Wonderful nursery is BETH'S LEGACY
This garden and business reflects the late plantswoman's passion for putting plants together so architecturally and thoughtfully
The late Beth Chatto, the most distinguished plantswoman of her generation, moved to an overgrown, bramble-strewn and very dry site near Colchester in 1960. Beth, who was already a keen gardener and flower arranger, had a passion for growing as many different plants as possible. Her husband Andrew was a fruit farmer, but a boyhood trip to his uncle’s orange farm in California prompted a lifelong interest in where garden plants actually came from and what conditions they needed.
Andrew’s ecological approach influenced Beth and although she didn't coin the phrase ‘right plant, right place’, it was very much her gardening mantra. The Elmstead Market site had mature oaks, very dry areas on gravel, ponds and watercourses. She was encouraged by her close friend and mentor, Sir Cedric Morris, who gave her many plants. He had discovered an early-flowering narcissus by a Spanish roadside. Beth named it ‘Cedric Morris’ and the nursery still sells this gem, although there are never enough plants to go round.
Cedric, a well-known painter and gardener from Suffolk, influenced her style artistically as well. He preferred ‘painterly plants’ in soft, muted colours and this became Beth’s planting style. Her reputation took off when she began exhibiting at the Chelsea Flower Show between 1977 and 1988, winning
10 gold medals. No one else was putting plants together so artistically or so thoughtfully. She described her planting style as being all about ‘rhythm, cadence and contrast’. She would place a round leaf next to a spikier one, or soft next to rough, or a light flower next to a darker one and she had a very good eye.
David Ward, Garden and Nursery Director, came to work for Beth in 1983. “I was part of the propagation team and this allowed Beth to concentrate on the garden, because it meant everything to her,” he said. “She often gardened in the evenings when everyone else had gone.”
David has been instrumental in creating the successful nursery and mail order business. Roughly 90 per cent of plants are grown here and they all have to observe the 'five-sided rule'. Roots have to reach all four sides and the bottom of the pot, before they’re sold.
“The nursery is unique in another way,” David explains. “Plants are arranged according to their needs. There are sections of sun lovers, moisture lovers, woodlanders and dry, shade plants because this reflects how the garden is.” A visit often allows you to buy a plant you've admired in the garden and get a handle on where to plant it.
There’s a terrific contrast between the lush planting in the moistureretentive soil and the silvery fayre found in the gravel garden.
The area closest to the house was planted up first, and ponds were excavated, allowing Beth to plant up moisture-loving areas close by. Tall, late-flowering herbaceous plants such as eupatoriums and persicarias thrive among elegant molinias, and there are lots of hostas and astilbes in this green, lush area.
In contrast, the gravel garden, created from the original car park, has an airy, ethereal feel. In summer the ostrich-like plumes of Stipa barbata float over white-flowered Galactites tomentosa, a thistle with heavily veined, ground-hugging rosettes that Beth compared to winter snowflakes. This does self-seed and the garden staff are careful to remove heads before they spill their seeds. Stipa gigantea, the golden oat grass, is used as a tall exclamation mark and the low-growing ponytail grass,
S. tenuissima, provides a foil for vibrant sedums, agapanthus and asters. The inch-thick layer of gravel keeps the soil moist during summer, but aids drainage in winter so lots of frost-tender plants like agaves are able to survive.
“Beth continued to garden right up until the last five years of her life,” David says. “But mentally she was always very engaged in what was going on outside, right up until the end.” Her granddaughter, Julia Bolton, is carrying on Beth’s work so the garden is going from strength to strength.