often, he drew on England’s rich cultural heritage of art and literature when it came to naming new varieties. Emily Brontë, Sir John Betjeman, painter Vanessa Bell, prima ballerina Darcey Bussell,
IMAGES DAVID AUSTIN ROSES
DAVID AUSTIN
Above Golden ‘Graham
Thomas’ was the breakthrough that put the nursery on the map. Above right A pergola of climbers underplanted with floriferous roses in the nursery’s garden. Right David Austin. Below ‘Olivia Rose Austin’, named after Austin’s granddaughter.
actress Dame Judi Dench: a David Austin catalogue reads like a roll call of Britain’s leading cultural figures. Some of the country’s loveliest locations and gardens – ‘Malvern Hills’, ‘Kew Gardens’ – are referenced, as are British folk songs (‘Scarborough Fair’), quotes from Shakespeare (‘Scepter’d Isle’), Thomas Hardy novels and their characters (‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ and 2019’s new releases ‘Eustacia Vye’ and ‘Gabriel Oak’). All conjure a vision of England perfectly in keeping with the timeless beauty of Austin’s English Roses. The earliest of his roses are still popular. ‘Graham Thomas’ is still a landmark variety, Michael says. “It’s a certain shade of rich golden yellow, that’s almost unique in the rose world.” Stalwart variety ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ has twice been voted the UK’s favourite rose. “Both are still fantastic roses, but in terms of health huge strides have been made,” says Michael. “That was one of the things he was concentrating on, right up until the time of his death, without forgetting the beauty and the fragrance of the rose. That’s why I think English Roses have become so popular: he regarded the overall beauty of the rose, not just the beauty of the flower but the whole plant, and people appreciate that.” “He was very single minded, obsessed really, and I don’t think that’s too strong a word. He thought about roses not quite day and night, because he loved literature and reading and had lots of books on a huge range of subjects, but at the end of the day he would go home and the next morning he’d come in and say ‘I’ve been thinking about something’. You could imagine him going home and thinking about something he wanted to develop further. I don’t think he switched off very much at all.” ■ David Austin Roses, Bowling Green Lane, Albrighton, Wolverhampton WV7 3HB. Tel: +44 (0)1902 376334; davidaustinroses.co.uk DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 75
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Sissinghurst
TOUR HIGHLIGHTS Membership of the Royal Horticultural Society. Tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show on Members’ Day. Tour of Great Dixter in East Sussex, with the head gardener. A private tour of Prince Charles’ estate at Highgrove*. Visits to Sissinghurst, RHS Wisley, Stourhead, Hidcote Manor, Mottisfont Abbey, Bath and Salisbury. Stay at first-class hotels, full of charm and character. Small tour groups with a maximum of 15 participants. Tour cost: $4,440 per person, double occupancy. *See full itinerary for all confirmed inclusions
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ENGLISH GARDENS
Celebrating the Cottage Garden In this extract from English Gardens, Kathryn Bradley-Hole explores the origins of one of the best-loved institutions of English gardening PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS
Oak-edged raised beds in the kitchen and cutting garden at Southwood Farm, Devon. Knee-high, step-over apples edge some of the beds. DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 77
ENGLISH GARDENS
T
he original cottage garden was a place of utility and necessity. Detail about the earliest cottage gardens is difficult to come by, but it is possible to gather enough threads of information from the medieval writings of, for example, Geoffrey Chaucer, in his rustic Canterbury Tales, and William Langland’s Piers Plowman, both dating from the 1380s. The cottage garden of their time was an enclosed space devoted to vegetables, herbs, probably some livestock, and perhaps a few decorative flowers. In those early examples the plants were chiefly native species useful for their medicinal properties, aromatic strewing herbs, and edibles. When we get to the time of Queen Elizabeth I, we learn from Shakespeare’s poetry and plays much more about the flowers enjoyed by people in Tudor England. Shakespeare’s contemporary John Gerard writes a great deal about the properties and medicinal qualities (sometimes accurate, sometimes not) of a wide range of plants in his famous Herball, of 1597. COUNTRY PROVENDER Thomas Tusser’s A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry (1557) offers more detail about the cottage garden looked after by the typical farmer’s wife. It was a place to grow edible herbs and salad plants, as well as orchard fruits and some decorative flowers for the house. Preserving summer’s bounty for the lean winter months was an important aspect. The last three decades of the sixteenth century and early part of the seventeenth saw increased population and also the start of land enclosures that led to dire consequences for many among the peasant classes, who had relied on an open-field system to raise their own food and found it taken away from them. Some enlightened landowners, however, ensured that there was quality cottage housing built for those who worked for them. When the formal, geometric gardens of England’s finer houses made away for the great landscape parks designed by ‘Capability’ Brown and Humphry Repton and others during the eighteenth century, cottage gardens sometimes became a valuable repository for all manner of rare and unusual plants that could no longer find a place in the opened-up Right The garden landscapes of rolling view at Greyhounds in Burford, Oxfordshire, grass and clumps of takes in the quaint and trees. (The walled wonky rooftops of the kitchen gardens, hidden town’s old houses out of sight, also took in overlooking the Windrush Valley. The many flowers croquet lawn is edged deemed unsuitable for with topiary buns of the newly fashionable box and elegant landscape parks). garden seats. 78 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 79
ENGLISH GARDENS are many, but may well include foxgloves, hollyhocks, primroses, columbines, lady’s smock, sweet peas, marigolds (Calendula officinalis), tulips, wallflowers, and larkspur.
