News from the gardening world
Sissinghurst unveils exciting 'lost garden' feature for 2020 and new winter opening hours
Sissinghurst, one of the most famous gardens in Britain, is constructing a new Mediterraneanstyle garden that opens to the public in summer next year. It's called Delos, after the Greek island visited by Sissinghurst’s creators Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson. An early attempt by the couple to create a Mediterraneanstyle garden back home in the 1930s failed, but now, 80 years later, Sissinghurst owner the National Trust is working with Vita and Harold’s family and consultant designer Dan Pearson to recreate it.
The team have overcome the problems of the original northfacing site by changing the terrain so it faces south by building a canted stone terrace. This maximises the light and heat that plants from the region require, while creating a range of planting opportunities.
A broad range of plants spanning 140 species and varieties will feature cistus, scabious, salvia and lavender, pomegranates and poppies along with shrubby trees such as the kermes oak, Quercus coccifera, cork oak, Q. suber and Arbutus andrachne. Chunks of warm-toned Kent ragstone that make up the terraces will also be ground down for the pathways. The garden will also contain four marble altars said to have been found at Delos by Sir William Rowan Hamilton, the great grandfather of Harold Nicholson, in the 1820s.
Sissinghurst is also opening for winter for the first time so that visitors can appreciate the structure of the layout of garden rooms, use of hedges, plant structure and outlines.
“The view from the Tower shows the layout at its best", said head gardener Michelle Cain. “From here you can see how Harold created the formal elements he and Vita wanted in the ruins of a grand Elizabethan manor house.”
n The garden will open at weekends until March. Visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ sissinghurst-castle-garden.