About the garden and myself

The Garden

The main part of the garden surrounds the farmhouse. The house dates from 1555, with a later wing added around 1740. Nothing in the house is very straight, with a lot of wavy walls and odd angles. The relaxed very informal garden reflects the house with wandering paths, and informal beds with undulating edges, managed with concern for the environment. There are areas of long grass left unmown until late July, and other areas of longish grass mown intermittently on a high setting. The roses are grown and cared for with minimal intervention, and most are left unpruned to reach their optimal size. There is a fungicide spray programme for the susceptible roses

I began to plant roses when I first moved here in 1982. The bulk of the rose collection – around 550 cultivars- is in the ‘house’ garden but over the years the roses have spilled into the farmyard and equestrian centre. Turn a corner and you will likely find a rose, or five.

This is a garden that is subject to constant change as I add growing areas. This winter I started a species rose collection in a meadow. The Tea rose garden on the southwest side of the house is about to expand this coming summer.

Within the main collection is a National collection of Hybrid Musk roses introduced by Pemberton & Bentall (1912-1939). This collection includes some cultivars no longer available in the UK. Also, roses that have a connection with Joseph Pemberton such as his Hybrid foetida ‘Star of Persia’.

There is an ever growing collection of Tea roses, currently around 45 cultivars. Unpopular for their reputation for being too tender for the UK, these are roses for the climate change we are experiencing. Still, only a handful are available in the UK, the majority here come from France.

The garden is open by appointment only mid May-mid July.

The technical details of the garden are: 30m above mean sea level), low rainfall – an average of 70cm per year. Hanslope series 2 soil, chalky boulder clay, pH 7.

Myself

I have a background in the arts, and more recently in science, and I also am a partner in our farming business. My gardening philosophy is practical and no nonsense, I am allergic to ‘smoke and mirrors’!

When I am not gardening I could be riding my horse, designing miniature furniture, or maybe trapping and recording moths from the garden. But mostly researching and writing.