VERNACULAR DESIGNS English cottages vary in style from region to region depending upon the nature of the soil and the underlying rock. The most enduring of them have been built with bricks, brick-and-timber, or stone, depending on local materials to hand. Many more, however, were built from far less durable materials and have simply vanished. Cottages built in areas of limestone and chalk frequently have gardens displaying topiary in box and yew, these plant species naturally occurring on calcareous soils. Box and yew continue to be popular, although there have been grim times recently for box, which has been subject to major attack from diseases and the recently arrived invasive boxwood moth. Hopefully, these problems are now largely controllable, within the confines of a garden, albeit with vigilance, for box has unique desirable qualities, not entirely matched by the alternatives on offer. Typically, as utility buildings, cottages have been erected beside the main village street or on their own lane, with a no-nonsense straight path leading up to the door. The cottage garden is always an enclosed space (though it might be shared with its neighbour), whether bounded by a rudimentary fence, hedging, or a wall. Topiary often forms part of its evergreen structure and climbing plants such as honeysuckle or a rose might well frame the entrance to garden or house, both prettily and fragrantly. Floral stalwarts 80 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Top As Greyhounds was formerly an inn, its garden area used to be stabling for horses. Above Erigeron karvinskianus seeds itself into cracks between the paving stones around an old well at Cottage Row in Dorset. Right From the central part of the garden at Cottage Row, Dorset, looking back to the new wall built alongside the lane. The idea of having a “secret garden” had been in owner Carolyn Pawson’s mind.
PICTURESQUE AESTHETIC The Picturesque aesthetic of the mideighteenth-century onward saw people among the aristocracy and gentry building rustic cottages for their own entertainment. A fine example of this can still be seen in Queen Charlotte’s cottage, located in a woodland area of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The eighteenth-century brick-and-timber house with its quaint thatched roof enabled the royal family then resident at Kew to refresh themselves and rest during their walks through the park and its bluebell wood. Numerous other examples of the cottage orné still exist in the parks of grand houses across the country. For many families of the increasingly prosperous nineteenth century middle class, a “cottage” in the country, albeit quite a substantial one, was the ideal weekend and holiday retreat. EM Forster’s novel Howards End (1910) weaves its story around the people involved with one such house. On the other hand, the paintings of Helen Allingham (1848–1926) portrayed real cottages and front gardens – their thatched roofs were often tumbledown and most likely leaked, but the bitter pill of hard workers’ lives was sugared by the inclusion of relaxed and sociable inhabitants, their children, doves, geese, and whatnot. Illustrations of this type were a huge hit, though, and enhanced the notion, however mistaken, of a rural idyll, free from the cares of modern life. A book by Sir Lawrence Weaver, Cottages: Their Planning, Design and Materials, was first published by Country Life in 1913, just prior to the First World War. In a third edition, published in 1926, gentrification of the cottage appears to be complete. Weaver notes that the war “has not destroyed but rather increased interest in the cottage which, while small and comparatively inexpensive, is built in a holiday atmosphere, provided with a garage and set in the midst of a comparatively large garden for people who want a country retreat, although the
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 81
ENGLISH GARDENS
high cost of building may well postpone or modify many such projects.” The book is full of examples of how to build a small and economical cottage for your staff, or a larger one with beautifully laid out garden, for your own enjoyment and leisure. A chapter devoted to designs for an “Eight-roomed Holiday Cottage” includes admirable plans for their surrounding gardens that include an orchard, kitchen garden, lawn-tennis court, rose garden, flower garden, front garden, bowling green, and pergola walk. GARDEN DESIGNS It is important to remember, though, that a cottage garden need not be attached to a cottage, whether 82 THE ENGLISH GARDEN FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019
Top Cottage gardens have historically contained a mix of planting. At Greyhounds, garden borders include phlox, geraniums and euphorbia backed by topiary figures of yew about to be trimmed. Above As much as cottage gardens include edible plants, many now feature flowers for cutting. Pictured here, a harmonious composition of Ammi majus, Ammi visnaga and Echinacea ‘White Swan’.
