“It's fine horticulture in a shabby framework”

Head Gardener Heloise Brooke shares her insights into this fascinating time-warp of a garden

Heloise has been Head Gardener at Calke for just over three years. She manages a team of three full-time and two seasonal gardeners, one trainee and about 75 volunteers.

How did you get into horticulture? My grandparents were gardeners so it was always around me, although I don’t think I paid much attention until I got my own garden. That’s when I caught the gardening bug.

How did you come to be at Calke? I started as a National Trust volunteer in London, in between looking after children. Then I worked on the staff at Kew for 18 months before studying for the Kew Diploma, which lasted three years. After that I worked at Chelsea Physic Garden and Cambridge University Botanic Garden, then became Head Gardener at Claremont in Surrey before moving to Calke.

What jobs will you be doing in May? It’s a bit of a transition month. We’re entering the full maintenance season, with mowing, edging and finishing off staking the borders. The vegetable beds will be beginning to get going, so we’ll be doing a lot of direct sowing and hardening off plants we’ve grown in the glasshouses. Plus we’ll be pulling out the spring bedding ready for summer annuals and dahlias.

What are Calke’s plant highlights in May? Most years we still have auriculas in f lower, but it does depend on the weather. If it’s been warm they’ll go over more quickly. There’s spring bedding and bulbs such as forget-me-nots, wallf lowers and tulips, and the wisteria looks stunning in May. What’s the Trust’s approach to conservation at Calke? We couldn’t keep it as a time capsule. Gardens don’t stand still. So, the best way to describe our approach is ‘the pursuit of excellent horticulture within a shabby framework’. We make sure the f lower garden and borders are weed-free and that the vegetable garden is kept productive so the gardening elements look their best, but at the edge of paths we might allow a few of what we call ‘Calke weeds’ such as ivy-leaved toadflax, erigeron and oxalis to grow. And, if we do any repairs to buildings, we wouldn’t do everything at once so things never look too new.

How do you use the auricula theatre? We have a nice snowdrop collection that was donated to us that we display at the start of the year. Then we move into violas and spring bulbs such as narcissi and muscari. After the auriculas (pictured below) we move in pelargoniums, which are mainly heritage cultivars, and these are followed at the end of October by colourful pumpkins.