The Great Dixter Journal 2023

2023

The Great Dixter Journal

ISSN 2398-2667

The Great Dixter Journal 2023

Christo made his work lists on a piece of card (either from a tissue box, as on the back cover, or the card around his favourite chocolate).

Some of these are still in the Dixter archives, and include lists of plants when writing an article interspersed with jobs to do. I too make lists, but sometimes these are sectioned in boxes or as vivid mind maps when a simple list isn’t sufficient to capture all your thoughts. The mapping out of ideas and thoughts with interconnecting arrows makes more sense to me, and it is powerfully visual (I am a visual person). I did these for several years before someone mentioned that these were mind maps. The diagrams do several things, they get you to focus, and also tie the threads together.

We use them regularly as a tool, planning the work ahead with the team and for more complex thought processes.

When Christo died we thought long and hard about how we should take Dixter forward. The place should never rest on its laurels (or spotted laurels as Christo would put it). We needed to make sense of all the tentacles that make up Dixter without losing the thread and essence of what the place is. Dixter is complex – it’s not just a place to visit but does and delivers so much more. I did the diagram (on the front cover) to capture my thoughts on how to build on Dixter’s strengths. It was a scribble at first and when I expanded my thoughts it ended up like you see it. Now several years later , certain things may be slightly out of date or changed, but even so the essence of the place is there. ■

Fergus Garrett

TESSA TRAEGER NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

TESSA TRAEGER/NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

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Tessa Traeger was commissioned in 2001 to photograph gardeners for the National Portrait Galler y. She asked Christopher Lloyd and Fergus Garrett separately whether they would sit wwfor her. Christopher Lloyd said no and Fergus said yes. Then Christo said he would. When she came, Christo insisted they do it together and that he was photographed with his arm around Fergus.

FOREWORD

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by Anna Pavord, Patron

Those of us who love Great Dixter had a brilliant treat in December last year, when writer, Olivia Lang, nominated Christopher Lloyd as her Great Life in the Radio 4 series presented by Matthew Parris. Unusually, the production team abandoned the studio to make the entire programme at Dixter itself. It was a superb evocation of Christopher’s life there, opening with the rustling foliage of the exotic garden and closing with the rich, warm resonance of the solar, where I spent memorable evenings with Christopher in front of the fire, his dogs wriggling under blankets on the sofa.

It was extraordinarily moving to hear his voice again, vivid, evocative, occasionally waspish, pronouncing the phrase “good taste” as though it was a swear word rather than an expression of praise. Head gardener, Fergus Garrett, knew Christopher better than anyone and in a series of glowing vignettes brought him luminously alive for us. “Ferocious, aggressive” was how Fergus described Christopher’s style behind the wheel of his ancient Volvo. Yes – all of that. And lucky too, as I thought when, on our way to fetch ferns from a friend’s garden, he chose to overtake the local bus on a blind corner on a busy road. On the way back, I kept my eyes tight shut, all the way. ■

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SARAH SEYMOUR

Photograph taken in the Barn Garden of the people working at Great Dixter on Tuesday 14th February 2023. Top row from left, Fergus Garrett, Shaun Blower, Jamie Todd, Ros Crowhurst, Bill Ludgrove, Madelaine LeDew, Ben Jones, Gregg Orif ici, Nigel Ford, Carol Joughin, John Sharratt. Middle row, Luke Senior, Linda Jones, Dean Charlton, Catherine Haydock, Savva Podkopov, Rachel Deacon, Jez Smith, Coralie Thomas. Third row, Rob Flack, Sarah Seymour, Vicky Lee, Clare Hume, Zu Harrison, Jodie Jones, Hayden Bosher, Martin Brown, Louise Catt, Simon Johnson. Bottom row, Lewis Bosher, Andrew Wiley, Peter Chowney, Luke Bennett • Scholar/work placement

• Volunteer

• Full time

• Part-time

CONTENTS 10.

To the Narsissus Shaun Blower

14. Basil Field Roy Brigden 24. Ruth Borun Scholar Luke Senior 30. The Ident Daniel Carlson 32. Daisy’s 1929 Garden Notebook Roy Brigden 42. UK Christopher Lloyd Scholar Rob Flack 46. Curiouser and Curiouser Edward Flint 58. US Scholar Madelaine LeDew 60. The Chanticleer US CL Scholar Andrew Wiley

K. PHILIP HARRISON

62. The Folklore of Plants at Great Dixter Dean Charlton 64. The Art and Craft of Gardening Course John Nicholls 68. On the Kitchen Shelf Jo Macleod 70. The Influence of Dixter in the US Julie Weiss 82.

Memories of Dixter Patrick Bates

84. The Ages of Great Dixter James Cavanagh 88. Chairman’s Review of the Year 90. The Great Dixter Charitable Trust annual report 2021-2022

TO THE NARCISSUS

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by Shaun Blower, Nurser y Scholar 2019, now Nurser y staf f member

When winter has finally begun to thaw, the daffodil springs into action bringing with it joyful yellow blooms that nod and sway. I’ve always been drawn to Narcissus - as a child I would pick them along from my walk home from school, enjoying that satisfactory pop they make. I would then give them to my aunty when I got home - she would not mind where the flowers had come from but would appreciate the blooms, sitting them in a glass vase on the kitchen windowsill.

They thrive at a time when there is little competition, taking advantage of early pollinators and in turn being an important source of nectar and pollen for those insects.

It’s surprising that something so fleshy can appear while all that surrounds them is withered and sparse of life. Surely this would make them the target of any starving creature.

However, they have a secret defence: within their cells they hold needle-like crystals, which make the eating unpleasant, let alone a whole host of poisonous alkaloids.

Narcissus start for us in January with Narcissus tazetta and end in May with N. poeticus. Their relatively simple form and colour palette hasn’t stopped plant breeders’ obsession with producing new cultivars. There are at least 74 known species with different flowering times, flower shape, scent, colour and stature. We now have around 32,000 cultivars to choose from.

Given that amount of choice, where do we begin?!

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Left, ‘Tête-à-Tête’ Right, ‘Thalia’

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There are many permanent daffodil residents in the garden at Great Dixter. True perennials that come back each year, doing well in our climate and soil. For instance N. ‘February Gold’ with its flung back tepals and strong yellow colouring and neat foliage, is a cross between our native N. pseudonarcissus and the darling N. cyclamineus. In my eyes it is a near perfect daffodil. It flowers early and dies back with tidy foliage to allow neighbouring plants to take over without hindrance, making it a great one to use in a mixed border with other perennials. Other border mainstays include N. ‘Tête-à-tête’, ‘Jetfire’ and ‘Thalia’.

Within the patchwork of the meadows, daffodils shift as one group ends another takes over. A changing kaleidoscope unfolds with an accompanying cast of Crocus, Fritillaria and Scilla. In the Orchard Meadow, the first piece of the mosaic to flower is N ‘Princeps’. This cultivar dates back to the early 1800’s and is a robust polyploid selection of N. pseudonarcissus with a large bright yellow corolla and lemon-yellow petals. Being polyploid it has extra sets of chromosomes making it larger than its species counterpart.

The sturdy blooms carpet the base of the Sorbus domestica as its leaf buds are just starting to break. Then there is a likefor-like takeover as N. ‘Emperor’ bursts into flower just as N. ‘Princeps’ ebbs away. These are joined by the smaller frilly

IN THE MEADOW, DAISY LLOYD WOULD HAVE THE CHILDREN PICK THE FADING FLOWERS AND PAY THEM A PENNY PER HUNDRED COLLECTED.

cupped varieties N. ‘Minnie Hume’ and N. ‘Mrs Langtry’.

Both have pale delicately twisting sepals.

In the meadow, Daisy Lloyd would have the children pick the fading flowers and pay them a penny per hundred collected. Daisy had naturalised N. pseudonarcissus from seed acquired from a local friend. She added them to the Front Meadow where they can still be found to this day.

Christopher Lloyd also endeavoured to introduce many species of Narcissus to the garden, one being N. cyclamineus: a diminutive species from damp woodland in Spain which stands no taller than 20cm, small bright yellow flowers face downward and its tepals are swept right back. It has become an important influential parent species in the breeding world with an entire division named after it, imbuing many popular cultivars with that desirable trait of reflexed petals.

It’s important to focus on a single genus and look at them critically in order to find what it is we admire about them. To this end, single cultivars are potted into large terracotta pots and placed next to each other. Going to see collection holders or plant trials, such as the recent trial of small Daffodils held at RHS Wisley, is also a valuable resource This is how we continue to make discoveries and find the plants that we love. ■

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Left, ‘February Gold’.

Right, ‘Minnie Hume’.

Far right, N. cyclamineus

BASIL FIELD 1834-1908 THE CHARISMATIC FIGURE BEHIND DAISY LLOYD

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by Roy Brigden, retired museum curator and Great Dixter archivist

Basil Field, father to Daisy Lloyd and grandfather to Christopher Lloyd, was a colourful Victorian character who pops up here and there in the archive at Great Dixter.

His father, the prominent London solicitor Edwin Wilkins Field (1804-71), helped create the legal concept of artistic copyright and was active as an amateur artist. Of his children, two sons, including Basil, went into the law whilst a third, Walter Field (1837-1901), became a painter. Basil qualified in 1860 and, in the form of Field, Roscoe & Co. of Lincoln’s Inn, was solicitor to the businessman Nathaniel Lloyd, a neighbour in Putney, friend and keen angler, who would accompany the Field family on fishing trips to Wiltshire. Hence the initial connection between Nathaniel and Basil’s elder daughter Daisy that resulted ultimately in their marriage in 1905.

In later life, Daisy wrote of a childhood memory that Basil had told her. He was eight years old and on a family holiday in Broadstairs: ‘One morning Basil, and his elder brother, Rogers, were playing on the sea-shore, when they were attacked by a large billy-goat, who knocked the older child down, and stood over him – at this moment a man in a long cloak

Basil Field

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appeared, drove off the goat, and stayed to play with the children. When, eventually, the nursemaid came to collect them, Dickens hid them under his cloak, and when the girl asked, “Have you seen two little boys anywhere about, sir?”, he replied, “Was one of them a very cheeky-looking boy?”

– “Oh yes, sir, that’s Master Basil!” – there were delighted shrieks from under the cloak. After that, Dickens often played with the Field children and Papa retained a lasting impression of the fun they had together’.

The Charles Dickens link reappeared later because Basil’s parents were part of the literary and artistic set in Hampstead where they lived. When Dickens came to give a public reading to the village, Basil and his friend George du Maurier contributed by singing comic songs. Daisy recalled her father saying that Dickens took as one of his selections the scene from Oliver Twist where Bill Sykes murders Nancy, and read it with such blood-curdling force that many women had to be carried out in hysterics. Basil himself would go on to give readings from Dickens as a party piece, Pickwick Papers being a speciality, modelling his style and delivery on the great man.

The next item in the archive relating to Basil is a mock petition, employing much legalise and carefully written out on parchment, addressed to ‘the Right Honourable Basil Field’ by three sisters, Louisa, Eleanor and Clara Hill.

They were the daughters of Sir Rowland Hill, most often associated now with the introduction of the postage stamp, who, like the Fields, lived in Hampstead at the time. The sisters entreat the twenty year old Basil to desist from ‘the lamentable and highly objectionable practice of closely cutting your hair previous to appearing at Parties, Balls, Conversaziones and the like, thereby approximating to the outward semblance and bearing of an escaped convict’. In particular, he was not to do it on or before the 25th April 1854, which was the date of an evening party at the house of Rowland Hill, where no one would want to dance with Basil should he turn up so disfigured. In modern parlance, Basil must have been ‘a bit of a lad’ to be on the receiving end of

WHEN DICKENS CAME TO GIVE A PUBLIC READING TO THE VILLAGE, BASIL AND HIS FRIEND GEORGE DU MAURIER CONTRIBUTED

BY SINGING COMIC SONGS.

such an elaborate and tongue in cheek invitation to a party.

Thereafter, apart from a passport issued in 1856 for ‘Travelling on the Continent’, Basil’s trail through the archive goes cold until he mysteriously pops up in November 1870 on a voyage to Australia. He is by now 36, so quite why he should be embarking on such a trip, alone, at such a point in his life is not at all clear. Moreover, he was quite seriously ill at the time so his father, pulling some legal strings, wrote to Sir James Bacon, Vice Chancellor of the Court of Chancery, to ask him to use his contacts with the ship owners to ensure that Basil was looked after on the voyage. In his reply Bacon wrote ‘I am sure I need not tell you how deeply I share in your anxiety about your son – nor how sincerely I hope that his trip to Australia may be the means of restoring him to you in health and vigour’.

Basil set out from London on 22 November 1870 on the three masted sailing barque Suffolk, which was primarily a

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Watercolour by Basil Field of Loutit Bay, Victoria. From his Australia album.

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Far left, from Basil Field’s diar y of the voyage to Australia 1870-1, where he describes a squall in which the vessel’s mainyard lay over until it touched the water Left, on board sketch made during the voyage to Australia

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Below left, illustrated page from Basil Field’s Fair y Tales, 1894 Below, original typescript for Basil Field’s play Pirate and Painter, 1899

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trading vessel, arriving three months later on 21 February 1871 in Port Philip Bay, Melbourne. Having suffered throughout from severe internal pains and sea sickness, he described his complexion by then as ‘pale olive green’ and it took several weeks of recuperation before he regained his strength. The return journey began on 2 January 1872, leaving Melbourne on the Royal Mail steamship Behar.

He travelled extensively whilst in Australia and, in the course of three notebooks, made a diary of the whole trip with sketches of some of the characters and places he encountered, and lists of contacts to follow up. These included connections in the legal profession but also those with a strong interest in botany. There was, for example, Ferdinand von Mueller, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, who was paid a visit. Another was Joseph Allport, a Hobart solicitor and leading light in Tasmanian horticultural circles, who provided some of the photographs for an album that Basil compiled, containing also a few of his watercolours, that also survives at Great Dixter.

