Sissinghurst Sissinghurst Seen from atop the Tower, the distinctive layout of interconnected areas at Sissinghurst is particularly apparent, as is the much-discussed but effective mix of formal layout with informal planting. GREat GARDEN VISITS SISSINGHURST CASTLE GARDEN What makes a garden great? This is the first in an occasional series that will seek to understand the popularity of some of the UK’s best-known gardens, looking at their enduring appeal and highlighting ideas that visitors can take home » Author: Phil Clayton, Features Editor, The Garden. Photography: Neil Hepworth » 38 The Garden | April 2013 April 2013 | The Garden 39 Sissinghurst f I were foolhardy enough to suggest a hierarchy of Garden has undeniable appeal. It started out as a rose the best British gardens, Sissinghurst Castle Garden garden (as did Lloyd’s utterly different Exotic Garden at in Kent would be close to the top. Those who love Sissinghurst: history Great Dixter), but was changed in 1950, planned as an the place continue to visit the National Trust-run ✤ 1305: King Edward I spends the writer. Work starts on the gardens area to view in the evening, an idea much in tune with property in huge numbers – up to almost 200,000 night in what is then a Manor House, before the house is fully habitable. today’s life styles. Planting here now is far more than a I people a year – many with a sense of near-reverence, constructed during the Middle Ages. ✤ 1938: Garden opened to the public. collection of white-flowered or silver-leaved plants: the bewitched by its romance. It is easy to see why. Viewed ✤ 1560s: Castle is enlarged by the ✤ 1950: White Garden planted. concept of successional planting flourishes, interest from above, atop the turreted central tower, the 2ha (5 acre) owner, Richard Barker. ✤ 1959: Pamela Schwerdt and stretched throughout summer. Ideas here could also be garden resembles a ribbon of green velvet, woven through ✤ 1756–63: During the Seven Years’ Sibylle Kreutzberger start as head translated; how many rose beds could be improved by a and around the surviving remnants of a once-vast War the castle becomes a prisoner- gardeners, retiring in 1990. leafy underlay of Pulmonaria ‘Sissinghurst White’ or of-war camp; later it is divided into ✤ 1962: Vita dies, Harold in 1968. Elizabethan house. Its lichen-encrusted walls now divide Tiarella wherryi, used as in the White Garden? homes for farm labourers. ✤ 1968: National Trust ownership. the outside space, but where the aged brickwork ends, ✤ 1930: The castle, in ruinous state, ✤ 2004: Adam Nicolson (and his contrastingly immaculate partitions of yew begin, is bought by author and diplomat wife Sarah Raven) move into White Garden planting subdivided within by lower hedges of box. Harold Nicolson and his wife Vita Sissinghurst during the final illness Visit in May and the strokes of white are subtle, concealed Sackville-West, a poet and garden of Adam’s father, Nigel Nicolson. by soft spring growth. Noble Polygonatum (Solomon’s Divisions within seal) dangles its dainty white bells beside a waterfall of Sissinghurst is often said to be a ‘garden of rooms’ but it shimmering foliage from a weeping silver pear. In another feels more like an interconnected series of themed set effortless contentment quite impossible to simulate. The Nuttery in Sackville-West (see box, above) and perhaps influenced corner by the Priest’s House, an aged Wisteria brachybotrys pieces, a quietly theatrical appearance enhanced by However, familiarity breeds contempt, as the adage goes; late spring by the style of William Robinson. Best known are drapes its racemes of flowers. (above): newly positioning of classical urns and statuary in the grand so well known is the garden that it is often dismissed by unfurled fronds colour-themed areas such as the Purple Border and the By midsummer the monochromatic theme is obvious. tradition. And there are no closed doors to these ‘rooms’; horticultural cognoscenti as being little more than a static of fern Matteuccia famous (and much copied) White Garden. So admired Most spectacular is a central arbour clad with a carefully enticing glimpses of one area lead to another, drawing the museum piece, the concept of its makers lost in efforts struthiopteris did this particular set piece become, that to some it is a trained, single-flowered Rosa mulliganii; elsewhere mingle with other visitor on. The idea of rooms also suggests remoteness made to accommodate the astonishing visitor numbers. shade lovers cliché, an all too safe and dated concept. One – probably planting erupts from beds, rockets of Chamaenerion from the surrounding estate, an impression seldom felt Sissinghurst’s fame is largely due to its planting, which below a canopy fictional – story recounts incorrigible, colour-loving angustifolium ‘Album’ (white willow herb) and of coppiced hazel. here. Throughout, the history of the site infuses the garden has undoubtedly evolved over the years, albeit within a plantsman Christopher Lloyd