with two rooms or eight. The English cottage garden style of laissez-faire planting and informal design was long ago taken up by the owners of much grander houses. The most influential examples can still be seen in the National Trust properties of Sissinghurst Castle in Kent and Hidcote Manor in Gloucestershire. Their creators made influential, enclosed cottage gardens within the framework of more splendidly architectural layouts, covering many acres. From its adoption by influential advocates such as William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll in the last quarter of the nineteenth century onward right up to today, the English cottage garden style is still widely adopted to surround houses both old and new, in the country or in town. The abundance and artlessness might appear to be unplanned, but successful combinations of herbaceous plants, herbs, edibles, shrubs, and perhaps some topiary usually require some thought and planning and, indeed, commitment to their regular maintenance. ■ Taken from English Gardens, From the Archives of Country Life Magazine by Kathryn Bradley-Hole (Rizzoli, £55.00/$85.00).
2020 & Beyond Featured Tours Taiwan Gardens, History, Culture & Food 2020 Chelsea Flower Show & Gardens Tour 2020 Portugal Gardens & Vineyards 2020 Turkey Treasures & Gardens 2020 Thailand Treasures & Gardens 2021 Greece – Athens, Corfu & Pelion 2021 South Africa Gardens & Safaris 2021 Floriade & Holland Gardens 2022
84 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
CRAFTSPEOPLE Camellia sinensis, growing in rows on the slope where the Tregothnan estate meets the Fal Estuary.
English to a Tea The mild Cornish climate makes Tregothnan ideal for growing some of England’s finest single-estate tea. Carolyn Dunster visits this sheltered plantation to discover the secrets behind the perfect brew PHOTOGRAPHS NICK HODGSON
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 85
CRAFTSPEOPLE
T
he natural topography of Cornwall is unique. A long thin peninsula washed on all sides by the sea, no other county in the British Isles is quite so shaped by its coastal position and the prevailing weather that determines its mild, damp microclimate. Species that won’t grow anywhere else thrive here and, although the daily forecast is unpredictable, spring dependably arrives earlier and the growing season is warmer and longer than anywhere else in the UK. In the 19th century it was this favourable climate that saw Cornwall become a repository for the huge number of new and exotic plants that were arriving in England from around the world. Cornish landowners suddenly had the opportunity to build up important collections of the camellias, magnolias and rhododendrons that are now emblematic of the region – and the gardens of the Tregothnan Estate are no exception. Located in Tresillian, a few miles from Truro, Tregothnan is set within the sheltered creeks of the beautiful and fertile Fal Estuary. ‘Tregothnan’ means the ‘house at the head of the valley’, the ‘tre’ so familiar in many Cornish place names translating as ‘house’ or ‘homestead’. Now the largest private botanic garden in Cornwall, Tregothnan has been home to the 86 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Above Tregothnan’s Red Shed, where the freshly harvested tea leaves are dried and transformed into the finished product. Below The estate’s gatehouse bears the Boscawen coat of arms.