This 18 month or so eventful hiatus on the other side of the world was followed by a return to the business of the law in London and to domestic life. Basil went on to have two daughters, Daisy born in 1881 and Myrtle in 1882 but, for whatever reason, it wasn’t actually until 1885 that he married their mother, Amelia Lyons (1856-1933), who was the younger by twenty one years. He was in his fifties by then and proved a doting father to his children at the family home in Putney. Myrtle died in 1911 after a short illness while staying in Florence. She spent her last days at St Thomas’ Nursing Home and there is correspondence in the archive from its proprietor Nannette Strangman about the subsequent burial arrangements in a Florentine cemetery.

Nurse Strangman had trained in London under Florence Nightingale and went on to distinguished military service during the First World War. Coincidentally, a couple of letters in the archive from Florence Nightingale show that she and the mother of Amelia Lyons were friends.

There was a literary and theatrical side to Basil Field,

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Basil and Amelia Field, with daughters Daisy and Myrtle, taken at about the time of their marriage in 1885

albeit light-hearted, which became more evident in later years. His book Fairy Tales was published in 1894 with a dedication ‘To Daisy, Myrtle, and All Good Children Who Love their Fairies’. It was illustrated by his friend Charles Edwin Fripp who as an artist was more generally known for his pictures of colonial campaigns, but who had grown up in Hampstead alongside the Fields. There were favourable reviews. In December, The Times Literary Supplement wrote: ‘In Fairy Tales by Basil Field we have something quite new enough for the readers or perhaps I should say listeners, to whom it will appeal. This book is evidently intended for an ultra-juvenile circle and by such an audience it will be received with clamorous favour. Stories of elves, goblins and giants are given in bewildering profusion, and although the author states that his sole aim is to amuse, there is many a quaint fancy and hidden moral peeping out from among the stories’. There are several copies at Great Dixter, one of them signed ‘22nd Nov 1894. Amy Field from her loving husband The Author.’

Basil was a would-be playwright and his notebooks are scattered with pages of dialogue and snatches of conversations overheard and jotted down for future use.

Several scripts of completed plays survive. They are quite short and of a nature that could be performed at home by a family group such as the Fields, with Basil in the leading role and wife, daughters and anyone else available playing supporting parts. One that received a public airing was ‘Pirate and Painter’ which was presented at Wandsworth Town Hall on January 31st 1900 as part of a programme in

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support of Putney Lawn Tennis Club and the War Fund.

The scene is a seaside village in Sardinia where an artist, Madder Brown, has been paying unwelcome attention to Susan Larkin’s now absent sister. Brown is full of tall tales of his own heroics so Susan and her friend set him up to believe that the sister is being held for ransom by a pirate.

Brown’s bravado is shown to be baseless and he is sent packing. The plot is literally farcical and there is a heavy emphasis on amusing word play. Fun with a hint of moral overlay was the common theme of Basil’s literary output.

Professionally, Basil continued what his father had started and acted in a legal capacity on behalf of the Society of Authors and the Royal Academy of Arts. He was an active member of the Arts Club in London, which had been founded in 1863 and which then, as now, attracted a wide following across the artistic spectrum. Indeed, he served on some of its committees and, judging from the correspondence in the archive, would write to congratulate members when they achieved some distinction such as election to Royal Academician. Amongst these letters, there is one from Jerome K Jerome, author of Three Men in a Boat, asking simply “Dear Mr Field, You have not forgotten me, have you?”.

Finally, we must return to fishing, the pastime that Basil shared with Nathaniel Lloyd and was instrumental in linking the two families in marriage. Basil was a founder member of the Fly Fishers’ Club in 1884, its president in 1896, and a popular speaker at its annual dinners. The April 1894 edition of the influential magazine The Fortnightly Review carried, as well as a piece by George Bernard Shaw, an extensive article by Basil Field on all aspects of the fast-growing sport of fly fishing. He also wrote for the Field magazine and on his death in 1908 it printed a lengthy tribute which included these words: ‘By the riverside, Mr Field was just what he appeared to be from his articles, a delightful host and a charming companion, with a quick turn of humour, which brightened everything for those who were with him. As an all-round

‘BY THE RIVERSIDE, MR FIELD WAS JUST WHAT HE APPEARED TO BE FROM HIS ARTICLES, A DELIGHTFUL HOST AND A CHARMING COMPANION, WITH A QUICK TURN OF HUMOUR, WHICH BRIGHTENED EVERYTHING FOR THOSE WHO WERE WITH HIM.

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Basil Field and family in f ishing mode, 1890s

fisherman, there have been very few men who could equal him; he was extraordinarily fertile in expedients for overcoming difficulties and disposing of obstacles, and the inventions which bear his name testify to his practical grasp of an angler’s needs.’

At the very least, Basil Field was a man of diligence, a story teller and an entertainer – attributes which in their different forms showed up also in his daughter Daisy and his grandson Christopher. ■

SEPTEMBER

RUTH BORUN SCHOLAR 2022-2023:

LUKE SENIOR

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My f irst three months

My time at Dixter started in early September and began with meadow clearing. Pictured below are some of the meadow areas yet to be cut with Andrew, one of the American scholars in high spirits.

We spent almost a month clearing the meadows which I thoroughly enjoyed coming from a farming background in Ireland it was nice to do more traditional style farming within a garden setting.

Every morning at 8am we each have an area of Dixter to sweep and tidy before opening to the public. The Peacock Garden, pictured left, was my area for much of the remaining open season and many pleasantly spent early mornings have been spent working in this area so far.

Shortly after arriving in England to start my time at Great Dixter the Queen sadly passed away and to commemorate, Sarah, one of Dixter’s gardeners and I made some bouquets to celebrate the Queen’s life. These were displayed in the Porch that week.

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Lunches tend to be a social occasion at Dixter! The picture, right, on a warm September day illustrates that. Now that winter has set in we have our breaks in the lunch room with its much appreciated warmth!

OCTOBER

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The Great Dixter Plant Fair took place in the lower fields, plant nurseries from across the UK attended and it was a really successful year for the event. An all-handson-deck weekend!

The Dixter team runs a cake stall for the fair, for which we are encouraged to make some items for sale- I made a lemon drizzle which turned out remarkably well considering it was made at 1am the night before after a few whiskeys. Marc, a garden team volunteer and fellow Irishman, was kind enough to take a photo of me on the day.

The big clean-up after the fair weekend involved loading all the square bales used by the stallholders back into the shed for next year. Photo taken just before it POURED WITH RAIN.

On occasion throughout October we visited a separate project that Dixter is involved with called ‘The Silk Route Garden’ about a 3 hour drive from Dixter. This year we went to plant thousands of Tulip and other west Asian bulbs. Pictured right is the glasshouse a prominent feature of the garden with its dramatic open panels.

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Seeking shelter from that rain on our freshly stacked bales with Fergus overseeing operations. Pictured are all the Dixter 2022/23 scholars- Rob from England, Madelaine from Florida, Andrew from Massachusetts and myself from Ireland.

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A fun occasion during October was a harvest dinner that some of the garden team prepared for everyone involved at Dixter. Much of the food was taken from the veg garden and prepared in the old kitchen.

Madelaine decorated the table with dahlias, calendulas and other late-season flowers from the garden.

Much of October once the meadows were cut was spent cutting the hedges and topiary around Great Dixter. This was another interesting and enjoyable task learning how best to manage certain parts of the old Dixter yew hedges and getting the best shapes cut into the topiary pieces.

NOVEMBER A beautiful picture from the Peacock Garden in late November with the early morning mist lingering.

Potted bulb displays play a large part of the springtime show at Dixter and so throughout November we have been potting up all the terracotta pots with tulip, daffodil and crocus bulbs. Pictured right are some of the pots ready to be stored away until the bulbs show in the springtime. The old Massey Ferguson tractor making an appearance again! ■

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Much of November as a result of the garden closing to the public for winter and the need to plant spring bulbs has been spent cutting down and removing this year’s growth in the borders. Most areas of this high intensity garden are cleaned up with plants individually marked once cut and new bulbs planted for the spring displays. Pictured left is some of our recent work in the Peacock Garden with gardener and past scholar Ben walking through the border on his wooden boards to stop soil compaction.

THE IDENT Daniel Carlson, from California

Daniel with Ellie Machell and Shaun Blower on the Topiary Lawn

ELOISE GAYER

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where he farmed cut flowers, spent a year working in the Nurser y

peak to be able to compare color, shape, habit and form. The third week is taught by the Scholars. They will have chosen plants which catch their eye or they have recently worked with. Selecting only a few plants to share can be difficult, as there are so many good ones. But being forced to zoom in to just a few gives a sharp perspective and encourages the students, and us all, to be keen observers of plants and their merits.

For each plant we learn the Family, Genus, and Species. From there we talk about its use in the garden, attributes that define it from other plants in the genus, how to propagate it, parentage, history relevant to Dixter, and any other interesting facts. The Latin begins to be demystified. Patterns arise in the words and you can start to learn the translations - the Latin name will often describe botanical attributes of the plant.

The fourth week is the test. Of the 30-40 plants we have learned, we are tested on 10 . You must get the Family Genus and species - spelling counts!!

Sometimes the test is a walk through the garden, other times a sprig of each is brought inside, each in a vase, labeled with just a number.

Of course the tests are in good fun, but we are all here to learn, so a healthy competition arises. We study, make flash cards and work hard to gain the knowledge.

With a robust plant knowledge from our time at Dixter we can head into the horticultural world well versed, speaking a new (and very old) language. ■

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Though I had worked with plants for almost ten years before coming to Great Dixter, my Latin was seriously lacking.

I had been a cut flower farmer and only recently dipped my toe into perennials.

I would glide over the Latin names, latching onto common names like a life raft in the almost illegible sea of letters composing genera and species.

But of course, common names only get you so far in horticulture and to communicate in gardening we need the Latin naming system . When I first arrived to England I quickly found those limitations - one person’s “Sticky Willy” is another’s “Catchweed” and there seems to be dozens of Sneezeworts!

Christopher Lloyd was infamously opposed to signage in the garden, so as team members we are the point of contact for people who say “what’s this” with a photo. Or something to the effect of “there is a large…about my height, wide dark leaf, pink little flowers that make up one big flower, looks like a hydrangea, but different leaf and fragrant.”It can be hard!

We need to be able to educate our visitors, this is why staying on top of what is happening in the garden is so important, and one way to do that is with the ‘Idents’.

Weekly, we walk the garden teaching each other about plants. The first two weeks of the month are taught by a member of staff - either from the garden or nursery. There is not a specific brief, but often we discuss a group of plants Clematis, Narcissus, Hardy Geraniums, Weeds, Winter Twigs, Meadows - at their

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Daisy’s Garden Book for 1929

By Roy Brigden

The first section is dated the 9th of July and lists the numbers of wallflowers planted ....................

280 Cheiranthus Allionii (or Siberian wallflower) 202 W. Fire King 13 W. Annual Double mixed 141 W. Primrose Monarch 281 W. Darkest of All 135 W. Cloth of Gold Underneath, with the date 15.7.29 she writes ‘Xr plants 3 boxes of Lilium Bulbiferum (Orange Lily) 113 bulbs.’

This is a small, soft covered notebook that we came across recently in the archive at Great Dixter. It contains Daisy Lloyd’s hand-written entries for garden work over the summer of 1929.

There was a team of gardeners at Dixter, headed up by Henry Sands since the latter part of 1928, but the notes here are of work in which Daisy herself was personally involved.

The next entry is for 14th July and lists new delphiniums in the Blue Garden, beginning at the north end of the border ....................

Ef f ie Barker – double, mauve, blue, black eye Loddon Guard - double, mauve and pale blue Beecroft Ampere Coquetta E.M.Cola – single, blue and mauve, black centre

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DAISY’S 1929 GARDEN NOTEBOOK

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16.7.29 – 18.7.29. ....................

Move Dutch and Spanish Iris from Lavender Garden to Orchard Garden, to make room for N.L.’s seed trial ground.

Nathaniel Lloyd was trying out different types of grass seed for possible use for golf fairways and greens – he was heavily involved with Rye Golf Course.

S.I. (Spanish Iris) King of the Blues D.I. (Dutch Iris) Frans Hals D.I. Albert Cuyp S.I. Queen Wilhelmina (white) S.I. Cajanus S.I. La Reconnaissance S.I. Belle Chinoise D.I. Huchtenberg D.I. Anton Mauve S.I. British Queen (white) S.I. Gold Cup S.I. Giant Yellow S.I. Excelsior (blue) S.I. Louise (blue) S.I. Flora (lavender) S.I. Midley (blue & white) S.I. Menclik (blue & white) D.I. Hart Nibbrig

Daisy Lloyd in 1928

29.7.29 ....................

Sow the following grasses for N.L’s trial ground: Poa pratensis. Smooth meadow grass Festuca duriuscula. Hard fescue grass Festuca rubra. Creeping fescue grass Festuca orina tenuifolia Festuca arenaria Carter’s Silloth Turf Mixture Coutanche’s Mixture

31.7.29 ....................

Sow two boxes of Carter’s Prize Hollyhock, single, mixed Given to Christo last evening

Sat Aug 17 1929 ................

Sow seeds: 1 box cyclamen Mesopotamia (gathered 18.7.29) 1 box Cyclamen (Common) 1 box Scabiosa caucasica (stolen from the Skipwiths! 4.8.29) 1 box Pink Oriental Poppy (from own seedling) 2 boxes Tulip (from Pat’s garden) 1 box D sinensis Prick out pansy seedlings (Paston) sown 9.7.29, 2 boxes, 20,24 Prick out Iceland Poppy, 2 boxes sown 9.7.29: 105 salmon pink shades; 35 pale yellow; 125 mixed (pink, white, yellow, orange)

August 18th 1929 ....................

Plant out Pyrethrum seedlings in borders -pricked out a month ago 176 plants

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19.7.29 ....................

Prick out Pyrethrum, double, single, mixed 176 plants Weed & water strawberry bed – Boreal Giant – has thrown out runners which are in full bloom.

N.L. to order 400 plants for new bed.

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Tues August 20th ....................