scattering seeds of fiery Veronicastrum shoot skywards, contrasting with volup- with an irresistible mellow richness of age, a sense of framework laid down by Harold Nicolson and Vita nasturtiums in there on a visit. But Sissinghurst’s White tuous mounds of Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ » » Cottage Garden warmth White Garden in spring Yew Walk: an axis of green Perfumed air of the Moat Walk Wallflowers and the last tulips bid farewell to spring while the first yellow While more monochrome in summer, the verdancy of A view down the Yew Walk from the Rose Crowned by a quartet of yew in the Cottage Garden behind, this vista leads to the L-shaped Meconopsis cambrica (Welsh poppy) and scarlet Aquilegia hybrids welcome spring warms the White Garden. A highlight is the wisteria Garden; perfectly trimmed hedges contrast water-filled moat that is one of the garden’s boundaries. Underplanted with bluebells, yellow summer; warm colours blend perfectly with the old walls of South Cottage. clambering over Vita Sackville-West’s ‘Erechtheum’ (pergola). with old bricks and voluptuous planting. azaleas provide heavy perfume. Opposite a venerable wisteria is yet to open its white flowers. 40 The Garden | April 2013 April 2013 | The Garden 41 Sissinghurst Sissinghurst and the bold blue-silver leaves of Melianthus major. Later, The Cottage Garden white Cosmos bipinnatus Sensation Series reaches its peak, The themed planting within the Cottage Garden, while traditional, is a with uncomplicated flowers held above ferny foliage. Evolving the planting distinctly upbeat blend of orange, red and yellow, a mix of colours common enough in late-summer compositions, but rather more Alexis Datta, Head that the planting here must fit the surprising as early in the season as May. Fiery tulips and wallflowers A simple deception are obvious components but, as these fade, colour comes from a wider While carefully controlled, restrained planting is a part Gardener 2004–2013, style, but we introduce new plants on how the planting and adjust borders continually. range of plants, including golden-leaved feverfew, Aquilegia, of the story at Sissinghurst, on my visit many areas Meconopsis cambrica, Euphorbia polychroma and Rosa xanthina has altered over time. ‘In my time we have tried to seemed softer, more generous and relaxed than I ‘Canary Bird’. A little later, bearded iris and the crepe-paper flowers of ‘Pam and Sibylle (see loosen and soften the planting, but showy Oriental poppies arise. As in other areas, walls and hedges remembered from previous visits, instilling a great box, p41), while keeping the garden I feel hedges and lawns are best isolate the space, while glimpses of different parts of the garden help feeling of charm. In late spring, little double primrose- draw the visitor on. Standing sentinel above all is the Tower, a much as Vita intended, moved the kept as formal as possible. We have remaining part of the Elizabethan house, offering splendid views of the like flowers of Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ cascade from the planting on, trying to elongate really lifted the romantic feel in the garden and the landscape, of which it is increasingly an integral part. tower walls, mingling here and there with pink stars of the season of interest. I learned Orchard, adding more informally Clematis montana var. rubens, while cushioning the from my predecessor Sarah Cook planted honeysuckle and roses.’ top of an adjoining wall, rather like a living coping stone, a seemingly self-sown (but in fact planted) Convolvulus cneorum displays its white funnels. trend in gardening; this area displays the discipline The Orchard is best in spring; old fruit trees now brilliantly. Time and expertise has selected the plants smothered with honeysuckle stand in the long sward, that grow well together – in one area, white Trillium surrounded by drifts of Narcissus. Later it is the turn of grandiflorum weaves through a glorious expanse of larger roses, including another (here untrained) Rosa unfurled croziers of fern Matteuccia struthiopteris, mulliganii that is given the space it deserves to sprawl while in a drier, rootier area, the lime-green flowers of and arch amid long grass, as nature might have intended. Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae mingle happily But these areas of apparent simplicity are deceptive: the with a red-stemmed Solomon’s seal. This is a classic hand of the gardener (nine of them, in fact, two part-time) example of choosing the right plants for the right place is skilfully concealed – for the work needed to maintain – in other words, expert horticulture. the high standards on display is considerable. These skills are especially apparent in The Nuttery, Art in practice home to a collection of choice spring-interest woodland The art of gardening is evident in so many parts of plants thriving in cool shade below a leafy canopy of Sissinghurst, such as the intricate way wall-grown coppiced hazel.