Boscawen family since the 14th century and, in the 1800s, was established by the sixth Viscount Falmouth and his brother, the Honourable John Townshend Boscawen, who was Reverend of nearby Lamorran. Along with its rhododendrons, rare trees, shrubs and exotic flora, it is home to many different varieties of ornamental camellias (Camellia japonica) as well as a camellia maze that forms the backbone of the original planting. It wasn’t until 2005, however, that Jonathon Jones, former head gardener and now managing director, had a light-bulb moment and hit upon the idea of trialling Camellia sinensis plants in the same situation. His theory was that if flowering camellias thrive so well in this particular aspect, soil and environment, then so should the camellias whose glossy green leaves are grown for
making tea. Tea bushes imported from Darjeeling in India were initially planted in the estate’s original kitchen garden where the terroir mimics that of the Himalayas. In a sheltered, enclosed spot at the heart of the estate and close to the main house, the garden is eight miles inland with no salt breeze, situated above a deep sea creek of 18 metres that provides the perfect warm, wet and often misty atmospheric conditions that tea plants require to flourish. When that trial planting proved successful, other pockets of the 2,500 acre estate – where the soil is acidic and the climatic conditions favourable – were gradually turned over to tea fields so that, in total, around 150 acres of land are now dedicated to tea cultivation, with an annual production of around 10 tonnes. While this is tiny compared to the vast commercial plantations of Southeast Asia, it was clear from the outset that tea cultivation would become a serious business at Tregothnan. Rather
than grow it in large quantities, the idea was to make a high-quality singleestate tea; a beverage far-removed from the average everyday cuppa. Creating an artisan British tea requires dedication. It is a delicate and highly labour-intensive process, since everything is done by hand. A team of seven gardeners looks after the tea plants, as well as managing the rest of the garden, and picking or plucking takes place daily from April to October. The purest tea, known as the first flush, is the soft hairy tip of new growth and only the top two leaves and the tiny precious bud are harvested. The process from ‘bush to cup’ takes just 36 hours at Tregothnan, to ensure the freshest possible end product, and all stages of production take place at the heart of the estate in the ‘Red Shed’. Once picked, the leaves are laid out on bamboo or straw mats that are placed in a warm dry area
Above left Tea leaves are
harvested daily between April and October. Top right Neat rows of young tea plants. Above right Jonathon Jones, Tregothnan’s managing director, who came up with the idea of tea production in 2005.
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 87
CRAFTSPEOPLE
Left After drying, the leaves are packed into individual teabags by a bespoke machine. Below A display of Tregothnan’s many different tea blends. Bottom The withered leaves are rolled by hand to break them down into smaller particles.
of the shed so that the leaves wither gently, becoming warm and pliable. Changing atmospheric conditions determine how long this process takes, so vigilance is required. When the leaves are ready they are rolled by hand to gently crush the leaves into small particles. As their cell structures break down, they disintegrate and curl naturally into tiny balls. These broken rolled leaves are then spread across a flat surface and kept at a controlled temperature so they oxidise, the leaves changing colour from green to brown – although for green tea this process is replaced by steaming so that the leaves retain their natural colour. The final stage is to dry the leaf particles to remove excess moisture. This takes place in a warming oven and once the leaves have reduced to the dark, crisp and crunchy state that we recognise as tea, they are ready to be brewed or packaged. Packaging also takes place in the Red Shed. A bespoke, hand-operated machine fills the teabags, which allows for the packing of small quantities of different blends. As well as the Single Estate there is a Tregothnan Afternoon Tea, a Great British Tea (created for 10 Downing Street as part of the Great British Export Campaign) an Earl Grey, and a pure Green Tea that combines Cornish leaves with the finest green leaves from China. There is also a range of tisanes, made with home-grown herbs. Tregothnan also partner with other high-end brands to create own-label teas and have collaborated 88 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
