Worcestershire garden Before the swallow dares The early days of spring at Morton Hall in Worcestershire are marked by Spring’s hope eternal Narcissus lobularis drifts through the glorious drifts of bulbs, woodland perennials and early-flowering shrubs, Parkland Meadow, succeeded by a magic carpet of flowers including snake’s head fritillaries. in differing garden areas carefully staged as a journey around the house A modern interpretation of a colonnaded Greek monopteros, on a sightline with the house’s Author: Stephen Lacey, garden writer. Photography: Clive Nichols front door, is the architectural eyecatcher. rhs.org.uk Worcestershire garden Flower-spangled vistas The front of the Georgian house looks out onto grass, flushed with bulbs. The garden surrounds Morton Hall, and the two talk to each other through carefully planned vistas. Underplanting with a theme Narcissus ‘Thalia’ complements white birch trunks in the Japanese-inspired Stroll Garden, which descends a slope below the tea house, designed by Charles Chesshire together with architect Jon Wealleans. Drifts of scillas and hellebores A torrent of blue Scilla siberica surges down a shady bank in the Stroll Garden Planting for spring between mounds of Camellia ‘Cornish Spring’ agm (above far left), ferns and hellebores, Tasmannia lanceolata (syn. Drimys lanceolata, above including some fine left) and Scilla siberica agm (above) are among the green and black shrubs and bulbs in this uplifting spring performance. selections. 40 The Garden | March 2019 rhs.org.uk March 2019 | The Garden 41 Worcestershire garden nne Olivieri compares walking Loose domes of clipped evergreen Viburnum around her 3.2ha (8 acre) garden near tinus ‘Eve Price’ AGM demarcate this space from Inkberrow, Worcestershire to the larger, more open area known as Parkland A attending a promenade performance, in which Meadow, where there is the architectural you follow the actors and the action around a eyecatching flourish of a circular colonnade series of spaces during the course of a play. – known as a monopteros in Greek antiquity, ‘Here you are led from one stage set to the it was designed by Anne’s brother in law and next, and slowly the story is told,’ she says. made of sandstone. Here daffodils are massed These settings radiate around an imposing between cedar, whitebeam, Lombardy poplar red-brick Georgian house, which Anne and and other trees. Many of these daffodils are our her husband René purchased in 2007. It was native Lent lily (Narcissus lobularis), and Anne not so much the house that won them over on thinks they were introduced here in 1905, their initial visit, they told me. It was the superb when many of the trees were planted. Pools of views of the Malvern Hills and the Welsh blue and white crocus precede them, and later mountains that the house enjoys from its perch comes what she calls her ‘magic carpet’, when on a sandstone escarpment – Anne, originally cowslips, primroses, oxlips, Narcissus poeticus Reflective from Germany, and René, from Oregon, USA, and N. ‘Cragford’, white anemones and violets qualities are great fans of the British countryside. And it mingle through the fritillaries. The vignettes Stepping stones cross was also the beauty of the spring bulbs, for the are delightfully composed – photographs are the pool in the Stroll meadow grass around the house was not only taken of them in flower, and the groups are Garden, with birch strewn with wild daffodils but also splashed added to with the aid of a map: the planning trunks making striking crimson and white with snake’s head fritillaries. and maintenance of the garden at Morton Hall vertical punctuation In the intervening years, thousands more is ordered and meticulous. Alliums, camassias and linear reflections bulbs have been added, creating ever more and buttercups give the finale, and the meadow in the water. Prunus bewitching tapestries. You meet them as soon is cut down in mid-June with a flail mower. incisa f. yamadei as you enter the curving entrance drive, and Spring colour is picked up on the other side floats white blossom above the spring catch your first view of the house lapped by of the drive, where paths meander into two bulbs and perennials. lawn and framed by trees and shrubs – the distinct areas, each with its own atmospheric airy scene having benefited from the removal setting. The Stroll Garden, taking its inspiration of heavy evergreens after the Olivieris’ arrival. from Japan, is presided over by a handsome tea house, from which you descend into a Journey of creation rocky water garden. Here, white Narcissus Morton Hall’s inspiring Morton Hall has been Anne’s first big garden ‘Thalia’ is massed around birch trunks, project, though in the past she enjoyed together with a torrent of electric-blue Scilla spring planting growing plants on her Berlin balcony, and siberica AGM, deliciously partnered in places Location: 200m (650ft) above sea level, she also created a town garden in Oxford. with coal-black hellebores. Maples add their near Redditch, Worcestershire. While garden visiting in Gloucestershire, she emergent tints, and cherry blossom comes Standout plants: in spring, massed came upon the secret garden at Sudeley Castle from Prunus incisa f. yamadei AGM and pale daffodils – especially Narcissus lobularis designed by Charles Chesshire – a plantsman pink P. ‘Fugenzo’ AGM. and N. poeticus – snake’s head fritillaries, and the former curator of nearby Burford Crossing the water by stepping stones – ‘The scillas, tulips and other bulbs. Hellebores House Gardens – and she decided Charles was Steps of Doom’ – you find yourself in a rock and Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’ agm also the man to design Morton Hall, too. ‘We talked glade, where chunks of Kington sandstone are feature, together with the blossom of a lot about how to plan it. I wanted a sense of arrayed like a tumbling glacier. Here, white cherries, camellias and rhododendrons. openness, not of closed compartments, and scillas and Narcissus ‘Ice Wings’ AGM partner The garden is planned for all-year interest. for the house and garden to talk to each other. ferns and hellebores, and blossom comes from Garden style: gardens of varying It was Charles’s idea to design the garden as Judas trees. Up the steps beyond is a string character and content are set out in a a journey around the house, with each part of further gardens, both formal and sinuous, circuit around the house, comprising Prunus x yedoensis clearly defined but flowing into the next.’ lively with tulips in spring (a spectacle staged Spring dawn formal and informal areas, meadows, North of the drive, the garden is expansive in collaboration with Bloms Bulbs) but mostly productive gardens, a rock garden, and Sunlight glints a Japanese water garden with tea house. and informal. Close to the house, birch trunks geared towards summer – at which time I through Lombardy and the blossom of amelanchiers and pale shall be returning to visit, to describe here poplars in the Open: to groups by appointment, April– pink cherries – Prunus x yedoensis followed by in a future issue of The Garden. Parkland Meadow, Sept: [email protected] Morton Hall Gardens Tulip Festival in P. ‘Shogetsu’ AGM – accompany bulbs including Eclectic scenery unified by exuberant where snake’s head association with Bloms Bulbs is 4–6 May; Tulipa turkestanica AGM, magenta T. humilis planting is my first impression of Morton fritillaries colonise tickets rsc.org.uk/morton-hall ‘Persian Pearl’ and deep pink T. humilis ‘Helene’, Hall. ‘My taste is cosmopolitan. Beauty is the grass. The which have so far proved perennial. These what matters,’ says Anne. And appropriately, naturalised bulbs Website: mortonhallgardens.co.uk tulips, together with any other bulbs attractive given the theatrical concept behind her here are thought includes a Journal by Head Gardener to date back to Harry Green. Magnolia ‘Butterflies’ to squirrels, are dusted with chilli powder at garden, profits of her garden openings go Edwardian times. planting time – an effective deterrent. to the Royal Shakespeare Company. 42 The Garden | March 2019 rhs.org.uk March 2019 | The Garden 43.