An English country garden for everyone
An English country garden for everyone
FROM the moment you are asked to do a project you are in a panic about how its going to be looked after, says garden designer Penelope Hobhouse, who has the satisfaction of knowing that when the country garden that she is creating for the Royal Horticultural Societys Wisley Gardens in Surrey is completed it will be well maintained.
There are certain constrictions in planning a garden that will be visited by so many people – and Wisley had a record 708,000 visitors last year. You need "to hide people from each other," Mrs Hobhouse says and you cannot have plants spilling on to pathways a feature which adds to the charm of many private gardens.
Wisleys country garden will be approached through two arched pergolas covered with white wisteria. It will have small trees ("So that you walk from light to shade and out again," says Mrs Hobhouse.) shrubs, bulbs and possibly some annuals. The chosen plants will all be fairly easy to come by so visitors will be able to copy the garden simply by changing the scale.
Creating it is a two-year project. Hard landscaping is underway. Planting will be done in spring 1999. Meanwhile a replanting operation is taking place in Wisleys Temperate House where the interior layout has been redesigned.
Developments are also underway at Rosemoor, the RHS garden at Great Torrington, North Devon which comprised a 3.2ha (8-acre) garden and 13ha (32 acres) of pasture when the RHS received it 10 years ago. The society has recently purchased the surrounding woodland where walks and a picnic area are now being established and new plants introduced.
Hythe Hall, the RHS garden at Rettendon, near Chelmsford, Essex, will open to the public seven days a week from March to October this year. Access is being improved and soil improvements have already been carried out making it now possible to underplant the rose beds.
Ponds with a wide selection of water lilies are another important feature at Hythe Hall. The lower pond has been refurbished and work on the upper one is to be carried out this year.
* Show programme
Major developments in the RHSs extensive show programme include a new look for the Malvern Spring Gardening Show on the Three Counties Showground (May 8-10). This will have a magnificent new centre piece – a 0.6ha (1.5-acre) floral marquee taking up most of the main arena where 96 top nurseries will exhibit.
More than 300 exhibitors have already been confirmed for Scotlands National Gardening Show at Strathclyde Country Park, south of Glasgow (May 29-31). While there were four marquees at last years inaugural show, this year there will be six, including a new one dedicated to floral arrangements by the Scottish Association of Flower Arrangement Societies.
Ann Rogers
Cyclamen were among the plants featured at the first RHS Westminster Flower Show of the year. A dozen of these two-day shows are held during the year at the Royal Horticultural Halls. The London Orchid Show is also staged there over the weekend Mar 7-8. Inquiries (0171-649-1885).