PERSISTENT IMAGINATION
How Lord Lothian keeps his ‘secret garden’ fresh and interesting
Keeping the gardens at Monteviot fresh and interesting remains at the heart of Lord Lothian’s vision. In 2011 the idea of creating a new garden was born of his ‘longstanding wish for some kind of secret garden’ just below the apple orchard.
Ian was charged with a design ‘to blend with the surrounding area’. This created the perfect opportunity for him to realise the multitude of ideas he had imagined for the past 20 years.
The space was divided with hornbeam to maximise potential. ‘Hornbeam is reliably similar to beech but still entirely manageable, cut only once a year in September,’ he explains.
This created district spaces for a Mediterranean stone pergola, stone sundial, raised stone viewing platform and a stone moon gate in a ruined wall. ‘And, finally, a stone sitootary, which all good Scottish gardens should have.’
Next came a Dali clock plant feature, small Rennie Mackintosh hornbeam squares and a ‘mini version of the garden of contemplation Kyoto style gravel’.
The garden was planted with mid and late summer flowering shrubs such as hydrangea, deutzia and philadelphus. ‘Colour culminates in the eucryphia wall in late August.’
At this point you fully understand why Michael wrote his recently published The Magical Gardens of Monteviot. ‘I wanted to record the wonderfully scattered nature of the gardens, each with their own special features, but which can come together as one concept, one vision, one dream,’ he says.
An early project involved the water garden, the ponds and islands inspired by the former Prime Minster, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, who shortly before he died in 1995 ‘sat in his wheelchair on one of the arched bridges and worked out a rough plan on the back of an envelope’.
The sense of mystery and intrigue deepens as you wander past the Guardian Stones to the Compass Garden – where a standing stone in a circle of light celebrates the marriage of Michael and Jane’s daughter Claire to politician Nick Hurd.
Next comes the Arboretum, where the size of the majestic conifers suggest the original planting took place when seeds first reached Scotland. The later addition of deciduous varieties has resulted in a nationally recognised collection.
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I wanted to record the wonderfully scattered nature of the gardens
Ignoring expert advice that such an ambitious project was doomed to failure, Lord Lothian and Ian laid out a series of stone-lined ponds in the Dene Garden. Here, the magical element of surprise comes from rare trees tucked into the planting: groups of Chinese windmill palms, Trachycarpus fortunei and the Tasmanian tree ferns, Dicksonia Antarctica, which combine with a 16th-century cannonball and a curious statue of Gregory the Gamekeeper.
In testimony to Ian’s input and the trust placed in him nearly ten years ago he was given free rein to design a garden in the space below the Rose Garden. Here he produced a dramatic design rich in symbolism, drawing on allusions to the artist Salvador Dali.
An open lawn connects the Garden of Persistent Imagination to the Winter Garden. A last spring surprise is found in the Winter Garden. Here, a backdrop of silver birch and Prunus serrula, startling pink Camellia × williamsii ‘Debbie’ – the only ones that thrive here – make a dramatic backdrop for daffodils, bright blue grape hyacinths, Muscari and Fritillaria meleagris.
Ian’s son Jamie, a RBGE student, recently joined the Monteviot team injecting a fresh sense of enthusiasm. ‘In the autumn we planted another 10,000 bulbs including several types of allium and martagon lilies,’ says Ian. ‘Erythronium, anemone, pale silver blue Puschkinia libanotica and P libanotica alba are in the wild flower embankment on the front of the house.’
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The magical element of surprise comes from rare trees tucked into the planting