Hedges and Topiary on the Passionate Gardener Tour

 Hidcote

 Hidcote

 Hidcote

 Hidcote

Vann

Vann 

Pettifers Garden

Rousham Gardens

Rousham Gardens 

Great Dixter

Great Dixter 

Great Dixter 

Sissinghurst

Sissinghurst

"The Passionate Gardener" Tour May 22-31, 2016

For the last five years, I have been an assistant tour guide on "The Best of English Gardens" tour for my friend Michael Induni's company, Discover Europe. "The Best of English Gardens" is a wonderful tour, but it isn't exclusively a tour of gardens. The itinerary also includes Stonehenge, the city of Bath and two nights in Salisbury to see the local sites including the Magna Carta. I have been working with Michael to create a tour for the more discriminating gardener. I researched gardens from London to the Cotswolds. I wanted to visit classic and historic gardens, but I also tried to include contemporary gardens that illustrate the latest in horticulture and design. I thought spending a longer time in less locations would be a more relaxing way to see gardens, so we removed two nights in Salisbury and added time in the Cotswolds.

I came across a December, 2012 article that Penelope Hobhouse wrote for Gardens Illustrated called "25 of the best English gardens to visit throughout England" and cross-referenced that with Tim Richardson's 2013 book The New English Garden and created a new tour called "The Passionate Gardener" Tour. One garden I had been dying to see was Gina Price's private garden, Pettifers. So I scouted Pettifers and Rousham House last year and loved them both. Pettifers has deservedly gotten a lot of press (the cover of The New English Garden) in the last several years. It is a plants-person's garden with a clean modern design. The grouping of four "flask-shaped yew topiaries" have become nearly as iconic as the former yew waves in Piet Oudolf's garden, Hummelo. Her gardener, Polly, is both delightful and knowledgeable. In landscape garden department, I looked to the Hobhouse article and substituted  Rousham House, a privately owned, intimate garden designed by William Kent for Stourhead, a National Trust Garden with hundreds of visitors. As difficult as it was to exclude Stourhead, the intimacy of Rousham House, with about a dozen visitors when I was there, was hard to beat.

I will lead the tour May 22-31, 2016 which will also include the annual Gardens Illustrated Talk at the Royal Geographic Society in London. In the next several months, I will profile the gardens in more detail but below is a list of the gardens in chronological order of the tour:

The New English Garden by Tim Richardson NEG: Pettifers, Great Dixter, High Grove

  

"25 of the best English gardens to visit throughout England" by garden designer and historian Penelope Hobhouse. GI/PH: Sissinghurst, Great Dixter, Hidcote Manor, Iford Manor, Rousham House

"Best of English Gardens" Tour BEG : Great Dixter, Sissinghurst, Hidcote Manor,

Iford Manor, Barnsley House, Kiftsgate Garden, Chelsea Flower Show, Vann

 

Great Dixter NEG, GI/PH, BEG

Sissinghurst: GI/PH, BEG

Chelsea Flower Show: BEG

RHS Wisley: BEG

Iford Manor: GI/PH, BEG 

Rousham House: GI/PH

Pettifers Garden: NEG

Kiftsgate: BEG

Barnsley House: BEG

Vann: BEG

Vann, an Arts and Crafts Garden in Surrey

We were fortunate to visit an Arts and Crafts style garden called Vann during the Best of English Garden Tour. Vann, a house dating back to the early 16th century and the gardens which surround it, are in Hambledon, Surrey.

The current owner and gardener is Mary Caroe, the widow of Martin Caroe, whose family has owned the house since 1907. She gave us a tour of the garden and a short lecture on the house and garden’s history.

The garden is probably best known because part of the garden was designed by Gertrude Jekyll, a friend of the original owner W.D. Caroe. W.D. Caroe was an exponent of the Arts and Crafts Movement who nearly doubled the size of the house and added or renovated the outbuildings.

W.D. Caroe designed and created a pergola constructed of Bargate stone and oak beams which Mrs. Caroe believes rivals the work of the much more famous architect and Jekyll collaborator, Edwin Lutyens. The Pergola Garden is planted with a variety of euphorbias, kniphofia, hellebores and bergenias.

The Yew Walk is my favorite part of the garden. Although there is no evidence that Jekyll actually designed this section of the garden, Mrs. Caroe is certain that Jekyll gave W.D. Caroe guidance for the garden, as well as supplying the plants from her nursery in 1909. A pair of yew hedges flank a rill planted in the Jekyll style. Huge boxwood spheres add structure to the picture.

This path, made of Bargate stone, leads to the Jekyll Water Garden, a series of four pools with paths and bridges that criss-cross the stream. It is planted with woodland plants, many of which were supplied and introduced by Jekyll. Vann is a National Garden Scheme Garden (NGS Yellow Book) and is open to the public by appointment or on open days.