Plant out Chinese primula – pricked out from self-sown seedlings on Upper Terrace 29.5.29 Gather seeds of Canterbury Bells, marked when in bloom. Very annoyed to find some of the pink ones have had seed pods pulled off and labels removed Plant out (in Top Orchard) Iris Pallida dalmatica – 74 plants sown 7.9.28 – also 16 plants of Dwarf Iris blue.

Sow 2 boxes Nemesia seeds (mixed) gathered by Christopher yesterday.

Prick out self-sown seedlings of Dwarf Cornflower from Knott Garden – 2 boxes 25 &40. Also gather seeds of same.

Sow a few seeds of Delphinium “Loddon Guard” in a pot (22 seeds) Collect bulk of Fritillaries, Lent Lilies, Lilium bulbiferum & Eremurus himalayica from seed boxes.

Wed August 21st 1929 ...................

Plant out Forget-me-not seedlings given us by Tickner.

Sow in a pot 20 seeds of “Sweet Wivelsfield” – Dianthus Allwoodii x D. barbatus (Sweet William) – bought by Letitia for 1/-!! Plant 9”-15 “ apart; height 12”-18” Sow in boxes Canterbury Bells – 1 white, 2 mauve, 1 dark blue Plant bulbs from seed boxes: Fritillaria – 2 rows, 130 bulbs English Iris – 108, 108, 120 bulbs (336 bulbs) Eremurus himalaica – 50 plants, 1½ rows English Iris - ½row 34 bulbs, 1 row circa 100 bulbs, 1 row circa 100 bulbs Lent Lily? – 1 row 105 bulbs (I am not sure what this is) Lilium bulbiferum – circa 100 bulbs, 2 long rows, 7 short rows

GATHER SEEDS OF CANTERBURY BELLS, MARKED WHEN IN BLOOM. VERY ANNOYED TO FIND SOME OF THE PINK ONES HAVE HAD SEED PODS PULLED OFF AND LABELS REMOVED

friday august 23rd 1929 ....................

Sow 1 box Viola cornuta; sow 1 box Viola pale mauve Sow 1 box Cheiranthus linifolium, Mauve Alpine Wallflower Plant out 12 well-rooted cuttings of Skimmia Japonica (give the 13th to Mrs Booth).

Collect seeds of: Suttons winter flowering Pansies, mixed; white & purple Viola from Wall Garden; Annual Linaria, mixed; Nasturtium, climbing; Dianthus caesius, dark magenta.

Saturday August 24th 1929 ....................

Sow seeds gathered at Carter’s Seed Grounds in July: Anemone Giant Scarlet (keep from light for 21 days)

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Thursday August 22nd 1929 ....................

Pick Canterbury Bell seed ripe enough to sow. Sow one large box Gather seeds of Mauve Alpine Wallflower – Erysimum linifolium; Cheiranthus linifolium Note: order Jerbera Jamesonii hybrids (Barberton or Transvaal Daisy).

Plant out a box of St Brigid Anemone seedlings – fill in gaps at edge of North bed behind Rose Garden & shed.

Start planting French Lavender (sown last Sept, pricked out in March, & planted out in rows on the 9th of May. It has made fine, bushy plants, some of which are already in flower – 451 plants) in the Lavender Garden. Have the two rows of Canterbury Bells dug up & the ground well dug & manured. Plant the lavender with plenty of sand. 21 plants in the front row, 20 plants in the back row, 82 plants altogether.

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Thursday August 29th 1929 ....................

(Tan & Selwyn return from St Andrews) Plant 3 bulbs of Colchicum autumnale (Meadow Saffron) in Xr’s “Lambikin Gdn” (under the walnut tree). These were sent him yesterday by Mabel Onslow. Also cuttings of Dianthus which Sands is striking in sand.

Sow 2 boxes of Calendula – Carter’s Orange Cockade; 2 boxes of Suttons Winter Flowering Pansy (own seed).

Friday August 30th 1929 ....................

Sow 1 small box of viola, white, flushed mauve, purple veining for Wall Gdn. Sow 1 box Annual Linaria, mixed (Toadflax).

Saturday August 31st 1929 ....................

Sow remainder of Canterbury Bell seed (interrupted – finish job on Tuesday Sept 3rd): 1 box dark blue, seed from 1 bloom; 1 small box, white (?blue, seeds too dark for white); 1 box white; 1 box redmauve; 1 box pink; 1 box mauve Sow 1 box Caesius (Dianthus) dark magenta

Wednesday September 4th 1929 ....................

Prick out 6 boxes of self-sown Sweet William, mixed Go on planting Lavender Gdn.

Left, letter from Lionel Perkin in response to Daisy’s comments on the failure of Narcissus ‘Red Chief ’ (see entr y below)

Friday Sept 6th (Ken comes!) ....................

Finish planting Lavender Gdn – 190 plants in all. Keep back 30 good plants for lower end, where a 1’ wall is to be built this winter, to prevent soil running over path in wet weather.

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Thursday September 5th ....................

Receive 1 doz bulbs Narcissus ‘Red Chief ’ from L.Perkin to make up for the dozen which did so badly last year. Dig the latter out of the Orchard Gdn & plant the lot in the Orchard, under first tree east of Brick Path.

Saturday Sept 7th 1929 ....................

Get up at 6 & start work before breakfast. Plant small lavender bushes between Tea Roses in Barn Gdn. Prick out seedlings of Heldreichii splendhis, sown in April; 3 boxes – 25,24,14 = 63

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Thursday Sept 12th 1929 ....................

Sow seeds: 1 box Jap. Paeony 49 seeds; 1 box German Iris, blue, 35 seeds; 1 box Nigella, dark blue; 1 box Antirrinhum, Giant, yellow; 1 box Iris pallida dalmatica, 40 seeds.

Thursday October 17th 1929 ....................

Plant out 212 Wallflowers in Sunk Gdn (the finest I have ever handled): 2 beds N. end Cloth of Gold; 2 beds S. end Fire King; 2 beds N.W & N.E Darkest of All (a few Darkest of All left over, I plant in front of Iris bed on Lower Terrace).

Friday Oct 18th ....................

Plant remainder of Xr’s L. Bulbiferum from High Orchard.

Start re-modelling Wall Gdn Saturday: ditto

Monday 21st Oct ....................

Plant aubretia (deep mauve & rose pink) in front of Knott Gdn. Glover gives notice!

Wednesday Oct 23rd ....................

Start digging Long Border

(CONTINUE PEARS) TREE AT ANGLE OF KITCHEN BUILDINGS – 157 PEARS (58 BAD).

ALTOGETHER 552 CORNICE PEARS, OUT OF WHICH 176 WERE PECKED, SPOTTED OR OTHERWISE IMPERFECT.

Thursday Oct 31st ....................

Plant Miniature Hyacinths in front of Knott Gdn: 230 bulbs (½ white, ½ yellow)

Monday Nov 4th ....................

Plant Darwin Tulips in “Knapper’s Garden”: 269 bulbs from Perkin – make up with own bulbs. It takes 312 bulbs to do this Gdn, + 150 Forget-me-not plants.

Wednesday 6th Nov ....................

Plant remaining Wallflowers in Barn Gdn – Primrose Monarch, 35 plants; Lower Terrace – Darkest of All, 42 plants; Under Bedroom Window etc – Fire King, 133 plants.

Thursday Nov 7th 1929 Gather Cornice Pears: Blue Gdn – 1st aspalier – 7 pears (3 spotted); 1st & 2nd cordons – bare; 2nd aspalier – 183 pears (44 bad); 3rd cordon – 2 pears; 4th cordon – 20 pears (mouse’s nest, 16 bad).

Wall Gdn: 1st cordon – 3 pears (1 bad); 2nd cordon – 8 pears (1 bad); 1st aspalier 1 pear; 2nd aspalier 103 pears (30 bad); 3rd aspalier 25 pears (9 bad).

End of Thatched Barn – 31 pears (6 bad) High Gdn – 2nd aspalier from arch, south side – 12 pears (1 bad); Pat’s tree – 24 pears (7 bad)

Friday 8th November .................... (continue pears) Tree at angle of Kitchen Buildings – 157 pears (58 bad).

Altogether 552 Cornice Pears, out of which 176 were pecked, spotted or otherwise imperfect. ■

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Thursday 24th Oct ....................

Prick out seedling C.Bell (sown 3.9.29): 1 box Red-mauve 56 plants; 1 box Pink No.2, 36 plants; 1 box White No.2, 35 plants; 1 box White (?blue) 20 plants; 1 box Dark Blue (seed from one bloom), 42 plants; 1 box Mauve No.2, 35 plants; 1 box Nigella, dark blue, 24 plants; 1 box Nigella Dark Blue, 30 plants: total 278.

SARAH SEYMOUR

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UK CHRISTOPHER LLOYD SCHOLAR 2022-2023:

ROB FLACK

The month past has been of continuing effort to plant the bulbs throughout the garden within the beds and borders. The process from the last month has been the same but equally as varied, with continuing amendments and adaptations to the beds. This has included; lifting, splitting, re-setting, moving and planting of bulbs and self-sown annuals which have been replaced in more appropriate spaces where they won’t upset the balance of competition within the areas as well as allowing each to stitch the design of the bed together. Each annual plays a specific role in drawing the views through the bed together and this is carried out to represent a naturalistic style, free from the structured planting patterns that my muscle memory is so keen to carry out. The plantings are more along the lines of high/low density, with small groups of (for example) 3-5 and then a large space and then the odd one or two thrown in to create the naturalised patterns. The thing I have taken greatly from these experiences is to look at how the self-sowers form before they are temporarily lifted when we begin to clear through the bed. Looking at their density and their spacing. Essentially, to imagine how they are in the wild and use this information to plant them accordingly. It sounds so simple when I write it, but in hindsight I have found it difficult to retrain my brain

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November 2022 Report

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away from structured spacing, something that doesn’t really occur in the same ways in the wild as it does in various styles of planting within horticulture. The bed re-design has allowed us to continue with removing Canna and Dahlia into the basement for winter protection, where they are set into crates with old soil, ensuring to attach multiple labels, should the inevitable occur and we are found to have Canna unknownii & Dahlia mysterialis. The design aspect has also taught me some key points of design and how the crucial choice of plants and placement will play a part in the whole so as to ensure that the border doesn’t get diluted with weak colours, ill forms, lacklustre habits or off timing.

The plants are all part of the mechanism and each has a role to allow the piece to sing much like a clock. We have now finished planting bulbs through the main body of the beds and borders: Long Border, Peacock Garden, High Garden, Barn Garden, Blue Garden, Walled Garden and all those in between. Only a few bulbs are left to plant and are lined out in the trial bed. These will be used for cut flowers and observation.

The journey of propagation has continued as a result of the bed design, with lots of plants being taken out and stem and root cuttings made. The cold frames are under close surveillance as we head into winter, ensuring not to overwater and keep well ventilated. Some more tender plants such as Clarkia have began to show signs of too much moisture and have been potted on and moved to a glasshouse where they can remain warmer and drier. For plants that have been in the module trays and begun to make substantial roots, the potting on process has begun.

More cold frames have been produced to help manage the larger quantity of pots that are required for next year.

Care is taken in potting up to keep the seedlings nice and deep, right down to the cotyledons so that they can form strong plants. Along with this is the care of the roots, not to damage them and keep the plant central in the pot. It sounds simple and obvious but ensures that each plant has

THE CRUCIAL CHOICE OF PLANTS AND PLACEMENT WILL PLAY A PART IN THE WHOLE SO AS TO ENSURE THAT THE BORDER DOESN’T GET DILUTED WITH WEAK COLOURS, ILL FORMS, LACKLUSTRE HABITS OR OFF TIMING.

WE NOTICED EFFECTS OF DEER MUNCHING THE YOUNG SHOOTS ON STUMPS... THIS CAN BE AVOIDED BY PILING UP SMALLER YOUNG BRANCHES AND TWIGS AROUND THE STUMP SO THAT ACCESS TO THE YOUNG GROWTH IS DIFFICULT FOR THE MEANDERING MOUTHS.

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the same amount of space whilst they begin their journey into larger plants.

We have been down to the coppice wood to take material for green woodwork. The woodland is 30 acres and houses a broad collection of native species with varied uses throughout the estate. Such as fire, green woodwork and structural work. We were taking sweet chestnut, Castanea sativa for green woodworking. They had to be as straight as possible with minimal twisting and knots. These were then split with a splitting blade and mallet, to which a gentle eye is key to ensure the split stays on the straight and narrow. Within the coppice wood, we noticed effects of deer munching the young shoots on stumps through a clearing.

If this continues then the vigour of the tree will be reduced and the stump regenerative power will be lost. This can be avoided by piling up smaller young branches and twigs around the stump so that access to the young growth is difficult for the meandering mouths.

Gradually everything is starting to make more sense.

The layout and structure of the garden, the way it all works and joins together. It really works and is a huge success, not only to visitors but also as a great learning experience to really see how to maximise every space within a bed and border. On top of this is how to manage the garden sustainably; using coppice, cold frames, hessian, seed saving, cuttings and the like. Still with many months to go I cannot wait to see what lies around the corner. ■ Rob is funded by the Club 22 Friends, see page 93.

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER

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by Edward Flint, 33 years and still tumbling joyfully down the rabbit hole that is Dixter. Friend of Christo, gardener, tutor and writer. Photographs by Nicky Flint There is something special in all the best journeys, something that enhances the sense of arrival and defines the magic of a place. I feel a palpable frisson of excitement as I approach Dixter, the smooth suburban blacktop of Dixter Lane abruptly giving way to the soothing crunch of tyres on loose gravel, a puff of dust and a thump as the Forstal is broached.

To the right a tousled field hedge where regardless of season I anticipate seeing and perhaps, if lucky, inhaling the heady scent of honeysuckle. Overhead the dark bony limbs of stag headed oaks stretch out; welcome shade in summer, shelter in winter from winds that buffet this lip of the valley. Impossible not to glance left across the horsepond beyond the danewort and the simple functionality of chestnut spile fencing, strung, slung rather than erected, placed to deftly, barely delineate the bounds drawing the viewer in and the garden out. Lutyens’ slab of peg tiled roof, a powerful smear of red on a canvas of myriad green, as if at rest on a shadow black slab of yew hedge drawn along the horizon; concealing, teasing, almost revealing a sense of something worthwhile beyond.

