Caroline Cazenove’s Garden In

Above The stepped yew hedges were here when Caroline took on the garden; she added new roses and planting in shades of pink and purple. Right Large-flowered Clematis ‘Ernest Markham’. I“ do love this garden and there are times, such as now, in early summer, when I feel quite proud of what we have made here,” says Caroline Cazenove. “It isn’t perfect or grand, and I don’t mind at all. What I want is for this to be a place that makes people happy.” On a sunny morning in June, her Hampshire garden is a very happy place indeed, overflowing with life and colour. The silence is broken only by contented buzzing from some rather plump bumble bees, and the bleating of sheep in a neighbouring field. Shafts of sunlight slant down through an avenue of lime trees in long grass, the pool garden terrace shimmers with a haze of pretty pink and white daisy-flowered Erigeron karvinskianus, and the walled garden is a wonderful riot of roses and peonies, foxgloves and delphiniums. From the log piles to the well-worn tennis court, this is the quintessence of what an English country garden should be. It is hard to believe that the busy town of Basingstoke is just six miles away, on the other side of the thundering M3 motorway. Caroline and her husband Bernard relocated from London to this magical spot some 30 years

A drift of mauve alliums in front of ‘Fantin-Latour’ roses, covered in buds that will burst open into sumptuous pink flowers.

ago, bringing their three young children in search of fresh air and room to grow. They were drawn by an 18th-century former rectory, on the comfortable side of grand, surrounded by its own gardens and shielded from the few neighbouring houses by tall stands of mature trees. “We knew the house already because Bernard’s cousin had lived here since the 1970s, and it was a place we always enjoyed visiting,” says Caroline. “But when I came from London to live here I wasn’t a proper gardener. I really only knew about lawns and tubs.” Fortunately, back in 1992, the garden was a forgiving blend of established and not too complicated. “A blank canvas would have been alarming, but this was the perfect place to learn,” says Caroline, who was soon a regular attendee at local lectures on soil, pruning and other essential gardening techniques. Above Iris sibirica,

Then, as now, the garden included both high- and Alchemilla mollis low-input areas. There were pockets of ornamental and hardy geraniums planting tucked here and there across the front of the surround a tucked-away seating area.house, down one side of the rear lawn and in a sunny Right Rich pink flowers spot adjacent to the tennis court, but half of the of intensely fragrant old large front garden was filled with a mass of trees so rose ‘Charles de Mills’. dense that nothing grew underneath them. Towering Below Rosa ‘American Pillar’ complements leylandiis enclosed the tennis court, sucking light the old red-brick and moisture from the surrounding area. The lime wall of the house. avenue was just five years old, and a wide lawn ran across the back of the house The lime avenue was down to a low wooden ha-ha, beyond which the garden merged gently into thinned and thousands of daffodils planted the surrounding fields. Caroline began slowly, into its long grass implementing general maintenance and engaged in a steady battle against voles, rabbits and the ground elder that pops up in certain parts of the garden. But as her confidence grew, so did her aspirations. There are pockets of acid soil in front of the house where she can grow azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons, many of them gifts from friends: “These went in gradually as we thinned overgrown trees and opened up the space, and now my grandchildren tell me it is the very best place to make dens.”

The lime avenue was also thinned and Caroline planted thousands of daffodils into the long grass that runs along its length, leading to a Warwick urn on a plinth that was a present for her husband on his 50th birthday. Removing the leylandiis near the tennis court opened up more possibilities and a lovely view across many miles of unspoilt countryside. “I put in stilt hedges of hornbeam so we could still look out that way, underplanted with masses of ‘Munstead’ lavender.” The tennis court itself is now completely frilled with Alchemilla mollis, and there is a sheltered little seating area next to it where Caroline made beds packed with

Iris sibirica, hardy Above Herbaceous geraniums, sedums and Clematis integrifolia heuchera, with Rosa makes a wonderful partner for Rosa ‘New Dawn’ trained ‘Bathsheba’. across the wall. Left In contrast to the

On a sunny day this lavish borders, the is a seductive place to grassy lime avenue is a calm, soothing space pause, but the high with its simple vista. point of the summer garden comes a little further on, contained within a separate area that is enclosed by walls built from brick and knapped flint in the local style. “The bones of what you see today in the walled garden were already here when we moved in,” says Caroline. “It was my husband’s cousin who put in the long twin borders edged with clipped box, the yew hedge that runs across the space halfway down, and the metal arches covered with ‘Rêve d’Or’ roses. I have just gradually added to it.”

It is a testament to how well they have been cared for over the intervening years that those same ‘Rêve d’Or’ roses are still smothered with fragrant buff-yellow blooms, but these days they must vie

for attention with a breathtaking collection of other cultivars. “I did become rather obsessed with roses,” Caroline admits. “I loved the idea of picking bowlfuls for the house and began adding varieties in shades of pink and cream.” Today, she is spoilt for choice in her flower arranging, from the large single flowers of lipstickpink Rosa ‘Complicata’, which are among the first ones to open in this garden, to the dainty pompons of ‘The Fairy’ which The dainty pompons of appear later on in the season in gorgeous, soft, ‘The Fairy’ appear later sugared-almond shades. in the season in gorgeous, Most cultivars are planted in groups of three to sugared-almond shades create maximum impact, and include everything from pale and pretty Top left Pretty ‘Mary ‘Jacqueline du Pré’, ‘Fantin-Latour’ and ‘Felicia’ Rose’ roses frame a view to the intensely coloured magenta-pink ‘Charles back to the house. Top right Foxglove spires de Mills’ and ‘William Lobb’. perfectly punctuate White ‘Margaret Merril’, with its blush-pink mounds of perennials tinge, and pure white ‘Iceberg’ are both grown as in the walled garden. standards here. The beautiful brick and flint walls, Above Gloriously detailed Iris sibirica. meanwhile, are covered in climbers including ‘The Generous Gardener’, ‘New Dawn’ and ‘Constance Spry’ – among many others. “It did start with the roses, but this isn’t a rose garden as such,” says Caroline. “I don’t like to look at bare soil, so I much prefer to grow my roses with lots of companions.” To complement her pink roses, Caroline chose a pretty collection of herbaceous perennials, primarily in shades of pale blue and soft violet and, at this time of year, Eryngium planum, Campanula lactiflora ‘Prichard’s Variety’, Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’, and Verbena bonariensis help cover every trace of earth.

There are lots of nepetas, including the ubiquitous ‘Six Hills Giant’ and compact and long-flowering ‘Summer Magic’, which was introduced by Caroline’s favourite Hampshire nursery, Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants. Over the years she has also accumulated an enviable collection of peonies, both herbaceous forms and statuesque tree peonies, gloriously scented phlox (including the excellent Phlox paniculata ‘White Admiral’), and a selection of delphiniums chosen from specialist breeder Blackmore & Langdon.

The overall effect is stunning, but the workload required to achieve it all is also pretty breathtaking. “This is the most high-input part of the garden,” Caroline explains. “I am very hands-on and I do a lot of work in here – I actually find deadheading rather therapeutic – but I couldn’t cope without our wonderful gardeners Ryan and Jocelyn Jones, who come here one day a week.”

“It is for them, as much as anyone, that I want this garden to be happy, and thanks to them that it is.” n

Style & Grace

Rose-covered, exuberant and above all stylish, Manor House Farm in Norfolk ticks all the boxes for a romantic English country garden