PURE IMAGINATION
After nurturing Monteviot Gardens back to life with a sprinkle of magic, Lord Lothian has created a vibrant world full of blossom and birdsong, says Antoinette Galbraith
Monteviot gardens in the Borders have more than a touch of magic
‘It is never possible to define magic, but you know it when you feel it around you. It has a special form of its own, which lifts the heart and makes the mind sing.’ Thus does Lord Lothian speak about Monteviot, his family home overlooking the River Teviot north of Jedburgh. This is the garden he fell in love with as a child and has nurtured, passionately reinforcing its sense of magic and wonder, since he and his wife Jane moved here in 1985.
The birdsong, blossom and carpets of daffodils stretching into banks of rhododendrons on either side of the drive set the scene. They give way to the croquet lawn backed with recently revitalised beds of pink and white Rhododendron Yakushimanum hybrids and Exochorda macrantha ‘The Bride’, planted by head gardener Ian Stephenson and his team.
Ian, to whom Michael Lothian freely credits a large portion of the success of this 30-acre garden, is excited about spring. The winter tidy up is progressing well, the river banks have been cleared, opening up the views along the river path and releasing carpets of bluebells into the light for the first time in ten years.
Just beyond the croquet lawn you come to the viewpoint above the River Garden. Designed by the renowned landscape gardener Percy Cane (1881–1976) for Lord Lothian’s parents in the mid-1960s, the space is enclosed at the top by a crescent wall inset with arches. A lawn, framed by beds where pink tinged acers are ready to burst into flower, sweeps down to a river landing. It’s the stuff of dreams. Everything is fresh and full of promise.
To the west your eye is drawn along the river bank where mown grass paths framed with daffodils lead to the woodlands, while to the left you look down on the box outline of the terraced rose garden, with purple Aubretia tumbling down the stone walls. Above is the pink harled house, parts of which date from the 17th century, fondly described by its owner as an ‘eccentrically incremental house which started as a small farmhouse and grew generation by generation to the tumbling village it is today’.
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It has a special form of its own that lifts the heart and makes the mind sing