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

Sissinghurst Likes it Hot

The Cottage garden and Azalea Bank at Sissinghurst were ablaze with color when I visited last week with the Best of English Gardens Tour. The palate of the Cottage Garden tends toward the hot spectrum and late May was no exception.

The central feature of the Cottage Garden is four large Irish yews. The  yews are not perfectly upright, adding to a more informal feel to the garden.

Columbines were a prominent feature to the garden.

Seed is collected for the best coloring of this unnamed variety each year.

Wall flowers burnt brightly in the drizzle the day I was at Sissinghurst.

Apparently Harold Nicholson was not a big fan of azaleas and felt they were too suburban. Vita Sackville-West often won the debate over which plants made their way into the garden and the hot-colored azaleas were no exception and remain a feature in the Moat Walk.

Tulipa sprengeri was well-represented in many of the gardens we visited and made a worthy companion to the peeling bark of Acer griseum.

The Best of English Gardens 2013

In less than a month, I will be returning to Britain to assist my friend, Mick Induni, on a tour of English gardens May 14-23. We will be visiting Great Dixter, Hidcote, Sissinghurst, Stourhead and Wilsey. We end the tour with the Chelsea Flower Show in London. I think of myself as the "color commentator" to compliment the exceptional British tour guides who will be leading the tours. My mission will be to give an American perspective on how to incorporate ideas from the English gardening tradition into the participants' own gardens back in the states. 

On one of our open nights in London, I have gotten tickets for the Gardens Illustarted lecture at the Royal Geographical Society. Peit Oudolf and Jinny Blom will be the speakers. I did this lecture a couple of years ago when Dan Pearson and Cleve West spoke and it was great. I am very excited to see Oudolf speak for the first time!

You can see the complete itinerary at Mick's website at The Best of English Gardens. He has a wide range of tours. For more information, see his website, Discover Europe.

The azaleas and rhododendrons should be at peak while we are visiting

 The White Garden, one of the many garden rooms, at Hidcote Manor

The modern pool at Kiftsgate Court Gardens

 The Grotto at Mill Dene, the private garden of The English Garden’s contributor Wendy Dare

The Palladian Bridge and Pantheon, at Stourhead

Rosemary Verey’s iconic Laburnum Walk at Barnsley House

Sissinghurst, the garden of poet/novelist Vita Sackville-West and her husband, historian Harold Nicolson

Great Dixter, the home and garden of the late plantsman, Christopher Lloyd

The Brewin Dolphin Garden, designed by Cleve West, won best in show last year at the Chelsea Flower Show

Tom Hoblyn received the RHS People’s Choice Award in 2012

Hedges: From the Outside In

I have been struck by the beauty of the hedges on our tour. I thought some of the most moving and elegant photographs were looking at the gardens from the outside. The images don't feel welcoming yet, to me, they don't feel forbidding.  I have always admired the contrast of view over the horizontal line of a hedge. The lines are elegant and simple.