And then, pitch perfect the entrance, with understated authenticity a simple

gap in the hedge, little more than a smeuse, access restricted not denied by a weary ill-hung, low-slung oak gate with the squeaks and creaks of an ageing gardener’s knees. Beyond; the jetted porch, comfortingly squiffy, at its heart an enticing dark void scattered about with an indistinct smudge of pots, distant pinpricks of colour and light.

With a shove the gate creaks open, for those returning, for whom this is a familiar rite of passage, there is a feint but tangible nudge of adrenalin and an almost universal involuntary sigh and slump of the shoulders at the first breath of Dixter air.

The journey’s course is here evident and non-negotiable, an honest rectilinear fretwork of solid slabs carrying eye and foot through this outer airlock; a wonderful subversion of the expected manicured welcome, a contrast to the harsh starkness of the path a wild jumble of carefree meadow flows, breaking on the path, lapping at the resistance of the surrounding hedges, undermining preconceptions, lifting spirits or raising the eyebrows of those for whom this represents a wilful betrayal of expectations and norms.

Midway down this simple desire line the self-evident simplicity of the route fails, a paler cast to the path revealing

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NICKY FLINT @ SUSSEX STILLS

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at all times but certainly worthy of exploration.

The Cat Garden (not even deemed worthy of a name on most plans), a steep hollow at the heart of the garden once a sewer now a soak-away, lined with the sort of rank grass such places always attract.

Accessed only through an uncomfortable sideways shuffle along the perimeter of the Orchard Garden sandwiched between yew and box hedges impossible, even in the wet when a waist-deep soaking is assured, to walk this tightrope without a palm outstretched combing the box to free its pungent scent. At its end, a simple flight of workmanlike brick steps drop down to the beaten grass path of the badgers’ toilet commute.

Here be gnarly old lilacs, heaven scented in their season, aniline bright trails of kingcups winking from pools of squalid mire, tamarisk graced once for one perfect moment with the buttery presence of a Brimstone, the ghost of a ceanothus bulging from the wall below Christo’s bathroom window, mulched by a steady stream of nail clippings, trails of parthenocissus drape the walls licks of blazing flame in their season, the architecture, functional but polished intrudes on the wilderness a sense of almost abandonment, back of house honesty prevails.

In the Northwest corner of the Barn Garden, gripped by the catslide of the Great Barn, the cushioned fringe of the thatched log store and shingled height of the stables stands a shrubbery in all but name, sky-scratching lilacs, a

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where myriad feet have stopped, shuffled, twitched and pondered a choice, sought guidance from a map, insight from a plan or vainly searched for the certitude of a way marker. A path to the right, short and sharp the eye drawn to an intriguing sliver of garden, a stained glass window framed by a bulwark of wonderfully wonky yew… or onward, drawn by the blinking eye at the heart of the porch, the inescapable gravity of the house eliminating the necessity to make a decision, denying impulse or whim.

Why, I wonder, do so many people crave the order and certitude of a prescribed route and fear the uncertainty of getting lost, allowing themselves to be pushed and pulled by the whims of the garden or their own mood?

One of the most frequent sentiments overheard in the garden is a plaintive almost exasperated “I don’t know which way to go” as if there might be a “right” way and risk there might be a wrong way: a right way in which everything could be taken in to its best advantage in one simple (quick?) journey and a wrong way that would not include anything so tedious as a doubling back or boring repetition.

The best gardens; and by any measure surely Dixter even if not entirely to your taste should be thought of as one of the best, have an immersive, subversive character that rewards consequential inconsequential dawdling and poking about.

An aimless yet mindful mooch will reveal much more than a studious hotfoot orbit of the house and its honeypot set pieces.

I love the odd bits that don’t fit, perhaps not all worthy of close inspection

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sprawling mahonia, vanilla scented wafts of viburnum and a Marmite twist of perennially dusty olearia. An understory, in season flecked with dolly mixture cyclamen studded in autumn and spring with waxy white snowdroplets and the orange fruits of roast beef iris.

The route seems clear, hugging the cloistering path that frames the garden. A diversion, necessitating a waist-deep stoop and limbo-like shimmy beneath a bough of sprawling fig reveals a hidden darker world, the gardeners’ underbelly. An authentic gardeners place streaked with shafts of draughty light where shrunken boards have failed, a place of dusty canes, broken hoes, coils of stiffening mustard hose, a weather vane toppled (by a gale?), put aside to come in handy one day, a cart with one Pontefract cake black flat tyre. An iron framed wet stone, redundant; part of the furniture its jerry can kettle suspended at a jaunty angle as if just tipped to ease the grinding passage of a blade, trunks and chests repositories of stuff, memories, reminders that gardens need gardeners who like stuff and places to put stuff. Gardeners who cling to shattered antlers of fennel and cluttering bundles of wind stripped skeletal miscanthus gathered and kept as votive objects, charms, their presence somehow ensuring success in subsequent years. Gardeners who need places to quickly stuff incongruous bright hi-viz coats, temporary havens for camouflaged mice and a pillow for snoozing cats.

To most, the great grey sea green bolster of evergreen oak closes the western end of the upper garden. A

passive backdrop to the textural planting of the foreground, directing both eye and foot onward to the otherworldly orchidstudded foam of the Topiary Lawn, but push against their resistance and a series of spaces and vistas opens up.

First, perfect in its honest simplicity a quince; its understated presence and placement the resolution of many hours heated debate. Push further on, inevitably with a slight sense of trespass, trepidation and illicit intrigue as the flagstone path gives way to the crunch of less footfriendly hoggin and the formal orbit of the garden relaxes.

Unbidden, hidden, a second simple space, a grassy slope backed by towering redbrick walls seemingly held upright by a veneer of crusty lichens, mortar mined by bees and scarred with the pockmarks of failed nails; their scale rendered human and unforbidding by the gentle greying presence of oak board doors, glossy leaved magnolia, untutored trails of rose and the angular gawk of Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Wisselii’ breaking the roofline. In spring the daisy studded turf hung with the luminous bells of Narcissus ‘Hawera’, a whiff of glamour and smile raising surprise.

As the reverse of a canvas or the hidden marks beneath the glossy daubs of its front, both reveal and conceal, here a glimpse out reveals an Hogartian sprawl of loose limbed conifers, less polite more honest, somehow edgier and more satisfactory than the intended prettified “proper” frontal view.

Scuttling back, reassured on firmer Yorkstone ground, emboldened by success,

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here feels quite unlike anywhere else in the garden, lush, cool and quiet, a garden apart, a place to linger almost furtively without being overwhelmed, in season lit by lamps of hydrangea and perfumed by heady rhododendron.

Passing through the hedge from the Long Border into the Orchard Garden: an unresolved unsatisfactory limbo like sort of space, it is an unusual pleasure to be wafted off course by the sweet fruity scent of eglantine; sweetbriar, luring the willing into the hinterlands in search of the elusive source of the fragrance.

Emanating from the leaves of a truly nondescript rose, any search for floral source will be fruitless, drawn on though the intrepid might find themselves negotiating a tightrope of path between looming hedge and lowering garden.

Uncomfortable, not a place in which to linger it is easy to overlook the corner piece vignette where blocks of yew hedge collide, dark shadows and comfortable shapes, a dome of golden holly, the upright licks of poplar, a void; unresolved space; resolved. The corner held.

The rigid cruciform strictures of the High Garden don’t encourage a dawdle, but beyond accessdenying canes and lengths of bailer twine struck through and hung across crevice like paths of treadworn soil lie relic plantings, ghosts of the garden’s former productive past. Hidden behind cankered pears, their espalier horizontal boughs staves on which barely hang bulging borders of floral notes, are rows of butter yellow peony, ebony black seeds sent with love to Beth by

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resist again, push on away from the garden and the sad sight of the ash windbreak, its dark fretwork of boughs, one of the few elements of the garden allowed to intrude into the house when on balmy evenings with the door from the Yeoman’s open they caught the sinking sun. Much loved by Christo and considered by him an important, enduring part of the garden’s fabric. Decimated by dieback, the stubs of those cut down remain, trying to regenerate but failing; a row of rotten teeth, studding the turf either side of the ungainly, untumbling, tumbling stile, an irresistible unmasterable toy.

Cul-de-sacs have a bad name but the return here, a re-entrance, is a wonder.

The house; at first out of sight though very close, a brooding presence taking the higher ground, unfurls with each step forward like a ship passing a breakwater.

Its lower sub Plimsoll line bulk hidden by gentle undulations of textured yew hedges and topiary unconsciously aping the chimneys and angles of the rooflines, repeat flourishes of bamboo spume driven up by the passage of the ships bow as it comes to rest hard to the shapely weight of Daphniphyllum macropodum.

This statuesque and solid evergreen with an air of importance partially conceals another little, but worthwhile, waste of time. A short spur of path terminating once again in a door; the sort of silvered oak, iron studded door that is irresistible. Three parts buried in a swirling drip of leaf and chlorophyll drenched light, under the fingerling splayed sprays of aralia, the atmosphere

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Christo, swaying banks of light emitting miscanthus amongst toppled candelabras of verbascum, trials of hemerocallis and a tribulation of waxy white, “Rather cheaply scented” glamourpuss crinums; more here than anyone could want or wish for.

At the heart of the Peacock Garden, a congregation place, a breathing point, where the luxury of space, scarce at Dixter is granted, a chance to stop and take a turn unpressured by weight of fellow visitors pressing ever onward and upward or backward and downwards. The gravitational pull of the High Garden, glimpsed enticingly through an arrow slit crease of light in the hedge is hard to resist, but the intrepid might be tempted to shear away from the orbit of the house and take the plunge along the path less well trod.

Sideling through in their turn, hosts of nodding poppies, pink, flecked with inky dark tulips, comic head high daubs of glowing tiger lily, frayed sheets of asters bobbing with flights of vivid Red Admirals and the torn shreds of rusty bright Commas to the dark stop of a yew hedge.

A slow turn here takes in a full sweep of the house, the datum on which the garden hangs, settled, like a boat at rest drawn comfortably up on a beach; a high tide of horticulture lapping at its eaves.

The whole at total ease with the arcing contrails of silver plumed pampas etched on the russet red tile work slab of roof.

The back drive, once the sole vehicular access to the house where the tyre tread of oil tankers and butchers vans wore ruts in shallow gravel, now reclaimed by bulwarks of gorse and fangles of red

berried cotoneaster. A snicket, passable only on foot with winding steps picked through a guiding fringe of spurge, with every crunching step turning away from the garden back to the start with the oaks of the Forstal strung across the skyline.

Easy from here to be drawn out of the garden and homeward bound with perhaps a passing glance and acknowledging smile at the horsepond with its skimming flights of swallows and darting whirr of damsel’s wings. The inquisitive might wonder at the trackless void beyond, a delight hidden in plain sight, access denied by a three ply tarred string trip wire. A pine clad bank of ferns and sweeping meadow grass arcing the eye away.

Spectacular in its spring season thick with candied dog’s tooth violets, windswept wilding daffodils, galaxies of blue anemones and primrose constellations. Quiet in its bracken and rush strewn summer garb, a restful place where flycatchers hawk and flit, perky from a perch in a hushing sibilant aspen.

The narrowest point marked by a twinstemmed alder stool, tectonically plated, dark seamed and warty, its bole a hollow dewpond font, a source of much delight to Christo who couldn’t pass by without teasingly anointing my brow.

And beyond; across the low slung, loosely strung fence the slow grind and crunch of cars gingerly navigating the Forstal, eyes right for a last lingering look at a bit they must have missed, accelerating, a change of tone, puff of dust, a gravel spit as tyres bite the blacktop and Wonderland is left behind. ■

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US SCHOLAR 2022-2023

MADELAINE LEDEW November diar y 2022

★ KS JAC

● ED BU

MI AM I LO ND ON

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★ ●

November begins with the Exotic Garden Takedown.

Fearful of the threat of frost, we relocate tender perennials such as Begonia, Clivia, Asplenium, and Alocasia from the Exotic Garden, potting “down” into the smallest pots possible so as to conserve glasshouse space and limit growth.

The point of this is to push these plants through a wet cold English winter, go “dormant-ish”, and encourage growth again come May. While some of these subtropical specimens are hardy on a technicality*, the lush display is stronger each summer if these plants are protected through the winter, as opposed to starting new displays from cuttings each year, or allowing the “mother plants” to die back completely. This risks complete loss in a bad winter or, in a good one, a weak “peak season”.

Protecting these tropicals in one of the mildest UK climates has me thinking about how tropicals are incorporated into my own landscapes back home. The Exotic Garden evokes all feelings of lush tropical jungle abundance without compromising a practical backbone of the subtropical, coniferous and half-hardy plant choices.

I am excited to see this particular landscape change throughout the winter. This type of marginally hardy “winter interest” is what would translate most directly to my garden back home. ■ * “Hardy on a technicality” is a concept I am most intimately familiar with in northeast Florida, where truly tender tropicals are commonly planted as perennial landscape plants and then treated to a subtropical winter (an occasional hard freeze, maximum low of 20°F/-6°C). Although they do not die, these tropicals also do not thrive without serious protection. Jacksonville is USDA Zone 9 and Miami Beach is Zone 11. For comparison, see the map above showing that the distance between Edinburgh, Scotland and London, England is similar to the distance between Jacksonville and Miami (about 332 miles).

The Exotic Garden lifted, pruned, potted up and ready to be relocated to heated or unheated glass houses, depending on the degree of tenderness.

Not all tropicals (or sub-tropicals) require the same level of protection.

The focus for the winter is not to encourage growth, but rather just to get them through the winter alive.

Madelaine is part sponsored

by Chanticleer and Lanakila Gardens.