with Fortnum & Mason, Raymond Blanc and Claridges. A recent partnership with Horatio’s Garden resulted in a special Botanical Tea that is a blend of English and Assam leaves, bergamot oil, rose petals and lemon verbena. Over the past decade, Britain has transformed into a nation of coffee-lovers. The sudden influx of coffee shops on every high street has introduced us to coffee in so many different forms that it is now our go-to hot drink of choice. Jonathon Jones wants tea to catch up. “We need to educate people about tea and expand their horizons, so that they know how to appreciate it correctly, just as they would a good wine,” he explains. Tea cocktails, herbal and green teas with their health-giving properties, small-batch artisan teas, tea bar pop-ups and tea-tasting ceremonies – all these ‘tea experiences’ are being pioneered at Tregothnan. While building on the old traditions of English tea drinking so that their teas are received favourably in China and Japan, the aim at home is to make tea fashionable and turn it back into the highly sought after commodity it once was in order to attract a new generation of tea drinkers. ■ Tregothnan, Tresillian, Truro, Cornwall TR2 4AJ. Garden visits are available by appointment and on charity open days. For details or to learn about Tea Masterclasses, call +44 (0)1872 520000 or visit tregothnan.co.uk
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WRITERS’ GARDENS
“A Garden for Gods to Walk”
Agatha Christie’s beloved garden at Greenway in Devon, was a surprising source of inspiration for her crime writing – as well as a place to escape the pressures of celebrity
IMAGE NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/ANDREW BUTLER; ALAMY
WORDS AMANDA HODGES
Looking down the slope of Greenway’s garden, with the River Dart gleaming in the background
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I
t was 1942 and crime novelist Agatha Christie was in a reflective mood, musing on Greenway, the family holiday home situated on a promontory overlooking the river Dart. Writing to her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, she mused: “I sat on the seat overlooking the house on the river… it looked very white and lovely – I get a kind of pang over its beauty – what excitement to possess it! I thought tonight, sitting there – it is the loveliest place in the world – it quite took my breath away.” She had bought the place in 1938, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd having cemented her reputation as a writer. Greenway was reachable only by narrow lane or boat and she was attracted by its seclusion and limited access, which meant she could withdraw from public life whenever necessary. “I specialise in murders of quiet, domestic interest,” she’d said of her literary oeuvre… but the overwhelming fame they brought necessitated times of retreat. Christie had known Greenway since childhood. And it had lingered in her imagination as an idyllic dwelling. “One day we saw a house up for sale that I’d known when young... So we went over to Greenway, and very beautiful the house and grounds were. A white Georgian house of about 1780 or 1790, with woods sweeping down to the Dart below, and a lot of fine shrubs and trees.” For her it was “the ideal house, a dream house”, and Greenway possessed, as she described it in Hallowe’en Party, “a garden for gods to walk”. In her novel Endless Night she’d ponder the idea of this perfect place, calling it “something you want so much that you don’t quite 92 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Above A cheerful throng of red hot pokers look out from the border in the Top Garden.
know what it is... the thing that mattered most to me. Funny that a house could mean that.” Agatha Christie was born into an affluent family in Torquay in 1890. The family home, Ashfield, would become a touchstone for her until it was demolished in the 1960s. For Christie, hearing the name would transport her back to a nurturing Victorian childhood. “One of the luckiest things in life that can happen is to have a happy childhood,” she once reflected and this was something she had indeed known, despite the early death of her father. Exploring Ashfield’s gardens from an early age fed her imagination, something that, as a mature writer, she could recapture by roaming Greenway’s beautiful landscape. Agatha and Max would fill their 30 acres of semi-wild grounds with hydrangeas, rhododendrons, magnolias, unusual shrubs and rare trees. Christie was very proud of the magnificent gardens, participating in local flower and produce shows, while Max kept a notebook dedicated to the camellias and other shrubs he planted. In 1926 Christie’s naturally positive temperament received a seismic shock when, just months after her beloved mother’s passing, her adored first husband, Archie, revealed an affair and her world crumbled. Her subsequent and mysterious 11-day disappearance (resulting in her discovery at a Harrogate spa) puzzled the public. She remained notoriously guarded about the subject, Greenway subsequently giving her all the privacy she needed. Despite adversity, Christie was always able to appreciate the simple joys of life. As she wrote in her posthumously published autobiography, “I like
WRITERS’ GARDENS
Top Borders bursting with summer colour. Above Agatha Christie, author of 66 novels. Below right To quote Poirot: “So many paths and one is never sure where they lead.” Below left Christie kept a copy of each of her books at Greenway.
