LIVING HISTORY

Long before Vita and Harold bought Sissinghurst in 1930, the Elizabethan manor house had been used as the local workhouse, and Vita and Harold rescued several ‘coppers’ from its 19th-century laundry to reflect their interest in the house’s history and the lives of its previous residents. In total they placed three coppers in the garden one in the Lower Courtyard, one in the Phlox Garden and this one that stands at the centre of the Cottage Garden.

How to achieve the look

Old laundry pots and dolly tubs are relatively easy to source from flea markets and reclamation yards and will develop a similar patina to this ‘copper’ albeit on a smaller scale. You’ll need to drill four to five drainage holes with a sharp 8-10mm bit and cover with crocks so they can drain freely, but they work well as containers for a looser style of planting.

For this pot I’ve opted for an instinctive and intuitive display that I thought would either be a joyous success or fail gloriously. It’s a combination of two plants that I hoped with their contrast in flower shape and form would provide not only a potency within the display but also an energy and strength equal to the setting. The main protagonist is the low-growing Sanguisorba ‘Tanna’, which has tight, wine-red flower heads that emerge from a neat, rounded cushion of small, green leaves. The neat, oval bobbles measure around 50mm in length and appear from June until mid-August.

Over the summer the flower heads gently age to a dark, chocolate-brown, then form a seedhead that endures until late winter. Alongside it I have planted Liatris spicata ‘Floristan Weiss’, a plant I love to weave into my planting to act as a motif running through the border.

Both plants need fertile, moist soil to flower well, and are best in full sun or semi-shade. They are easy, undemanding plants, requiring very little maintenance and are pest and disease free.