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Cuttings of Begonia ‘Burle Marx’, to be over wintered on a heat bench until healthy roots emerge. Other Begonias include Begonia ‘Metallica’, B. luxurians, B. schar f f ii, and unnamed varieties gifted from breeders. Below, Begonia luxurians cuttings on a heat bench

THE CHANTICLEER US CHRISTOPHER LLOYD SCHOLAR 2022-2023:

ANDREW WILEY

The connection between house and garden

Above, view from the f irst floor landing in the House, looking east.

Although each building on-site at Great Dixter gives the property character, the house is the most prominent architectural feature that the garden calls to. The house calls back, as a genuine connection is only complete with reciprocity. The sense that the house and garden are separate entities begins to melt away as one experiences the place. At Dixter, the house and garden are one body.

The hedges accentuate the roof structure, its change in grade, and the towering chimneys that rise into the sky. Rather than simply being linear, which the eye ignores as if to say, “I’ve seen this before,” almost random, erect

that they are where they belong takes courage and understanding; to guide them takes knowledge and foresight.

The house and garden are one body, reaching a hand out for the other and allowing the room to grow by opening its doors as if to say, “come in, all are welcome.” Did the house grow out of the ground like the trees and shrubs?

Did Lutyens and Nathaniel Lloyd’s additions fall from a bird’s mouth and into a crack, self-sowing about as if they were giant fennel, Verbena, Euphorbia, or an Erigeron?

Wherever you look, the house rises above, softened by the loose plantings in every crack and corner below. Magnolias and other deciduous trees, shrubs, and conifers have gracefully knitted their way into the house, almost as if the plants grew from between the cracks. Slowly but surely, an experience of the house and garden reveals the impossibility of having one without the other.

The house and garden are a single experience heightened by the dominant visual similarities of yew and chimney, the permission of self-sowers to grow from the crevices and mingle closely with the guests, and the extension of architecture as a lifeblood that flows throughout the space. Through an experience of place, you see and feel that the house and garden are one body because they constantly communicate and respond to each other. ■

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SARAH SEYMOUR

towers of yew add a vertical component.

The verticality of the hedges causes the eye to look above, naturally catching the chimneys and different rooflines simultaneously.

The weight of the house bleeds into the garden using the brick walls and paths as veins carrying blood throughout the rest of the garden body. When you walk the paths at Dixter, you can feel the house breathing into the garden. As you take each step, your feet connect with the paths guiding you throughout the garden’s body. When the plants tickle you as you brush up against them, you can feel the connection between house and garden, the plants feeding off the energy of the house’s external veins. The walls are a continuation of this energy, which figs and Clematis, Climbing Roses, and Camellias, happily knit their way into, around, and against.

The house feeds the garden, connecting the paths and walls with the plants.

Like the architectural additions of the walls and paths, self-sowing plants find their home, fitting snugly into the tiny crevices of a stone or step. Many of the time, they train our eyes as gardeners to understand the possibilities of plants.

When you understand the relationship between self-sowers and their built environment, you begin to know these two as part of the same body. It thus becomes easier to inhabit the spaces they grow in psychologically. To accept

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Ed Flint, Coralie Thomas and Lewis Bosher in action

THE ART AND CRAFT OF GARDENING COURSE AT GREAT DIXTER

Following the example of my father who grew vegetables during the War, I started gardening in the early 1970s in a small plot when we were living in a Victorian house in London.Then 24 years ago we bought a cottage just outside Northiam. Trying to keep the garden in shape working there on our occasional weekends down from London (DFL) was difficult, but it forced me to learn as much as time would allow. I could grow from seed and plant out and knew about taking cuttings, weeding and feeding, but my knowledge of soil, growing conditions and plant names was not good. So having retired from surgery I enlisted in a weekly RHS level 2 course at Hever Castle and simultaneously the Part 1 Art and Craft Course at Great Dixter.

The Art and Craft of Gardening Course comprises one day per month from February to January. Last year there were seventeen students at least a third of whom were professional gardeners or garden designers. The others were aiming to improve their knowledge and the quality of their aesthetic judgment of the layout and interrelationship of flowers and shrubs with their surroundings.

There is a lecture room which doubles as a space for coffee and lunch. On the first day we were welcomed by Fergus Garrett, the head gardener who was appointed by Christopher Lloyd nearly thirty years ago in 1993. The lecturers included Edward Flint and Coralie Thomas.

Ed is the head gardener of a large family garden in East Sussex. He qualified at Wye College and undertook further training at Washfield Nursery and Great Dixter

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John Nicholls

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with Christopher Lloyd and Fergus. He is also a garden designer, lecturer and tutor in horticulture not only at Great Dixter but also at the English Garden School. Coralie is a university graduate who worked in the Wave Hill Garden in the Bronx, New York. She came to Dixter in 2016 as the Chanticleer USA Christopher Lloyd Scholar and is now Assistant Head Gardener.

The course started on a sunny day in early February with a lecture by Ed on the history and design of the garden. Other lectures over the months included ‘Soils’, ‘Nursery Shopping’, ‘Early Perennials at Dixter’, ‘Pot Gardens’ and ‘Meadows’ all accompanied by an informative handout sheet. Every day started at the Long Border, followed by a lecture and then practical instruction of basic techniques. Even in late winter there was much to see, including Daphne in magnificent flower, delicate Hellebore and Galanthus. A particular aspect of the course was the double act by Ed and Coralie of question and answer to promote general discussion. This was most successful in the garden itself where the ‘Art’ of Art and Craft predominated when considering design and colour.

It was useful to be put on the spot to comment on the aesthetic success or otherwise of a display.

Although the emphasis was on the flower garden and the aesthetic juxtaposition of plants in beds or pots, the July day included a visit to the vegetable garden run by Lewis Bosher, Assistant Head Gardener, which included a useful discussion on composting. What Ed told us about soil will have helped our understanding considerably.

Half of soil volume is air and water, 45% is mineral and

ED’S RECOMMENDATIONS, WITH REASONS GIVEN FOR CHOOSING PARTICULAR COMPOST MIXTURES AND FERTILIZERS WERE IMMENSELY USEFUL ESPECIALLY WHEN DEBUNKING A MYTH

5% is organic material. Structure is the combination of mineral content and humus and is different from texture which is determined by particle size. A good loam has balanced particle size and is free draining yet water retentive. Ed’s recommendations, with reasons given for choosing particular compost mixtures and fertilizers were immensely useful especially when debunking a myth or an illogical practice. The course was full of technical instruction including practicals on sowing and pricking out, taking cuttings, staking (stake it before not after the plant falls over, stupid!), deadheading and cutting back in late summer.

We had very good weather over the year. Temperatures ranged from 10-15 degrees up to May and rose to 23-25 degrees in June and July.

Other than on 6th April, when we were all standing by the Long Border at 9am in heavy rain and a chilly breeze not wanting to be the first to show any sign of weakness, it was dry, too dry as we now know. The autumn was exceedingly mild, almost unnaturally so. There was generally little wind, perhaps in part due to the protected position of the garden.

As the course progressed, it became more and more interesting and fun with each day’s attendance, as we all got to know each other. The technical knowledge gained is already proving to be useful, but the hoped-for improvement of artistic judgment will be equally valuable.

The experience of the brilliant instruction in such beautiful surroundings is memorable. ■

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OR AN ILLOGICAL PRACTICE.

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Pages with photographs taken by Pamla Toler in 1985 of the Kitchen from Caroline Conran’s cookbook

ON THE KITCHEN SHELF

When the season ends, my job as a House Tour Guide ends and I can then concentrate more on my other job within the house which is ensuring it is all clean and tidy for guests etc. This year I was asked by Fergus to go through all the cookery books in the kitchen along with my colleague Nicky. All the books on the shelves in the kitchen belonged to Christopher and some were showing signs of wear and tear. We went through all the books and looked for any signs of damage. During our inspection we found many great books, including a 1938 copy of Mrs Beetons book of Household Management! This was in a very sorry state and has now been archived along with several other books in order that they do not deteriorate further. We bought second hand copies of all books archived in order that visitors can see what an eclectic choice of books Christopher Lloyd had. These have a note in them to state they are copies.

One of the books we came across was a cookbook by Caroline Conran, printed in 1985.

In the front of the book was a letter from the publisher addressed to Christopher Lloyd asking if he would like a copy, as it had several photographs of the Great Dixter kitchen in it.

This made for a fascinating insight as to how the kitchen looked in the 1980s. I am hoping to put a few things back to where they were in 1985 for future visitors to see. ■

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by Jo Macleod, House Tour Guide

THE INFLUENCE OF DIXTER IN THE US

MARCO POLO STUFANO Marco Polo Stufano, was the founding director of horticulture at Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center in the Bronx. He is one of the few Americans to have been awarded the prestigious Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticulture Society. He was involved in the early planning stages of the Garden Conservancy in America in 1989 and the Marco Polo Stufano Garden Conservancy Fellowship was named in his honor.

Six legends of horticulture friends describe what Great Dixter means to them.

By Julie Weiss WHAT DOES GREAT DIXTER

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MEAN TO ME?

I visited Great Dixter for the f irst time in 1987. I was totally in awe as never had I seen a garden so f ine an example of the “Art of the Garden.

A superb combination of ref ined plantsmanship and the eye of an artist.

There have been many visits since and the ref inement and excitement go on.

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DONNA RAFTERY

Marco Polo Stufano with Fergus Garrett at Untermeyer Gardens Conser vancy in Yonkers, New York, 2018

BRENT BEATTIE

THOMAS HOBBS Thomas Hobbs, proprietor of Southlands Nursery in Vancouver, Canada, is an internationally known garden and floral designer. His creative and fearless approach to planting and design are evident in his books, Shocking Beauty and Jewel Box Garden, and in his own private garden.

WHAT DOES GREAT DIXTER MEAN TO ME?

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I look at Dixter as a big “Mother Hen”, with her gardening progeny dispersed worldwide. She sits there, all puf fed up and welcomes each one of us back, to be tucked under a wing for our visits. A meaningful hug from Fergus is the portal to a type of garden euphoria that I suspect Christopher Lloyd distributes to a select few... which, for some reason, I know includes me.

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Thomas Hobbs’s garden in Vancouver, Canada

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Edwina’s garden at Marshouse, Long Island, New York.

Her goal is to provide as much wildlife habitat as possible, the most comfort and beauty for people and do the least amount of harm.

WHAT DOES GREAT DIXTER

EDWINA VON GAL Edwina von Gal, creates landscapes with a focus on simplicity and sustainability for private and public clients around the world. In 2013, she founded the Perfect Earth Project to promote toxin-free landscapes for the health of people, their pets, and the planet. Her Two Thirds for the Birds initiative encourages all of us to use 2/3 native plants and no pesticides to help restore the bird population through conscious gardening.

I think it was 1999 when I last visited Great Dixter, with my reluctant husband and without a camera. It was, of course magical, and my memories are probably better than any photos I might have taken. The garden was closed that day, but Fergus, who I had met on a speaking tour, graciously agreed to a visit. I needed no prompting for achieving immediate ecstasy, but Fergus seemingly decided he would need to win over my husband. He asked if we would like to see his favorite spot in the garden at the moment and proceeded to lead us right into the middle of the Long Border. With a glorious riot of plants completely around and above us, we looked out, transf ixed.

Of course, I have since kept an eye out for whatever Fergus was doing – keeping the gardens absolutely fabulous while making Great Dixter an epicenter of learning and teaching, all ecologically informed. All done so well, with a great sense of joy. And, when the 2017-2019 biodiversity audit was published, more joy. Not only did it establish the achievements at Dixter, it resonated here, in my own garden on Long Island, and in ever ything I do, ever ywhere. I am following a dif ferent muse, no longer locked into a color wheel or repeating themes, I let the plants and their consorts decide. The result is a bit of a riot of life, irresistible to all.

In a time of environmental uncertainties, the nature-based approach is a testament to the joys and opportunities that gardening of fers.

Ever ything counts, ever y action, ever y plant, ever y nook and cranny, ever y person. Just pay attention, stay reverent, and a bit irreverent.

Thank you Fergus and Great Dixter.

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INEZ AND VINOODH

MEAN TO ME?

ROBERT JONES

DANIEL J. HINKLEY Daniel J. Hinkley, creator of the garden at Heronswood, is a plantsman, author, teacher, nurseryman, naturalist and gardener. Among his many awards for lifetime achievement, is the prestigious Veitch Memorial Medal from the Royal Horticulture Society. His current garden is the magnificent Windcliff, on Washington State’s Kitsap Peninsula.

WHAT DOES GREAT DIXTER

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MEAN TO ME?

Over the years of welcome and refuge at Christopher’s Dixter, and under his tutelage, and now continuing under the guiding hand of Fergus, this place became my paragon, not just of what a garden could be or what techniques, combinations or successional plantings succeeded or failed, but much more of what it is, more what it should always be, to live unmitigatedly, richly and above all else honestly, as a gardener.

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Opposite, Christo’s last trip to the USA with Fergus.

This page, Dan’s garden, Windclif f, in Washington State.

PANAYOTI KELAIDIS Panayoti Kelaids is a plant explorer, gardener and the Senior Curator and Director of Outreach at the Denver Botanical Gardens, where he has worked for 43 years. He is currently president of the North American Rock Garden Society as well as past president of the American Penstemon Society. He serves on many horticultural boards, and has received numerous prestigious awards.

WHAT DOES GREAT DIXTER

My f irst personal encounter with Dixter was 30 years ago, at the ver y f irst Toronto Great Gardening Conference where Fergus Garrett spoke among a host of other luminaries (I remember John Brookes and Rosemar y Verey shining brightly). I was dazzled by his presentation at that conference! A decade or so elapsed: Christo and Fergus planned a tour to America. Christo had been following the evolution of Denver Botanic Gardens (DBG) and was curious to see what we were up to. Christo’s talk was a sellout: we had glorious sunny weather during the visit, and a deep friendship between Denver Botanic Gardens and Dixter was begun. In 2017 I f inally had the privilege to visit myself.

