Vive la Difference!
In the same way that I’ve never really enjoyed Shakespeare – I only just owned up to that, to my friend and erstwhile English teacher, Trish – I have to admit that I don’t really get Derek Jarmon’s Dungeness Garden. I’m not here to devalue its impact on the horticultural world or its horticultural value. On the contrary, I feel cheated that it leaves me cold where others are moved to tears by it. I just don’t get it.
Vita Sackville West and Harold Nicholson’s Sissinghurst is another celebrated garden that doesn’t hit the spot. Having visited it several times over the years, each time I wait to be converted, and each time I come away feeling underwhelmed. Intellectually and horticulturally, I can see its skill and attraction, but my soul isn’t moved by it in the same way that her first garden, Long Barn, is.
The Lost Gardens of Heligan were lost on me. I had a panic attack in the Eden Project Rainforest Biome because of the intense humidity. But oh, I loved Trebar, ‘a sub-tropical paradise with a stunning coastal backdrop’. The lush planting, a deep valley full of hydrangeas of all kinds, mixed with soaring bamboo and dicksonia antarctica; I was agape with wonder!
What made my recent visit to Hidcote simply pleasant, but my visit to Batsford Arboretum awesome? What do all the gardens that I like have in common? Whether it’s great waves of ornamental grasses, massed drifts of daffodils or soaring bamboo, they all pack a punch.
The late lamented Christopher Lloyd upset the horticultural elite back in 1993, when he stripped out all the old roses at Great Dixter and created a tropical, exotic garden in their place. He ripped up the rule book, with his bold experimentation with colour and texture.
In the late 1990s, Piet Oudolf introduced Prairie Planting, combining bold drifts of ornamental grasses with massed plantings of herbaceous perennials, chosen for their structure as much as for their flower colour.
Both garden designers bold and groundbreaking in their day. Their conviction and intensity is the beating heart of their gardens.
Today, it’s all about sustainability and biodiversity, and many of the grand English gardens are converting acres of land into wildflower meadows. That too is an awesome sight. Everybody’s wow factor is different, just keep an open mind and enjoy what takes your breath away.
Love, Caroline x