INTO THE BLUE
The magical borders at Parham in West Sussex are a lesson in great planting, so we asked the gardeners to tell us how they were designed
Parham’s magical borders are
a lesson in great planting – we ask the gardeners how they were designed
Turn down the central path through the blue borders at Parham House in West Sussex and you will be met by an undulating tapestry of colour that stretches either side of you for some 55 metres. Dense mounds of amethyst-hued phlox and deep blue clary sage jostle with towering spires of pale veronicastrum, interwoven with the floating heads of palest blue didiscus and pure white Ammi majus. It is breathtakingly beautiful and all the more so, considering that it was bare earth a mere two months earlier.
When Tom Brown took over as head gardener in 2010, these borders were considered to be the jewel in the crown of this glorious garden, setting the benchmark of quality to which the other areas aspired. However, as Tom settled in, he began to notice that many of the blue hues had disappeared, some of the more thuggish perennials were beginning to dominate and there was a major problem with bindweed.
For a few years, Tom and Henry Macaulay – Tom’s right-hand man in this part of the garden – tried to improve the display by splitting plants and putting in extra annuals, but it wasn’t enough. Henry says, “The perennials had become so crowded that it was like dropping something into the deep end of a swimming pool – it would just disappear.” There came a point when they asked themselves, “What are we preserving?” Everything from the bindweed to the size of the plants and the scale of the borders meant it was better to start again. However, removing a much-loved feature of the garden required sensitive handling and reassuring the family at Parham – Lady Emma Barnard and her husband James – and the visitors became an important part of the process.
Two years ago, Tom decided they were ready. “By then we were confident that it would work and I had grown to understand what Lady Emma and her family like,” he says. “I assembled a bucket full of blue, lilac and white cut flowers, took it to them and explained that this was the kind of thing we had in mind.” As the blue borders consist of four quadrants, Tom recommended that the restoration be done two at a time. “This allowed the family to see the potential. Once the first two quadrants were planted and flowering within the first year, they were keen for the rest to be done.”
Work began with the removal of the existing plants, all of which were burnt on a huge bonfire to avoid reintroducing bindweed, weed seeds or any lurking diseases. A digger excavated deep down to remove the bindweed, the soil was then checked meticulously and compost was added. It proved impossible to remove the bindweed from the espaliered apple trees at the back of the borders and from beneath the few shrubs that were retained to give structure, so these were ring-fenced with weed-proof barriers and given a deep mulch of bark. Any bindweed that does appear now is easily dealt with.
“We had to be certain that we weren’t losing precious plants throughout the great cull,”
“Putting the perennials in together meant that we were giving them all the same chance”
Tom says. “With old cultivars we needed to check that fresh stock was available from elsewhere. If we really couldn’t find a replacement plant to buy in, our one would be meticulously picked apart, all the soil would be washed off the roots and it would be potted up.” Tom and Henry made a list of a hundred perennials that they wanted to use and, after much lively discussion, whittled them down to about 30. “We then put them into sub-lists of tall, medium, low and accent planting to make it easier to find the right plant for the right place,” Henry says.
On their plan, they coloured in all the blue plants to make sure they had a good spread and sufficient colour through the year. Blue is the main colour, but silvers and purples complete the triangle and set one another off. Whites are also woven in to provide highlights. “Repetition and bigger drifts have much more impact than just trying to fill space with all our favourite plants,” is Tom’s wise advice. “We look for clusters where we have an association of three or five plants and repeat those down the borders so that they really sparkle. Salvia ‘Caradonna’, Echinacea ‘White Swan’, Penstemon ‘Alice Hindley’ and Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ work wonderfully well together.”
Planting the perennials was delayed until mid-may so that any newly germinated annual weeds could be dealt with beforehand. The two-litre plants were then laid out along the borders at 45cm spacings and the 9cm pots at 30cm apart to allow for final adjustments before planting. “Putting them in together meant that we were effectively giving them all the same chance,” Henry says. “It was one, two, three, grow!” The annuals followed at the end of the month. “We had a cast of five or six for each border, produced 40 of each in 9cm pots and flooded the gaps with these,” Tom explains.
Now that all four quadrants have been replanted, Tom and Henry have made some interesting observations. “We mulched the first two beds with compost, but not the last two. There was a distinct difference in flowering performance between these borders – with the plants in the latter being sturdier, needing less staking and producing more flowers,” Tom says. “The downside without mulch is that we have had to tackle annual weeds, so we may try a less nutrient-rich mulch in future.”
“We wanted billowing romantic opulence,” Henry says. “And more attention seekers,” Tom adds. “Previously, all the plants were support acts but now we have real stars to catch the eye.” There is no doubt that their teamwork has restored the blue borders to their former glory in record time – the jewel in Parham’s crown is in sparkling form once more.
Parham Garden Weekend takes place on 7 and 8 July 2018, 10.30am-5pm (01903 742021; parhaminsussex.co.uk).