Where to begin? Most great places one visits sometimes disappoint one’s lofty

expectations—not Dixter, which utterly exceeded my fondest hopes. One spectacular, perfect vista after another, a courtyard f illed with early bulbs, containers brimming with color already in early spring, the elegant manor house appearing dif ferently from ever y view, the potager brimming with lustrous vegetables, the nurser y f illed with treasures, and the “lawns”! I was astounded to see what would have been dull turf at many stately homes transformed into the most intricate, natural and biodiverse meadows f illed with dozens of species of wildflowers I knew had become rare in Britain with inexorable expansion of cityscapes. I frankly was gob-smacked by the whole experience and dream of returning. It is surely the greatest garden of its kind in the world.

BOTH PORTRAITS BY DAN JOHNSON

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MEAN TO ME?

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Top left, Christopher Lloyd in Denver.

Panayoti’s garden, Quince in Colorado

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Margaret’s garden in New York state, “also ser ves teh inf initely larger community of smaller living creatures.”

MARGARET ROACH Margaret Roach, who writes the In the Garden column for The New York Times, is the creator of the website and award-winning podcast A Way to Garden, and a book of the same name. She has been a garden writer for more than 30 years, and was Editorial Director of Martha Stewart’s magazines, books and website. She lives and gardens in the Hudson Valley, New York.

Anyone who knows it, knows this: Dixter is indelible.

My f irst visit was 30 years ago, but I still remember each new-to-me plant I met. Kniphof ia screamed from the Long Border; Verbena bonariensis (long before it became a go-to for American gardeners) bloomed madly in the former Rose Garden. Paris polyphylla was positively extra-terrestrial looking in the Walled Garden.

But the most signif icant and prescient “f irst” from that trip: This was where I saw horticulture and habitat really connect, as my eye and then my whole self were drawn from within the formal areas to wander paths mown in wilder grassy meadows beyond.

Too often today I hear discussion about excellence in horticulture and adherence to ecological principles as if they are either/or—as if there is tension between a plantsman’s garden with strong design that a human will admire, and one that also ser ves the inf initely larger community of smaller living creatures.

Dixter to me is the highest example of a place doing both. So if I hear, “But wild stuf f doesn’t work in my garden aesthetic…,” I reply by talking about this unforgettable place.

That silences them. ■

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ERICA BERGER

WHAT DOES GREAT DIXTER MEAN TO ME?

MEMORIES OF DIXTER

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By Patrick Bates

Patrick Bates is from a gardening family.

When he took up his post as a consultant surgeon in 1973 in Nottingham he acquired a lovely site but derelict streamlined garden and was attracted and stimulated by Christo’s witty and intelligent writings which turned into a lasting friendship and love of Dixter which he has visited for many years.

I got to know Christo through his weekly articles in Country Life. These were so entertaining and informative that my parents gave my wife the annual subscription for Christmas every year after we moved to our house and garden in Nottingham in 1973.

In these articles he commented on gardens he had stayed at on his annual motoring holiday to Scotland. Noticing this I wrote to him c/o Country Life offering a meal and bed for the night on his next trip as we lie halfway between the A1 and M1 heading north. To our great surprise and joy he came the next summer. Although our garden was hardly started he was polite about the quality of the soil (heavily cracked clay) judging by the strong growth of weeds round the ungainly standard pelargoniums I had rather proudly brought up with me. He made kind remarks about our ageing but still greedy Beagle dog and of course typically insisted we come and stay at Dixter. We thereafter exchanged visits each year if holidays didn’t clash.

These visits were the greatest inspiration for the development of our garden added to by reading each of his books as they came out starting with the classic and still much referred to Well

recovering from major surgery (he never missed a week in forty years). One described and discussed critically the planting in a courtyard he could see from his bedroom window in hospital and another after his triple bypass operation he described in detail and with great erudition an exotic bouquet of flowers sent from Harrods by his vet, also a very good friend. I also remember the article he wrote at the end of 1993 when he noted what a wonderful year he had had at Dixter thanks largely to Fergus Garrett coming as his head gardener.

He then philosophied on the different values of traditions and innovation, youth and its energy.

His other gift which I valued greatly was as a letter writer. He wrote over a thousand letters a year. If something was exciting or perhaps of interest I would write about it and his replies often gave interesting gems from his own garden.

There were always features of interest and original ideas to think about at Dixter. Before Fergus arrived it was not always in perfect condition as it has been for the last twenty years. It was a real joy on a visit this November to see that while there were changes and the garden was closing down for autumn, there was a band of young enthusiasts working away on exciting bedding for next spring.

As always in the time of Christo I came away with a boot full of interesting plants and thoughts for improving the garden next year. A truly memorable visit.

All looks well for the future of Dixter. ■

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Tempered Garden. The visits to Dixter were always a treat. The first thing I learned was when a fellow visitor asked him the name of a plant, he said I won’t tell you unless you have a notebook as you will never remember it.

I never went to any garden without my notebook after that.

You never knew who you would meet on these visits. One year when I went with my wife we were left alone with another guest on the terrace before lunch with the standard bottle of champagne in the ice bucket while he went to collect an ageing neighbour who he thought needed a good meal. We had lively conversation but it became clear that our fellow guest really didn’t know Christo nor was interested in gardening.

After a few minutes my wife who was much better read than me said you are the Professor of poetry at Oxford which he confessed was true. He must have attracted Christo’s attention perhaps from some article he wrote. I met many wonderful people from all walks of life, young and old. On another visit there was a lovely melody from the piano drifting out of the open window as I walked up the path to that classic front door.

Each week we turned greedily to his article in Country Life. A famous one I remember entitled the anaemic garden tried (without success but with considerable wit) to extol the virtue of blending pale pinks and blues. Two outstanding examples of his knowledge and skill were those he wrote while

THE AGES OF GREAT DIXTER

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By James Cavanagh

The world of Great Dixter opened up for me just as the building firm contracted to build our family home in London closed down leaving our family homeless in the early 1970s. Good fortune and an obliging estate agent led us to a tiny cottage on Lomas Lane in Sandhurst. My four siblings and I were soon to be found scrumping apples and marvelling at the alien rhythms of the rural community that existed in that secluded part of the High Weald.

Our parents, both GPs, took turns commuting up to London to keep the practice going while the other was left to entertain five increasingly feral achildren in what was a tiny cottage. The surrounding orchards and mysterious old barns framed by the huge views so characteristic of the High Weald filled up the week days but it was at the weekend when the whole family could go out to explore the local villages looking for places the

children could be set free. This, I think, is when the usefulness of large gardens combined with our parents’ deep fascination with plants led us to start looking for places to spend the days.

There was always Sissinghurst, which was much loved and respected like a Great Aunt, but then there was Great Dixter, the illicit lover with wild hair and hidden delights all dressed in richly textured and highly coloured robes.

So began what has been a lifelong relationship with a place my father described as “Eden made real”. The picnic hamper would be filled and various rugs squashed into the yellow Volvo estate in between the over excited children. We would roll down the hill, over the River Rother on the small but steep bridge that made our tummys tickle, while Dad explained once again that “King Henry had his battle ships built here”. Turning right before the sweet shop in Northian we would climb the hill and roll down the tree lined lane to arrive in a chaotic pile of noise. Traditionally we would be tempted to explore via a concocted treasure hunt. Sweets would be hidden under various benches and at the base of certain trees. Our little gang were then let loose to hunt them down while our parents sat on one bench or other and rested listening to five children running around the paths

ONCE OUR OWN CHILDREN CAME ALONG WE WERE BACK TO TREASURE HUNTS, PICNICS IN THE CAR PARK, TOO MANY PLANTS FOR A SMALL CAR, THE PROMISE OF A STOP FOR FISH AND CHIPS ON THE WAY HOME.

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and stairways calling to each other as sweets were found. I am sure we were told off , probably by “Mr Lloyd” himself , but we learnt the paths and hidden places of “Dixter” and that mind map remains, allowing for brief visits in my imagination as and when they are needed. At the end of the day, we would be crammed back into the car now filled with plants for our tiny garden with the promise of a stop for fish and chips on the way home.

How does a place become an emotional touchstone during a lifetime?

In my case it is the ability Great Dixter and its people have had to offer what was needed during all the different phases of five and a half decades of a life lived.

There was the sanctuary and mystery of the garden when we were children seeking refuge in between homes. Then as a teenager it was a secret place to take friends when somewhere special was needed as a respite from the city. As a junior doctor it became a place whose beauty and peace lived in my imagination as an aspirational sanctuary during long shifts in busy NHS hospitals. Occasionally I would manage to get away for the day to simply sit on a favourite bench and enjoy the familiar sounds and enveloping beauty. A mental balm to sooth a mind struggling with the challenges those first years of any career present. Later and joyfully it became a place to court my wife Louise.

Irrefutable evidence that this gangly man could make good on a promise of “Eden made real”. Then it became “our place” where we could go and lose ourselves in the constantly evolving seasons of colour, creativity and interest that define Great Dixter to those who love gardens.

Once our own children came along we were back to treasure hunts, picnics in the car park, too many plants for a small car, the promise of a stop for fish and chips on the way home. Then the delightful conversations about new plants and ingenious planting schemes that filled the trip back home as the kids slept in the car .

During the dark days of COVID it was the promise of lectures from Fergus! Always generous with advice when bumped into on a pathway in the gardens, we were now gifted his company at a time when any sense of normality seemed miraculous. I am sure I am not alone in having been rather emotional when he appeared on our screens in his distinctive gardening clothes and woolly hat to explain how intelligent applications of mulch can help annuals add depth and length to a border or how foliage can be used to add mystery. Yes, the knowledge was immensely valuable, but simply knowing he and all those others who make up “Dixter” were safe and still out there and would be there when the madness ended was as good a promise as the smell of rain on parched soil.

THERE WAS ALWAYS SISSINGHURST, WHICH WAS MUCH LOVED AND RESPECTED LIKE A GREAT AUNT, BUT THEN THERE WAS GREAT DIXTER, THE ILLICIT LOVER WITH WILD HAIR AND HIDDEN DELIGHTS ALL DRESSED IN RICHLY TEXTURED AND HIGHLY COLOURED ROBES.

More memories beckon. Our gardens at home and around the practice are filled with reminders of our trips to the nursery and the wise advice given by the team there. Patients and neighbours ask about the planting and if pressed I am glad to explain the usefulness of the long flowering erigeron annuus or the delight that comes from mixing thalictrum elin with ferula communis (planted in groups of three one year apart to guarantee a good show each year).Some days when working with parents worn down by the pressures of modern life I will suggest a different sort of prescription. Why not load the kids in the car , squeeze in a picnic hamper and some rugs , roll over the small bridge at Newenden, turn right at the fish and chip shop in Northian and enter a world of charming, timeless and ever-changing beauty. Having this knowledge to share is a gift I was handed by my parents and is one I hope my own children will share with others as they too learn about the ages of Dixter. ■

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Has much changed over these many years? The changes have been few but well judged. A dodgy coffee machine replaced by a tasteful outdoor cafe rather than a modern building all glass and plastic trays. A mission to educate has been robustly built on.

The team has seen new extraordinary horticulturists broaden the aspects and interests of the Dixter family.

More meadows and orchids, longer and more varied seasons of display.

The serious study of biodiversity and a modest acceptance of the mantle of a leader in the area of sustainability and the principle of working in harmony with nature rather than trying to dominate it. An ethos of maintaining and enhancing through the preservation of old practices rather than replacing and dominating with the new. All this bringing a sense of being closer to natural wildness rather than further away. The breathtaking beauty , romanticism and mystery of the gardens and house remain. The wooden gates I push open or walk through in parts of the garden are the same ones I ran through as a child looking for hidden sweets. Just as the compost heaps I surreptitiously climbed in the 70s are now (against my strict instructions) being climbed illegally by my children. All much the same but now with decades of personal memories. Enhanced by age like those wooden gates.

So now we continue as before.

CHAIRMAN’S REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2021-2022

STRATEGIC REPORT: ACHIEVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE As we entered the start of the 2021/2022 fiscal year we still faced restrictions as a result of the Covid pandemic. However, new ways of working had been developed and these continued until restrictions eased as the year progressed.

Providing horticultural education is central to the work of Great Dixter and this continued throughout the pandemic.

Although attendance at on-site courses

The Great Dixter Charitable Trust

and workshops was affected, zoom lectures

(“GDCT”) has completed another year of

continued to be offered with tremendous

ownership and management of the Great

take-up and a wide international audience.

Dixter Estate and its operations.

Over 4000 people attended zoom lectures in 2021. The scholars and trainees

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

continued to live on site and learn the

The GDCT was created to ensure the

Dixter methods. Their commitment and

conservation of the Great Dixter Estate and

enthusiasm was exemplary. Sadly, for another

public access to the House and Gardens as

year work experience and volunteering

developed and maintained by the family of

young gardeners were not able to stay at

Christopher Lloyd for almost 100 years.

Great Dixter, they were greatly missed.

The GDCT will ensure that Great

Symposiums were able to continue from

Dixter remains open to visitors, that

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the House and Gardens are conserved

October 2021.

Work to support biodiversity continued.

and kept in good order fitting with their

Meadows were cut with care, wildlife

character and significance, and that the

habitats were created, environments were

horticultural ethos of Christopher Lloyd is

protected and every opportunity was taken

sustained and celebrated in all its dynamism

to share this work with others. Ecologists

and biodiversity and that Great Dixter

visited and monitored the garden and wider

represents a “mecca” for training and

estate and continued to be amazed by their

education.

findings. The Dixter ponds were included in

The Trustees have complied with the

an audit of local ponds - comparing Victorian

duty in section 4 of the 2006 Act, having due

maps to current day. New species were

regard to the Charity Commissions guidance

recorded in the garden.

on public benefit.

As summer arrived the House re-opened

and the rich archive continued to be shared

new courtyard gardens.

In October the Trust became an official

with others. Despite having to cancel the

member of Business Declares, the fast

Spring Plant Fair we welcomed visitors to

growing network of organisations who

a July Plant Fair, a first for Dixter, followed

acknowledge the climate and ecological

swiftly by the traditional Autumn Plant Fair.

emergency and work to address the many

The Christmas Fair took place in November

issues that we all face. This will enable

with large numbers of visitors and varied and

Dixter to review its efforts to become more

talented stallholders. Both the plant and

sustainable alongside people with shared

Christmas fairs allow us to welcome visitors

values and objectives.

while providing support to other small businesses.

