THE COLLECTION AT HOLEHIRD
The grounds of Holehird were first laid out in 1885 by the wealthy Manchester industrialist, John Macmillan Dunlop. The Groves family then continued the garden’s development, with renowned Victorian and Edwardian landscape architect, Thomas Mawson employed to enlarge the walled garden. In 1945, the Groves gifted the estate to what was then Westmorland County Council, and in 1969, Holehird became the home of the Lakeland Horticultural Society (LHS). Founded by a team led by the respected and eminently knowledgeable horticulturalist, Henry Noblett in 1969, the society’s aims are to promote the science, practice and art of horticulture, with a focus on plants that would thrive in a northern climate. Initially, the LHS leased 2 acres of garden, but it now looks after 12 acres. Total membership is approximately 1,600, with 200 volunteers looking after the grounds and welcoming visitors. In 1987, Henry was invited to Harewood House in West Yorkshire, where there was a collection of astilbes that were under threat due to redevelopment. Harewood agreed he could take them back to Holehird. When Henry first started to build up the National Plant Collection of Astilbe, he realised that many had been incorrectly identified, so one of his first tasks was to accurately attribute names to the plants he had brought to Holehird. He travelled across Europe and Asia, cataloguing and collecting plants, and tracking down rare varieties. In 1987, there were 38 different cultivars in the collection: ten years later, there were 175. Henry became a world expert and wrote a book, entitled Astilbes: A Guide to the Identification of Cultivars and Common Species.