The quest for new ideas Houghton Hall walled garden, Norfolk Tim Longville explores the inimitable walled gardens at Houghton, where stylish design mixes harmoniously with theatrical flourishes Photographs by Val Corbett eMoriaLs come in many two major eye-catchers. one is the splendid suggest what the something else should be.’ forms and sizes, but one of the rustic temple (Fig 4), its pediment filled with For example, it was Lord Cholmondeley’s largest and most striking an arrangement of antlers from the estate’s idea to use lily of the valley as the under- contemporary examples must own herd of white fallow deer. The other is planting beneath the apples that arch Mbe the five-acre walled kitchen garden at the ornate fruit cage, its shape modelled on across the central allée of the section still Houghton Hall in Norfolk. all of it has been the corner turret of the stable block. devoted to an ornamental version of kitchen redesigned since the early 1990s by the successive head gardeners—Paul Under- gardening. Her enthusiastic summary Marquess of Cholmondeley, as a memorial wood was followed first by simon Martin is that ‘the joy of working here is to his grandmother. its formal yet theatrical and then by ‘the present incumbent’, Mhari that there’s no bureaucracy—and Lord style makes it an entirely appropriate Blanchfield (who is supported by three full- Cholmondeley is always urging us to try memorial, as she, sybil sassoon by birth, time and four part-time staff)—have also something different, to be adventurous’. was a passionate (and theatrical) gardener, added elements based on their own special The basic ‘bones’ of the garden are still ➢ as was her brother, sir Philip sassoon, interests. But this is still very much Lord at Trent Park and Port Lympne. Cholmondeley’s garden, and, despite its Fig 1 Above Rosy outlook: white standard Lord Cholmondeley was helped with the size and formality, a surprisingly personal rose Little White Pet, white rose Iceberg initial layout by the then head gardener one. as Mrs Blanchfield puts it: ‘He is very in the background and pink rose Comte Paul Underwood, and subsequently by the much involved. We’ll walk round together and de Chambord. Fig 2 Facing page Eerie designers Julian and isabel Bannerman, he’ll say: “That’s not working. Why don’t we spectator: one of the Janus heads who were responsible for both of the garden’s try something else instead?” and he’ll often embedded in the croquet-lawn hedge 56 Country Life, May 13, 2009 www.countrylife.co.uk www.countrylife.co.uk Country Life, May 13, 2009 57 Fig 3 ‘Purely decorative’—one of the bee-skips acting as a focal point in the herb garden the four quarters of the traditional kitchen stone central focal point act as pillars on garden. But, to add interest to a relent- either side of the entrance. lessly flat site, each quarter now has a grass path along the main north- a different character, and is further sub- to-south axis is flanked by two mighty divided, particularly the two making up herbaceous borders, designed with cooler its western half. so, in a few yards, the colours, and leads towards the rustic temple mood can change from quiet contemplation that closes the vista to the north, hotter ones to colourful exuberance. towards the greenhouses (Fig 5 and 6) Fig 4 The hot end of the herbaceous borders, looking towards the Bannermans’ temple, is already colourful in June, The north-eastern quarter is devoted to that perform the same function to the south. although the borders have yet to come fully into their own. The high hedges introduce an element of secrecy a formal rose garden (Fig 1), with a foun- To tie the whole long vista together, tain in its sunken central section and both borders are edged throughout with mirrored planting in the surrounding box- Nepeta six Hills Giant, and charmingly edged parterre (based rustic timber ‘turrets’, on a Kent ceiling design covered in climbing in the house, although roses, act as punctu- that’s hardly apparent ‘There’s no bureaucracy ation marks (Fig 7). at ground level). Theyew –Lord Cholmondeley The fruit and vegetable hedges surrounding quarter is considerably this garden initially had is always urging us to sub-divided, but the flat tops, but Lord try something different, whole retains the formal Cholmondeley decided character of the rest of that created too great to be adventurous’ the garden. one section a sense of enclosure. so devoted to a herb garden, now they are ‘swagged’ for example, uses white- in bold curves. The result allows views to painted bee-skips (Fig 3) as its focal points, and from the more relaxed outer rose ‘although they’re purely decorative,’ says garden, whose beds also contain such almost Mrs Blanchfield. The dramatic centre of the ‘cottagey’ plants as peonies, geraniums, whole