Ulting Wick Philippa Burrough’s Essex

Box-edged borders brim with exotics such as Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’ alongside orange Dahlia ‘Happy Halloween’ and tagetes.

Ulting Wick in Essex is known for its spring displays of tulips, but Philippa Burrough’s garden is just as colourful in autumn, when dahlias and exotic foliage reach their peak

WORDS BARBARA SEGALL PHOTOGRAPHS MARIANNE MAJERUS

Atwisty journey through winding Essex lanes, brings you to Ulting Wick – the garden equivalent of an outdoor stage, where owner Philippa Burrough enjoys staging a palette of colourful plants to create dramatic theatrical impact. Her many plant enthusiasms are the starting point for this garden, but it is what she creates with those plants and how she weaves them together, that has made Ulting Wick a magnet for both dyed-in-thewool plant lovers and first-time garden visitors alike.

“I am drawn to flower colour and the shape and texture of foliage. I think exotic gardens are often the preserve of male gardeners, leaning more towards foliage. I like to think my style is a ri on this with softer colours oered by my ‘pretties’, such as cosmos and Verbena hastata , Nicotiana ‘Lime Green’ and heliotrope or ‘cherry pie’,” she explains.

Above The maroonflushed leaves of Ensete ventricosum emerge tall from beds of exotics, mixed with grasses and colourful late flowers.

Regular visitors will know that Ulting Wick usually opens for the National Garden Scheme, with two major displays in the area known as the Old Farm Yard. One opening is in spring, with massed ranks of tulips; the other is in late summer/early autumn, with a high-octane, heat-seeking annual and perennial display. In 2020 this changed when garden visiting was restricted due to Covid-19. Nevertheless, Philippa and her garden team (one full-time head gardener and a part-time, one-daya-week gardener) continued to keep the garden on form ready for the day when restrictions were lifted.

“What makes the garden special in autumn is the soft gentle light, especially when it falls on the backs of large-leaved foliage plants such as the Abyssinian bananas (Ensete ventricosum ) and filters through the delicate flowers of grasses,” she muses. “I find that by combining colourful plantings of foliage

Above A brick path and flowers from leading to Ulting Wick’s annuals, perennials striking black barns is edged with drifts of and climbers, I can Gaura lindheimeri and prolong the summer Verbena bonariensis. scene, sometimes taking Left Spiders’ webs on us right through to Verbena bonariensis. Below A softly pretty November.” combination of rose pink For some gardeners Cosmos bipinnatus with a planting plan is Boltonia decurrens – an essential. Philippa has aster relative with daisy flowers in pale pink. no such thing and so year on year there is no exact replica. “While there are no rules, there are some givens such as the plants that have to go at the centre, and the plants whose place on the cast list is assured,” she explains.

The remainers include miscanthus, Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, tree dahlias (Dahlia imperialis), paulownias, Arundo donax and ensetes. The castor oil plant (Ricinus communis) and the climber, Cobaea scandens, also known as the cupand-saucer vine, plus Salvia confertiflora are more or less guaranteed a place as well. Early in the season, lower-growing plants such as Persicaria runcinata ‘Purple Fantasy’, P. microcephala ‘Red Dragon’ and plectranthus dominate at ground level, their role being to hide the stems and hazel supports of those plants that will eventually rise to great heights. “Timing is important and staging starts in mid-May when the tulips are lifted and larger plants such as the ensetes are brought out from their winter stay in the greenhouse or conservatory,” explains Philippa.

Each year there are new recruits, and Philippa has grown enough of her new favourite, cerise-flowered Salvia oxyphora , to include it in the plantings. She

Above The circular bed in the centre is always planted up first, here with ensete, mahogany aeonium and Tagetes ‘Burning Embers’. Left Dahlia ‘Spikey Symbol’ and Miscanthus nepalensis tassels with the near-metallic leaves of Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’.

is also showcasing the so-called A-Z plant, Amicia zygomeris and has fallen for a number of ginger lilies or hedychiums. Then there are those favourites that don’t make the cut, due to lack of space. This year one of them was Canna ‘Bird of Paradise’. Plants like this just have to wait it out in the wings, hoping that next time they will get their chance to shine.