In 1959 Christie’s daughter, Rosalind Hicks, bought Greenway from her mother, moving in after the deaths of Agatha in 1976 and Max in 1978. She and her husband Anthony continued to develop it, and the grounds were gifted to the National Trust in 2000, full access being granted nine years later. “The truth is I’ve got a guilty conscience about Greenway… Max has his Winterbrook and it’s really only I who cling on to Greenway because I love it so,” Christie wrote in later life, aware that practical sense might suggest relinquishing her adored holiday home. This place had nourished her psyche so profoundly that she was eternally grateful to it. ■ Greenway Estate, Greenway Road, Galmpton, near Brixham, Devon TQ5 0ES. Tel: +44 (0)1803 842382; nationaltrust.org.uk/greenway
IMAGES NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/ANDREW BUTLER/MARIANNE MAJERUS; ALAMY
living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” And Greenway was a place that both absorbed and stimulated her keen imagination. She did little writing while in residence, since this was a holiday home where she’d retreat with family and friends after any novel was completed. Summers and Christmases were enjoyed here, relaxing by the river, playing croquet or simply reading out chapters of a new mystery. She and Max kept Winterbrook in Wallingford for general use while Greenway was a seasonal retreat. But it was special to her because it sustained her creativity – and it was here that she stored a copy of every book she wrote. Greenway both conjured memories of precious time at Ashfield and became the perfect backdrop in several of her books, namely Five Little Pigs, Dead Man’s Folly and Ordeal by Innocence. In the garden, woodland drifts down the hillside towards the beautiful Dart estuary, zigzagging footpaths leading to a battery that dates from the Napoleonic era and a nearby boathouse that offers views of Dartmouth and Kingswear. In Ordeal By Innocence, the house becomes Sunny Point and the Greenway Quay bell is used to summon the ferry. And in Dead Man’s Folly Greenway appears as Nasse House, the boathouse becoming the site of a murder. When ITV filmed its final Poirot episode in 2013, Dead Man’s Folly, Greenway was chosen as the location. Although Poirot, he of ‘the little grey cells’, would say of Nasse House: “I find it very confusing, so many paths and one is never sure where they lead. And trees, trees everywhere…” He would also concede: “It is a beautiful house with beautiful grounds. It has about it a great peace, great serenity.”
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 93
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BOOKS
The Reviewer
WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY
A selection of the best writing on the shelves this month
The Land Gardeners Cut Flowers
The Story of Gardening
Beth Chatto – A Life with Plants
by Bridget Elworthy and Henrietta Courtauld Thames & Hudson, £39.95
by Penelope Hobhouse with Ambra Edwards Pavilion Books, £35
by Catherine Horwood Pimpernel Press, £30
It is difficult not to love abundant country house gardens and fulsome floral arrangements. Throw in a potting shed, cut-flower room and a dose of Constance Spry and Willow Pattern and you soon have a coffee-table centrepiece. This would be the case with the latest offering from growers Bridget Elworthy and Henrietta Courtauld, who supply floral designers Shane Connolly and Vic Brotherson. However, their interest is also intensely focused on gardening organically. What could be a light read in fact bears satisfying detail enhanced by image after beautiful image from Clive Nichols, Andrew Montgomery, Hugo Rittson-Thomas and others. The history of the gardens at Wardington Manor is outlined here, from the days when it supplied the likes of Mayfair florists Pulbrook & Gould, taking in the life of the cutting gardens across the seasons. There are pointers on making a cut-flower garden (covering compost, green manures and tools) while dedicated gardeners may wish to study the Walled Garden plans. Others may favour the plates of favourite flower varieties arranged by type and colour.
To garden is to be part of a tradition extending as far back as humans have settled in one place. And it links a community of similarly minded people around the world. With our herbaceous borders and parterres, our perennial waves and dry gardens, we take on bit parts in a performance larger than it is possible to imagine. Such are the themes that emerge in The Story of Gardening. First published in 2002, it has been updated by Penelope Hobhouse and Ambra Edwards, with the support of Koos Bekker, owner of The Newt in Somerset, which was formerly Hadspen House. Hobhouse is a consummate garden historian who has earned her place in the gardening firmament. The pairing with Edwards has brought a contemporary finish to this important work, which now includes such matters as the New Perennial Movement, sustainability, greening and ecology, and re-purposing brownfield sites. There is fascinating detail throughout and as a reference work The Story of Gardening has few rivals. It deservedly claims its position on the bookshelf.
How does one begin to put into writing a long life well lived? We all remember Beth Chatto for inspiring the ‘right plant, right place’ ethos but, as is the case with all great figures, her life and work were multifaceted. She started out as Betty Little, the bright daughter of an Essex policeman, who trained as a teacher. During the war she met and later married Andrew Chatto, scion of the publishing firm. There were children and grandchildren and a decades-long affair that exacted a toll on her 56-year marriage, and throughout were spells of depression. Yet she was above all a gardener – and it was gardening for which she was famed. It brought her into contact with the likes of Elizabeth David and George Harrison, as well as her great pals Christopher Lloyd and Cedric Morris. All this is deftly related by social historian Catherine Horwood, who was already working on this authorised biography when Beth died in May 2018. As much as it is a record of the life of a prominent gardening figure, this is also a compelling and rewarding read, enhanced by Catherine’s talents for research and telling a good story.