Despite the pandemic restrictions many improvements were taking place behind

Christopher Lloyd was born in 1921

the scenes, thanks to the generosity of the

and we continue to mark his unparalleled

Heritage Lottery Fund and Government

contribution to horticulture. One of the

funding through the DCMS. Additional

ways we marked this anniversary in 2021

benches and tables appeared across the

was the formation of Centenary Friends of

estate, a viewing platform was built above

Great Dixter, an initiative which helped to

Four Acre Shaw to allow glimpses into the

support Dixter through these exceptional

woodland. Improvements were made to

times. As part of the celebrations the Sixth

facilities for visitors and plants. Less visible

Christopher Lloyd Lecture, postponed from

changes included the introduction of an

2020, was given by our Patron, Anna Pavord.

EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) system for

Great Dixter was able to carry on with

the Nursery and Shop .We were fortunate

much of its work in the local community.

to receive a further grant in 2021 from

Fergus continued to support local initiatives

Government’s Culture Recovery Fund for

including a programme to promote better

Heritage for which we are so grateful .

management of roadside verges within

Visitor numbers have certainly

the Rother District and helped to secure

been affected but despite restrictions

funding to turn Hastings into a Green

Dixter welcomed 41,879 visitors in 2021

Garden Town with biodiverse planting,

compared to 51,024 in 2019, but a definite

sustainable urban drainage systems, verges

improvement from the figure in 2020 when

and green spaces managed for biodiversity.

there were only 19,119

Great Dixter wants to play its part in

Once again we are immensely grateful for

supporting urban greening and urban

the support we have received from Friends

ecology and has continued its contact with

which has allowed us to continue to care

people working in this field. Dixter scholars

for Great Dixter and to teach, share and

also offered help to the local hospital to

welcome others. ■

produce planting and maintenance plans for

87 / GREAT DIXTER JOURNAL 2022

to visitors with restricted visitor numbers

THE GREAT DIXTER CHARITABLE TRUST (REGISTERED NUMBER 07181964) STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES (INCORPORATING AN INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 ST MARCH 2022 Unrestricted funds £

Restricted funds £

INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM Donations and legacies

345,490

Charitable activities Admissions income Projects

349,274 23,504

Other trading activities Investment income Other income

722,341 73 74,947

TOTAL

1,515,629

88 / GREAT DIXTER JOURNAL 2022

EXPENDITURE ON Raising funds Other trading activities 592,797 Raising donations and legacies 30,660

623,457 Charitable activities Projects 25,421 Charitable activities 916,151 Governance 12,863

Total 2022 £

Total 2021 £

7,284

352,774

585,676

276,942

349,274 300,446

173,495 239,336

13

722,341 86 74,947

472,624 323 238,866

284,239

1,799,868

1,710,320

13,853

606,650 30,660

445,185 34,405

13,853

637,310

479,590

171,653 8,235

197,074 924,386 12,863

123,307 912,392 11,518

TOTAL

1,577,892

193,741

1,771,633

1,526,807

NET INCOME (EXPENDITURE) Transfers between funds Net movement in funds

(62,263) 8,861 (53,402)

90,498 (8,861) 81,637

28,235

183,513

28,235

183,513

RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS Total funds brought forward

3,492,018

5,032,562

8,524,580

8,341,067

TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD

3,438,616

5,114,199

8,552,815

8,524,580

This is a summary of information extracted from the annual accounts on behalf of the trustees. These summarised accounts may not contain sufficient information to allow for a complete understanding of the financial affairs of the charity. For further information, the full annual accounts and the auditors’ report should be consulted. Copies of these can be obtained from Great Dixter, Northiam, Rye, East Sussex, TN31 6PH. The annual accounts were approved by the trustees on 2nd July 2022.

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION AT 31ST MARCH 2022

2022 £

2021 £

416,005 6,944,065

416,479 6,903,603

CURRENT ASSETS Stocks Debtors: amounts falling due within one year Cash at bank and in hand

7,360,070

7,320,082

110,730 93,700 1,293,846

114,916 34,127 1,318,118

CREDITORS Amounts falling due within one year

1,498,276

1,467,161

(305,531)

(262,663)

NET CURRENT ASSETS

1,192,745

1,204,498

TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES

8,552,815

8,524,580

NET ASSETS

8,552,815

8,524,580

FUNDS Unrestricted funds General fund 100,000 Capitalised funds 2,505,902 Christo’s Fund 389,488 Angel Fund 379,791 Arcadia Fund Veg wages fund 7,964 FG 25 year fund 55,470

100,000 2,505,902 389,453 379,756 83,333 8,378 25,196

FIXED ASSETS Tangible assets Heritage assets

Restricted funds Meadow Project Fund Gardeners Fund Christopher Lloyd Bursary Christopher Lloyd Scholarship US Scholarship Fund Biodiversity Fund Richard and Brenda Young Fund Projects fund Caiger-Smith Collection Fund Borun Scholarship Fund Capitalised funds

3,438,615

3,492,018

736 6,062 3,584 568 13,282 30,741 1,852 362,988 48,000 21,021 4,625,366

531 2,063 6,239 12,502 13,280 37,218 1,852 253,045 48,000 21,021 4,636,811

5,114,200

5,032,562

TOTAL FUNDS

8,552,815

8,524,580

CLUB 22 The following donors secured the UK Christopher Lloyd Scholarship for the next four years from September 2022 Patrick Bates Marian Boswall Viscountess Boyd Trust (Cornwall Community Trust) Prof Martin Brown Louise Cartledge Finnis Scott Foundation Nicola Freshwater Annette and John Hampshire David Harrison (in memory of Penelope Harrison) Griff and Sally Holliday Lady Mary Keen F J Mayor Prof John and Stella Nicholls The Rev Howard Norton James O’Connell Dan Pearson Studio Hilary Smith Liz Winant

90 / GREAT DIXTER JOURNAL 2023

THE CENTENARY FRIENDS 2021-2031 Kate Adams; Dr Dinah Badcock; Virginia and Andrew Best; Margaret and Kenneth Bird; Marian Boswall; Dr Nigel Bowles; Charlie and Arabella Bridge; Dr James Cavanagh; Jo Williamson and Nick Chitty; Dr Adrian Cooper; Cyndy Cromwell; Doris, Leonard and Nicolaas De Causmaecker; Cristina and Chips Emslie; Catherine Fewlass; Ann Finlayson; Helen Hazelwood; Jean

Lebrecht; John Lunn; Ashley Luke; Sarah Macpherson; Greg Moga; Dr Michael Monaghan; Penelope Moore; Dr Don Nichols; Henrietta Norman; Sarah Norris; James O’Connell; Susanne Osmond; Linda Parker; Gail Pinder; Jo Sams; Jane Segar; Anthony Shamash; Lorna Shearin; Janet Sleep; Cathy Smith; Elizabeth Smith; Marian St Clair; Linda Stewart; Margery Thomas; Debra Todd; Charlie Twite; Dr Riet van Bremen; The Rev Dr Andrew Walker; Dirk Wiemer; Sarah and Matthew Wilkinson; Jane Winch; John and Dr Linde Wotton; Christine and Tim Youngman The Christopher Lloyd Bursary was launched at the first Plant Fair in October 2010 since when it has enabled many young gardeners to attend conferences, go on field trips or visit horticultural establishments. The following nurseries gave a percentage of their takings: Australasian Plant Society Binny Plants Beth Chatto Nursery Cotswold Garden Flowers Daisy Roots Dyson’s Nurseries Edulis John French Tools Hardys Cottage Garden Plants Hoyland Julian Reed (Plant Heritage) Jurassic King John’s Nursery Lime Cross Nurser y Madrona Miles Japanese Maples Monksilver Nursery No Name Nurser y Organic Bulbs Bruton Pelham Plants Pineview Plants Plantman’s Preference Plant Base Pottertons Henry Pryer Rother view Nurser y Special Plants Wildegoose Nurser y Zophian

Thanks are extended to The Chanticleer Board, R W (Bill) Thomas and all working in that remarkable garden and organisation who have funded, and continue to fund, the Chanticleer US Christopher Lloyd Scholar program.

Thanks to the Harry H and Anna Borun Foundation for sponsoring the Ruth Borun Scholar since 2019 and on to 2026. Ruth Borun was a friend of Christopher Lloyd who visited her garden in Los Angeles back in the ‘70s and wrote about it in his book Other People’s Gardens. She died in May 2018 and her husband Dr Raymond Borun came from Los Angeles to Great Dixter later that year, aged 100 years old; with daughter Amy Ruth.

Thanks to Frank and Linda Smith of Memphis for their deep and unconditional giving from the beginning, making possible elements that keep Dixter special and recently enabling Carol Joughin to extend her role of Company Secretary to work with Fergus on fundraising.

Linda was on one of the first symposia and is now a member of the North American Friends board.

Thanks to the Anne H Bass Foundation for their continued magnanimity in memory of Anne H Bass.

Julie Weiss (Board member of the NAFoGD and compiler of the US section in this Journal) writes: “I became obsessed with gardening while working as a magazine designer with a rooftop garden in New York.

Anne Bass encouraged me to visit Dixter, introducing me to Fergus on my very first visit, which changed my life!”

91 / GREAT DIXTER JOURNAL 2023

FERGUS GARRETT

Thanks to Donna Raftery and Vincent Inconiglios of New York City for their amazing generosity of time, funding and hospitality over the years. Donna was on one of the first symposia with Christopher Lloyd and is now Vice President of the North American Friends of Great Dixter.

THE GREAT DIXTER CHARITABLE TRUST OWES SO MUCH TO THE GENEROSITY OF THE FOLLOWING DONORS, WITHOUT WHOM SO MUCH OF ITS WORK WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE:

BEQUESTS AND LEGACIES A magnificent legacy was received from House Guide Prue Crawshay-Williams (1930-2021). A steady, witty hand on the tiller, her love of history and her ability to find the essence of the people of Dixter.

She worked until she was almost 90.

In memory of Christine Richards, who considered Great Dixter “heaven on earth”, from daughter Emma Simper, her family and friends.

TRUSTS AND MAJOR DONORS Lund Trust, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin Jeremy and Elizabeth Hosking Cornwall Community Trust The Elaine and Angus Lloyd Charitable Trust Finnis Scott Foundation Hartnett Conservation Trust The Culture Recovery Fund

Fergus with scholars: Rob Flack, Theo Charnley, Coralie Thomas Ben Jones, Luke Senior Andrew Wiley, Madelaine LeDew

United States of America Terrie Andrews Dr Marla Angermeier Agatha Barclay The Anne H Bass Foundation Grace Bates Peter Bevacqua and Stephen King Alice Bickers Kristin Biddle Steve and Liz Brandon Eleanor Briggs Gioia BrowneBrenda Buras Elsen Andy and Amy Burnes Cecilia Byrne Schmidt Linda Cobb Nancy Connell Mary Cooper Tom Cooper Kathleen Crowley C Edward Davidson Susan Drews Henr y B du Pont Smith Smith Dawn Fischer David Fox Katherine Freund Linda and Don Fuller Michael B Gordon Pria Graves and George Koerner Amy Grotland Maria Gutierrez John Gwynne and Mikel Folcarelli Kennon and Molly Hampton Leslie Harris The Harr y H and

United Kingdom Bridget Adam George Agnew Sigrid Aiken Rosemar y Alexander Sandra Alexander Ann Allen Elizabeth Allen Margaux Allfrey Jolana Amara Caroline Anderson-Jones David Archer Jane Archutowska Gavin Arendt Gabrielle Argent Jennifer Ashby Eve Ashley Frances Ashlin Gerti Ashton Paula Atkins Carol Atkinson Oliver Autret Mar ylyn Bacon Jane Bailey Jane Baker Christina Baldock Alex Balfour Brian Banks Roy Barker Benjamin Barnard Peter and Lesley Barrett Simon Basey Patrick Bates Yvonne Bates Karen Beams Michael Beanland Patricia Beattie Dee Beecroft Sarah Beeson-Jones John and Sue Beeston Christine Bell Lucy Bell Sussie Bell Michael and Linda Belton Nick Benef ield Tim and Diane Bentley Sally Berkeley Gill Beveridge Kenneth and Margaret Bird Susan Birthwright

Andrew Boddington Michele Bolt Fiona Booth Wendy Booth Marian Boswall Paul Boucher Alison Bovill Barbara Bovington Dr Nigel Bowles The Viscountess Alice Boyd Winifred Boyd William Bracewell Annie Bradber y Fiona Bradley Sue Branson Colin Brazier Jill Briggs Colin Brazier Charlie Bridge Carol Britton Linda Brockas Andrew Brodrick Elizabeth Brook Alice Brosnahan Carolyn Brown Prof Martin and Dr Sue Brown Mike Brown Mary Bruce Marion Brunt Ian Buckley Peter Bullock Cathy Burczak Emma Burrill Brian and Philippa Burrough Alison Burrows Ethel Butler Adrian Butler-Manuel Valerie Butt Sarah Caffyn Stephen Campbell John Cammegh Anna Canetty-Clarke Ronald Carless Sally Carr Janie Carruthers Lynne Carruthers Peter Carter Louise Cartledge John Case Sheila Cather James Cavanagh Peter Chadwick Fiona Chapman Irene Chapman Jon Charge Dr Marilyn Charlesworth Carole Child Antonia Chitty Jill Christison Dr Judith Clark Lord Anthony Clarke Frances Claydon Frankie Cleary Judy Cligman James Cloote Brian Cole Sally Cole Dawn Cole Julie Coley Sean Collins Julie Collins-Wood Richard Collisson Cynthia Colston Amanda Connolly Dr A Conway David Cook Harriet Cook Daria Cook Danny Coope Dr Adrian and Samantha Cooper Gary Coppins Julia Corden Cathy Corneille Victoria and Peter Costain Sarah-Jane Covey Ingrid Cowley Alena Cox Kate Cox Christine Cozic Charlotte Crabtree Stephen Crisp Dr Ashley Crosthwaite Susan Crouch Tessa Crowe David and Hazel Cruickshank Colin Curl Gina Cuthbertson Pauline Davies Dawne Davis Paul Dawdr y Janet Dawes Anthony Dawson Christine Dawon John Deacon Dr Joel Posthuma de Boer Sally de la Warr Amicia de Moubray Angela Delf Alex Denman Tina Devereux Andrew Dewdney Alana Diamond Stephen Dickens Alex Diebel Monique Dix John Dixon Pip Dodd Victoria Dodds Kate Domash Stephanie Donaldson Ian Donovan Elspeth Dougall Janet Downes Helen Dowsey Susan Duff Rachel Duf f ield Susan Dulley Brenda Dunn M L Durrell Jacqueline Dyche Alan Easterby Diane Eccles Anne-

93 / GREAT DIXTER JOURNAL 2022

Anna Borun Trust Nancy Heckler Susan Hering James Hess and Robert Herald Anna Hillen Heather and Glenn Hilliard Ian and Madeleine Hooper Heidi Hughey A Jacobstein Jane Jones Sid Jones Jon Kaplan Sabra Kelley Judith Kramer Addie and Ted Kurz Serena and Paul Kusserow Bruce Lamka Dr Kyle Landt Gregor y Long Troy Marden John Marksbur y Charlotte Mathey Katherine Moore Carolyn Mullet Diane Newbur y Ilona Ontscherenski Christie Peck Alejandro Prigollini Donna Rafter y and Vincent Inconiglios Daniel Wilson Randle Gail Rapson Cleo Raulerson Alice Reilly Jim Reilly Judy Rife Frank and Sally Rue Dorien Ruijs Elisabeth Saint-Amand Marian Simmons-StClair Cathy Smith Frank and Linda Smith Nancy Sweet Martha Toppin Kevin Travis Eliot Wadsworth Deborah Wagner Louise and Chuck Weed Julie Weiss Marianne Willburn Irene Williams Julie Witmer. Canada Roger and Janice Barton Geoffrey Dyer Bill and Jacqui Jef fers Mary McBride Donna McCrae Mike Monaghan.