quarter, however, is the Bannermans’ euphorbias, and variegated brunneras. towering oak fruit-cage. around it, as The south-eastern corner is, if anything, well as the purely practical but beautifully even more formal than the rose garden, cultivated vegetables, there are also path- and certainly and deliberately a good deal edging rows of cordoned fruit trees, less colourful. a consciously italianate planted for succession, and along the outer garden, much influenced by Villa Cetinale, edges of the soft fruit area sweet peas— its crossing avenues of pleached limes which visitors are encouraged to pick. outline four quarters of plums (Pershore Visitors are also encouraged to play Yellow and Violetta). They are planted in croquet on the croquet lawn, which takes a chequerboard pattern with the ‘points up half of the fourth (south-west) quarter— of light’ made by tulips, Narcissus although the spectators, in the form of poeticus and camassias in the grass Janus-headed statues (Fig 2) installed beneath them. in a nicely rustic touch, in recesses in its yew hedges, might make Fig 5 The cool end of the herbaceous borders, looking towards the garden room at the centre of the greenhouse range. This, too, is early two smaller oak versions of the imposing that a rather unnerving experience. The ➢ in the season, before the borders have fully developed, although the border edgings of Nepata Six Hills Giant are already ravishing 58 Country Life, May 13, 2009 www.countrylife.co.uk www.countrylife.co.uk Country Life, May 13, 2009 59 other sides of the statues’ heads seem to be contemplating the only substantial piece of bedding in the garden: a box- edged, diamond-patterned border beside the greenhouses, which takes the staff four whole days to change from spring to summer bedding. The croquet lawn is the ‘emptiest’ section of the whole garden, ‘the only one still to be developed’, in Mrs Blanchfield’s phrase, as she clearly expects that, before long, Lord Cholmondeley will suggest a development for it! as he recently has, indeed, in one half of the other half of this quarter. The first half of that half, however, is the posi- tively Baroque touch of a memorial- within-a-memorial. it is a Mediterranean garden, whose box-edged parterre is based on Lord Cholmondeley’s grand- mother’s initials, sC, and its beds are filled with Lavendula sawyer’s Variety, Verbena bonariensis and Allium aflatunense, with a clipped London plane Above Fig 6 The central section of the in each corner. greenhouses is a ‘garden room’, with its central water feature, meanwhile, a ‘green man’ fern-fringed fountain, contains a hidden secret. it consists of designed by the Bannermans. ‘The green a raised central pool and tufa fountain man needs a haircut,’ laughs Mrs Blanch- from which run two narrow rills. The field. ‘The ferns have got out of hand’. secret is the depth of the pool. ‘at first,’ Right Fig 7 Nepeta Six Hills Giant, explains Mrs Blanchfield with a smile and oriental poppies and just-emerging blue a shake of the head, ‘it was going to be delphiniums make a vivid combination at the a sunken pool, so suitable excavations hot end of one of the herbaceous borders took place. But then Lord Cholmondeley changed his mind and decided it should Houghton Hall (01485 528569; www. be a raised one. so we’ve ended up with houghtonhall.com), Norfolk, is signed a pool 8ft deep.’ from the A148 King’s Lynn to Cromer road. This flourish, and Water Flame (see There’s more to its gardens and parkland below), illustrates as well as anything than the walled garden, considerable the stylish originality expressed in this though that is. The whole is open from remarkable garden, whether in its formal- March 23 to September 28 on Wednesdays, ity, theatricality or intriguing, continuing Thursday, Sundays and Bank Holiday quest for new ideas. Mondays from 11:30am to 5.30pm Wat er Flame: it burns as it cools One section of the walled garden is divided from the Mediterranean garden by a formal avenue of Taihaku cherries. Originally, this was a relatively simple labur- num garden, the long grass beneath the shrubs planted with fritillaries and pheasant’s eye narcissus. Then, inspired by a similar effect in the garden at Loxley Hall in Warwickshire (designed by his godfather, the soldier-turned-art-dealer Alec Gregory-Hood), Lord Cholmondeley had some of the grass cut short to make four ‘shapes’—triangle, diamond, crescent, half- moon—which were then planted with species tulips. Most recently, a striking centrepiece has been added. Water Flame (right), by the Danish artist Jeppe Hein, consists of a rectangular pool, its inner walls of mirror glass, its outer ones of granite, from the centre of which rises (at least when the air is sufficiently still) a jet of mixed water and gas-powered flame.