Sweet Surrender

In his latest book, garden photographer Simon Griffiths presents 22 of his favourite country gardens, including this one belonging to passionate garden maker and blogger Jenny Rose-Innes.

A leading garden photographer turns his lens on one of his favourites, a romantic spot in the NSW Southern Highlands.

Beds in the front garden burst with perennials, including delphiniums, aquilegias, foxgloves, clematis and climbing roses.

This 1500m2 property in Bowral, NSW, belongs to passionate gardener and author Jenny RoseInnes and her husband Michael. Although the garden is only four years old, its seeming maturity shows just what a clever gardener Jenny is. Bowral has the ideal climate for growing plants, with rich soil and plenty of rain, but you need a good eye and a green thumb to create something as impressive as this. Both the new house and garden look like they have been there for many years, largely because Jenny, in her signature style, has brought in many mature trees.

The garden has formal bones but a loose, romantic planting style. The fresh green cones, balls and spirals of Buxus topiary provide an architectural framework, while climbing roses trail up fences and perennial borders burst with interesting plant and colour combinations. The front garden features a formal rectangular pond and an arbour planted with roses.

An amazing faux-bois (imitation wood) table made by Victorian artist Beau Johnstone is surrounded by beds crammed full of perennials, with eye-popping splashes of intense blue delphiniums, foxgloves and aquilegias.

From the back of the house you walk out onto a wide terrace, with a seating area perfect for alfresco meals, afternoon drinks and reading. A round brick-paved area with a large acanthus-leaf urn in the middle is encircled by beds of silver-green and white plantings and cones of clipped Buxus. Across the neat green lawn (where their dog, Penny, cavorts) is the most charming glasshouse you will ever see, filled with plants, cuttings, germinating seeds and neat rows of terracotta pots. Next door is Jenny’s studio and the bench where she spends hours repotting the garden’s many pot plants and topiary.

TOP Irises are treasured in Jenny’s garden. TOP LEFT A French acanthus-leaf terracotta urn forms a focal point. LEFT A seating area by the back door is showered with petals from the Chionanthus virginicus that shades the table in summer. OPPOSITE Jenny adores her custom-built glasshouse, where she overwinters plants, sows seeds and propagates cuttings. Long spires of white and pink valerian and dainty pink aquilegia dance among the rows of irises and Buxus.