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 95
BOOKS
The Wildlife Pond Book by Jules Howard Bloomsbury Wildlife, £16.99
Autumn and winter are the times to embark upon new technical projects and few produce as many benefits for garden wildlife as a new pond. The Wildlife Pond Book is practical and comprehensive in its guidance on building and maintenance, so if you are considering installing a pond this season, this is an invaluable book to keep to hand. Chapters follow pond construction from start to finish, with notes on determining a design that suits the site and advice on preparing the ground. There are tips on pond management, dealing with such bugbears as algae, duckweed and leaks, plus suggestions for good aquatic plants to grow. Author Jules Howard’s experience in zoology and wildlife conservation is apparent: key to this publication is a directory of garden wildlife that might be drawn to your pond. There is also detail about a range of pondlife: from microscopic tardigrades, to caddisflies, water boatmen, newts and even water shrews. A final chapter considers exploring ponds with children. This is a handy, accessible softback, with clear images that illustrate practical concepts.
The Kew Gardener’s Guide to Growing Bulbs
The Gardener’s Botanical
by Richard Wilford White Lion, £12.99
by Dr Ross Bayton Mitchell Beazley in association with the RHS, £30
There is something extremely satisfying about planting spring bulbs at this time of year. Knowing that what we put in the ground now will revive flagging spirits in early spring is all the motivation most of us need to get busy. Not all bulbs are spring bulbs of course, a fact made clear in Growing Bulbs, the latest in the Kew Gardens series on practical garden topics. Bulbs in this instance is a catch-all term. Presently head of garden design, author Richard Wilford has worked at RBG Kew for decades and is a member of the RHS Bulb Committee, so he knows his corms from his rhizomes and tubers – in all, more than 60 types feature here. In addition to growing notes on favourite and indeed more unusual candidates, such as Zephyranthes candida, Growing Bulbs includes achievable planting ideas that make the most of common bulbs. If there is a criticism of this publication it is that the illustrated cover is at odds with the jumble of images within: some are practical, others are more evocative. Quality of material, however, is sound.
If you have ever argued over the pronunciation of clematis or pittosporum, this is the book that will provide the definitive final word. The Gardener’s Botanical contains detail on the meaning and pronunciation of over 5,000 Latin plant names – more than most people will encounter in a lifetime. Each entry includes an example, its use, along with the name’s origin, making fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in etymology and the stories behind so many of the plants that grow in our gardens today. Primula kewensis, originating from RBG Kew, is a simple example; less obvious is Disa, the orchid genus named after the mythological Swedish heroine, who, on being ordered to appear before the god-king Freyr neither dressed nor undressed, wrapped herself in a fishing net. Some Disa species bear a net-like patterning on their petals. For plant geeks and would-be etymologists, this work presents hours of fun. Things become somewhat less straightforward once the plant names change: aster to eurybia for example, from the Greek eurys (wide) and baios (few).
96 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Q&A Painter Rosie Sanders studies the beautiful forms of garden roses in their different stages of life in Roses, a new release that follows the success of The Apple Book Would you call yourself a botanical artist?
No. I paint flowers before they’re flowers: I paint shapes and forms that happen to be floral. Technically, the subject could almost be anything because it’s the light, shape and texture that appeals to me most. I’m not interested in botany but if something catches my eye, I’ll paint it. I do like plants and natural things but I’m always thinking about the next thing. I couldn’t imagine going up the Amazon because I’m not a botanist in that way. How do you work with your subject?
I always paint from life, so I begin with what I’ve seen. The roses were in the garden and I’d see them all the time: sometimes there was nothing to paint, but at other times I couldn’t get them into the house before they’d dropped, so I’d make a quick sketch while I was out there. Because I work from life, I scale up the painting with a pair of dividers and sketch it out where I want it. Then I just paint: I start somewhere and carry on. I look at the painting as a flat surface and relate everything to what’s next to it, as if it’s a kind of mosaic of shape and colour. I don’t draw it all out terribly carefully beforehand – I have an idea, but it is not set in stone. How did this book come about?