Philippa and her husband Bryan moved to Ulting Wick in 1995. Then, the main flower displays in their ten acres came from three island beds that were filled with shrubs, rhododendrons and some roses. “One day, when I was edging one of the island beds, I said to myself ‘why am I doing this? I don’t like these plants!’” Philippa recalls.

Out went the beds, and by moving the swimming pool a new vista was created, taking the eye away from the area in front of the house. “We also began to restore the wonderful listed black barns that I think are more interesting than the house,” Philippa explains. “The barns are essentially the backdrop for my planting. They work in all weathers and seasons to lift the colours and shapes of the plants.”

“Despite saying that I make it up as I go along, I always start with the central round bed, which has an old copper at its heart,” she adds. “I think of this area dierently to how I view the other four beds, two of which hold the hot colours and two a range of purple to pink colours. Here I plant shorter dahlias such as ‘Moonshine’, aeoniums and Euphorbia hypericifolia ‘Diamond Frost’. The planting is more intimate and people can get up closer to the plants – these plants would get lost in the other beds.”

Once the central roundel is planted, the next phase is the four colour and foliage beds. At first dahlias and cosmos were the tallest plants here, but after a few years height became one of the drivers of the

These flowers put on a vivid performance in late summer, with an encore well into autumn

A distinguished collarette variety in rich red that is stocked by the National Dahlia Collection in Cornwall.

This seldom-seen perennial is a salvia relative, with vivid blue, tubular flowers on sturdy, well-branched plants.

Coral and orange-toned petals combine with the elegant flower shape of orchid dahlias on this superb cultivar.

Blue-green leaves and tubular golden yellow flowers distinguish ‘tree tobacco’. The RHS Plant Finder lists suppliers.

A striking cactus dahlia in purple-pink. Philippa likes to team it with a dark salvia such as ‘Amistad’.

This low-growing, pale-yellow cosmos blooms from June to September.

The gold petals at the centre of these collarette-type, orangey-red flowers make this an eye-catching dahlia.

Sow in late spring for ferny foliage and delightfully patterned pink flowers.

Easily grown from seed each spring, and perfect for filling gaps with colour.

design. “It was probably the ensetes that were the game-changers, giving us both height and added drama at the centre of each bed,” says Philippa.

“I can’t stand plants flopping over, so staking is essential. I use stout hazel poles and early on it looks a bit like a fortress. All through the season as the plants grow taller, I wind in string to tie plants in to the stakes.” There is one exception – the grey-leaved Nicotiana glauca , which is allowed to gracefully arch over, so visitors can admire its tubular yellow flowers.

Deadheading is one thing that Philippa is most certainly not relaxed about. “I cannot stand seeing a garden where there are spent flowers on a plant. I go out on a daily basis with secateurs and a bucket, snipping them o. It means that the flowers keep going for a longer period.”

Once the late summer show is over, everything is lifted and the plants either go into storage if they are tender, or into pots around the greenhouse if they’re hardy. The dahlias are laid out on racks in the barn to dry until there is time to deal with them. Sometimes when the ensetes come out of winter storage there may be one or two casualties where

Top More pink boltonia, asters, ‘Park Princess’ dahlias and Pennisetum orientale surge around the greenhouse. Above Squash ‘Uchiki Kuri’ ripens on the vine. the central stem has rotted. Philippa has learned never to accept what looks like a loss. “I take a bread knife and slice away the rotted sections, so that I am left with a cross section that is completely clear of rot. I scoop out the centre, which, in eect, damages it. Eventually the plant produces little ‘pups’ that can be cut o and potted up. I’ve had 15 from one plant in the past. Of course, they do need to be grown on until they are large enough to return to the summer show.” Philippa describes this part of Essex as being “dry as Jerusalem” and suggests that she has learned “to play to our strengths”. “Although we might occasionally have a bad winter, it is generally a mild area. The combination of the black barns and the gravel means that everything heats up quickly in spring. And the light is so good that plants get going swiftly,” she enthuses. Q

Ulting Wick, Crouchman’s Farm Road, Maldon, Essex CM9 6QX. Usually opens for the National Garden Scheme, check ngs.org.uk for latest. For updates on openings next year, visit the Ulting Wick website. Tel: 01245 380216; ultingwickgarden.co.uk

Hannah Leonardi

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