Australia Dr Doug and Charmaine McEachern.

France Olivia Eller. Germany Manfred Klotzsch Ulrike Kreidt-Schanzenbach Michael Martens.

The Netherlands Josine Bakker. Sweden Jennie Elfstrom. Switzerland Nicole Newmark.

94 / GREAT DIXTER JOURNAL 2022

Marie Edgell David Edwards Susan Elford Roger Elias Olivia Eller Anne Ellis Prof Katharine Ellis Neil Ellis David England Lesley Etherton Doug Evans Val Evans Richard Everson Maire Fahey Catherine Farr Alison Farthing Elizabeth Faure Walker Alice Favell Kenyon Aloysius Fekete Sher yl Feniger Linda Findley Jane Finlay Anne Finlayson Ann Fitsell Joanne Foakes Nigel and Lorraine Ford Antony Forwood Tim Fosberr y Dr John Foster Lucinda Fouch Fiona Fox Gaye Fox Thomas Fox Lesley Francis Andrew Franklin Tara Franklin Nicola Freshwater and Andrew Parkinson Michael Freyone Barbara Frost Dr Barbara Fulton Ian Fyfe Clive Galbraith Caroline Garland Karina Garrick Fiona Gault Clare Gethin Deborah Ghate Diana Gibbons John Gilbert Dr Barr y Giles Marion Goddard Siobhan Godfrey-Cass Debbie Goldsmith Frances Gorringe Catherine Graham Susan Gray Alan and Wilson Greasley Anthony Green Dr Maureen Green Shelagh Green Mike Greenhalgh Veronica Greenwood Sally Gregson Richard Grieve Catherine Griffiths Linda Guest Brigit Gunz Annabelle Haberkorn Carol Hagland Dorothy Halfhide Douglas Hamilton Amanda Hammond John and Annette Hampshire Sue Harbottle-Sear Diana Hare Dr Carolyn Hargreaves Stuart and Linda Harland James and Sarah Harmer Hon Geraldine Harmsworth Lyn Harris David Harrison Lorraine Harrison Richard Harvey Lindsay Hasell Sue Hatt Moira Hatton Bernard Hawes Rachel Hay Catherine Hayes Fisher Sarah Hayes Fisher Stephen Hazell-Smith Michael Heap Emily Heard Monica Henriquez Michael Hes Nicola Hilliard Jo Hillier Jill Hitchcock Susan Hodgson Patricia Hold Brian Holdstock Grif f and Sally Holliday Louise Holliday Janet Hollins Frank Holloway Sylvia Holmes Dr Catherine Horwood Barwise Jeremy Hosking Michael Hughes Martin Hulbert John Hull Dee Hur ford Judy Hutchings Christopher and Robin Hutt Judy Illman Elaine Jackson Annie James Caroline James Hilli Janes Kr ysia Januszczyk Sandra Jenkins Susan Johns Angus Johnson Jane Johnson Janet Johnson Jennifer Johnson Dr Paul Jones Nicola Jones

William Jones Lara Jukes Rita Kandela Suzanne Keeble Lady Mary Keen Tim Kendall and Flo Whitaker Peter and Lesley Kennedy Helen Kenny Caroline Kent Joanna Kent Julia Kerr Helen Keys Susan Keyte Andrew Khosravani Jane Kilpatrick Gyr King Janette King Rosemar y King Gareth Kinsella Philippa Kinsey Hugh Kirby Rita Kirk Larissa Knepper Meri Knights Julian Knott Antony and Zarrina Kurtz Victor Kutsenko Rosemar y Laidlaw-Waller Olivia Laing Kathy Lamoon Mark Lane Elaine Langham Kathryn Langridge Sheena Laver y Jon Lawrence Tam Lawson Stephen Leach Clare Leahy Margot Leahy Fiona Leathers Rod Leeds John Lees Kathleen Leighton Margaret Leighton Rebecca Lemonius Penelope Leslie Richard Levett Graham Lewis Sarah Lindsay John Little Jane Livesey Graham Lloyd-Brunt Lady Margaret Lockett Jane Lockwood Frances Lord Jane Lorimore Carolyn Lovell Julian Luckett and Judith O’Connor John Lunn Carol Machell Monika Machon Patricia Macmullan Sarah Macpherson Hilar y Magee Jon W Mager Sarah Mahurter Shirley Maile Anthony Mair Charles Maisey Jane Maitland Hudson Prof Anthony Mallet Rachel Malpas Sophie Mancais Barbara Marceau Trevor Marlow Gar y Marriott J Marshall Dennis and Judy Marshall Nancy Marten Godfrey Martin Sara Martin Sue Martin Anne Masefield Harriet Mason Peter Masters Rick Mather and David Crase Luke Mather Hugh Maxwell F James Mayor Quentin McCabe Kendra McConnell John McCutchan Harriet McGill Annamarie McKie Stephanie McMahon Chris McNaughton Nicola Mehdi Gordon Melvin Barty Meredith-Hardy Gar y Mewis Shirley Meyer John Middleton Michael Miller Ralph Miller Virginia Millington Charlotte and Donald Molesworth Sharon Moncur Anthea Moore Ede Glyn Moore Liz Moore Valerie Moore Wanda Moore Wendy Moore Anne MooreBick Fiona and Simon Mortimore Judith Mosely Christine Moulder Jennifer Mountford Jenny Mowatt Amanda Mozley Christine Muddiman Hilar y Mundella John Murdoch Elizabeth Murray Stephen Myatt Michael Naris Elizabeth Nash

Elliott Smedley Anne Smith Hilar y Smith Melvin Smith Maggie Smith Martyn Smith Marion Spain Nigel Spalding and Anthony Wilson David Spence Lynne Spon-Smith Margaret Springbett Sylvia Stanbridge Jane Steen Valerie Stephens Kate Steven Lynda Stevens Liz Stevenson Alan Stewart Linda Stewart Dr Kim Stillman Jean Stock Sally Stockwell Caroline Stone Susan Stoodley Susan Stradling Kate Straus Justine Stringer Jonathan Strong Robert Stuart Tom Stuart-Smith Janet Sullivan John Sullivan Jonathan Sunley Anthony Sutton Rosemar y Swainson Jane Swift Sarah Syborn Jennifer Tait Nicola Talbot Ian and Kathy Taphouse Brian Tattersf ield Debbie Taussig Vivienne Taylor-Gee Andrew Templeton Rodger Terrell Jake Thomas Matthew Thomas Kevin Thompson Norman Thompson Susan Thompson Sally Thorne Mary Thorp Chloe Thurston Jean Tilby Graham Tippen Claire Tolliday Jude Torrance Colin and Laura Towns Pi Townsend Felicity Truscott Jane Tuckley Sarah Turner Penny Twiggs Yvonne Underhill Kathryn van Howe Vija Vilcins Michael Voice Carolyn Waite Ray and Margaret Waite Dr Martyn Wake Jenifer Wakelyn Angela Walker Peter Walker Rosanna Walker The Rev Dr Andrew Walker Deborah Walsh Debbie Ward Hugo Warner Sarah Warren Lady Georgie Wates Cara Jane Watkins Merrill Watson Sally Watson Nigel Watts Melanie Weatherall Catherine Weaver Amanda Webb Gillian Webb-Wilson Ian Webster Della Weight Nigel Wellard Cleve West Bryony White Clare White R G White Susan Whitehead H Whitehill Joe Whitf ield Terry Whiting Dirk Wiemer Shirley Wiggs Julia Wigglesworth Deborah Wilcock Patricia Wilkie Samantha Wilkins Helen Williams Marilyn Williams Patricia Williams Rosie Williams Victoria Williams Jim Williamson Sarah Wilson Elizabeth Winant Linda Windebank Diane Wiseman Richard Wolfe Alex Wood Annabel Wood Elizabeth Wood Nicola Wood Stephan Work John and Linde Wotton Stephanie Wright Peter and Elzabeth Wylie Patricia Yates Mark Yearsley Paul Youlten Alan Young Andrew Young Kim Zanes ■

95 / GREAT DIXTER JOURNAL 2022

Ann Naylor Charles Neal Alan Newnham Dr Don Nichols Stella Nicholls Hope Nicholson Rev Howard Norton Ian Notman Ann Novotny Julia Nunneley Hugh Nye Andrew O’Brien James and Michele O’Connell Eilis O’Donnell Lynette O’Halloran Tessa Oldaker Simon Oliphant Mark O’Neill Colin Page Emma Page Simon Palmer Anthony Parker Frank and Anne Parker Dr Linda Parker Pennie Parker Stephen Parker Rhoda Parr y Annie Patch Janet Pattison Ronald Pattison Wim Pauwels Mary Jane Payne Mike and Tricia Peak Dan Pearson Michael Pearson Philippa Pearson Elizabeth Penn John Perkins Selina Perr y Paola and Simon Pieroni Richard and Gail Pinder Michael Pitcher Roger Platts Jeremy Pletts Sylvia Pocock Lynne Pomfret Wendy Poole Benjamin Pope Christopher and Sarah Pope Joel Posthuma de Boer Mar y Potter Philip Potter Max Powling Jane Preece Kirsten Prichard-Jones Jane and Gary Priddis Karin Proudfoot Tim Radford Amanda Rainger Christine Rampling Chris Ramsden Gary Randall Andrew and Sarah Ratclif fe Philip Ray Francine Raymond Roseann Rea Chris Redknap Dr Florian Reiche Philip Renshaw Amanda Rew Patricia Rex Angharad Rhys Dr Patrick Rice-Oxley Barbara Rich Janet Rich David Richardson Giles Richardson Liz Richardson Dereck Roalfe Eleanor Robins Charles Robinson Martine and Richard Robinson Gillian Roder Julia Roe Jim Rogers Alexandra Rose-Dutch Celia Rosenbaum Neil Ross Libby Rothwell Christopher & Jocelyn Rowe William Rowe Lynda Rowlinson Ingunn Ruf fles James Russ Martin Sarbicki Shirley Sabin Pip Salvador-Jones Isabelle Sambrook David Sargent Clare Saunders Joanna Scanlan Anthony Schilling Sue Schlesinger Erika Schmidt Gillian Scholes Tom and Carol Schollar Alex Scott-Tonge Jane Scruton Paul Seaborne John Seaman Julia Sebline Susan Seery Felicity Seton Leslie-Ann Seymour Jane Shankar Paul Short Toby Shuall Jean Sidwell Barbara Simms Duncan Simpson Paul Simpson Richard Simpson Shelley Sishton Anna Sixsmith Victoria Skeet John and Christine Sladden John Sleeman Ailsa Sleigh Martin Small Sue Smart

Christopher Lloyd notes on tissue box flap (back cover): ‘Princess Irene’ Dusky purplish and muted orange. Dark stems ‘Gander’ Dark stems longish bloom Deep cherry red not quite purple ‘Queen of Sheba’ orange red Ceanothus Skylark Jackmanii Change daffodil pots Pyrus pashia breast wood

96 / GREAT DIXTER JOURNAL 2023

Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike.* Prune Salvia and Artemisia Barn Gdn Cut back willow Tidy up Solanum Replant Arundo ORG* Remove dead Crataegus Dig out rushes in Prairie Suckers off birch Salix balfouri Couch in raspberry cage Old carrot bed ? cut back Azara Please park facing downhill Mow around Tilia tree *Alexander Pope

**Old Rose Garden

GREAT DIXTER CHARITABLE TRUST 2022 TRUST BOARD Chair Geoffrey Dyer Judith Cligman Adrian Cooper Thomas C Cooper Olivia Eller John French (Treasurer) Pascale Garbe Charles Hind Gyr King John Massey Henrietta Norman John Wotton Company Secretary Carol Joughin

NORTH AMERICAN FRIENDS OF GREAT DIXTER BOARD Chair Thomas C Cooper Geoffrey Dyer Donna Raftery Linda Smith Julie Weiss

Produced by Linda Jones & Sarah Seymour Designed by Helen Bratby Printed by Pureprint, a CarbonNeutral® Company

Great Dixter Charitable Trust Northiam, TN31 6PH

www.greatdixter.co.uk 01797 254048