I was going to put on an exhibition with Jonathan Cooper and I wanted to do something new. We had fantastic summers in 2017 and 2018 and the roses were stunning, but as I wandered around the garden, I realised I loved them as they were fading and about to drop. I thought I would make that the focus of my exhibition. The book itself grew from the success of my previous book, The Apple Book. There was a proposal to reissue that, but I asked my publishers if they were interested in a book about roses instead.
INTERVIEW VIVIENNE HAMBLY
What are the more difficult aspects of your work?
Finding the subject, which takes time. Once I’ve found it, it’s simply a question of labour. On average, each rose took a week to complete. I start in the morning, then take the dogs out in the afternoon and carry on in the evening. How long it takes also depends on the subject: an agapanthus is more complicated to paint than a rose, for example.
What is the most important aspect of painting for you?
Shape, especially negative shape, is very important. I have lovely dahlias in the garden, but they are rather round. I do cheat sometimes and make the shapes do something they aren’t doing on their own… it is more creative that way. Colour, too: I like a good contrast, and tone variations excite me. What has kept you painting?
Things have happened by coincidence rather than by design in my life. That’s how it’s always been. Life has directed me rather than me directing it, but I’ve been extremely lucky in that I’ve painted and earned my own living from painting. You’ve got to feel excited about doing something otherwise it’s not really worth doing. Painting takes an awful lot of time and you have to feel excited to sustain the days and days you spend sitting there doing it. ■
Roses by Rosie Sanders, Batsford, £30
DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 97
LAST WORD
Ring Out the Old Christmas trees are a tradition dating back not quite as long as you’d expect, prompting Katherine Swift to update her own festive customs
98 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
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The spruce was all green and rustling and resinscented, the house filling with its aroma”
Surely that much is true, isn’t it? Well, holly and ivy is right, but mistletoe isn’t mentioned until the 17th century – and as for kissing under it, that doesn’t get a mention until the end of the 18th century. Each Christmas tree has its own story. My own tree decorations consist of years of remembered Christmases: the see-through plastic cut-outs of stars used by my parents to decorate the tree in the austerity years of the 1950s; the balls of silver cigarette paper and wool with which we decorated our own first tree in the 1970s; the angel orchestra made of palm leaves, of which only three remain, bought in Oxford in the 1980s; the gold and silver balls I bought on Wyle Cop in Shrewsbury; and the little brass candle-holders and gilt chains brought from Ludlow when we first came to live at Morville. Every Christmas Eve we would go down to the plantation and choose a young spruce, wandering between the trees until we made our selection, watching it being cut down and hoisted onto the tractor to be brought to the house, then erecting it in the hall – all 14 feet of it, the top lashed to the upstairs bannisters, all green and rustling and resinscented, the house filling with its aroma. Now 15 orange trees, sowed that first winter when I was making marmalade, have crowded out the tree. Large and leafy, they share the house with us in winter and we decorate them instead, with the same old decorations, plus some new ones – and, of course, the gold and silver balls still splashed with white candle wax, smelling faintly of the resin of Christmas trees past. ■
ILLUSTRATION JULIA RIGBY PORTRAIT BEVERLEY FRY
W
e all know that the Christmas tree was introduced into this country from Germany by Prince Albert, don’t we? Not so, apparently. Victoria remembered Christmas trees as a child at court in the 1830s, the practice having been introduced at the end of the previous century by her grandmother Queen Charlotte, the German wife of George III. But it was Albert who made them fashionable. When a portrait of himself and Victoria with their children gathered around their Christmas tree appeared in The Illustrated London News in 1848, they became all the rage, the centrepiece of the new family-oriented Christmas we know today. But surely our affection for the tree is a symptom of our atavistic yearning for ancestral forests, isn’t it? Well no, not really. Even in Germany, that land of forests, the Christmas tree seems not to date back any further than the 16th century, and it has distinctly Christian origins. In the days leading up to Christmas, a mystery play about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, prefiguring Jesus and Mary (Jesus was seen as ‘the second Adam’, who would redeem the world), was played out in the streets. The action centred around the Tree of Knowledge, represented by an evergreen tree hung with red apples – the origin perhaps of the round glass globes we hang on Christmas trees today – and it was this ‘paradise tree’ that was erected in homes on Christmas Eve. Before that, native evergreens were gathered by pagan Anglo-Saxons, who decorated their spaces with greenery for any festival, a custom that persisted into medieval England. All that decking the halls with holly and ivy and mistletoe.
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