CHARLESTON CHARM
Visit Charleston – home of the Bloomsbury Set – in East Sussex just as the garden is waking up. Head gardener Fiona Dennis, who arrived in 2016, has been revising and overhauling the planting to make it more ‘period-correct’ to Vanessa Bell’s time in the 1930s-40s. Spring bulbs include heirloom narcissi – snowy white ‘Thalia’, the oldest pink daffodil ‘Mrs R O Backhouse’ (introduced in 1921) and cheery white and orange ‘Barrett Browning’. A clump of Vanessa’s favourite Iris reticulata has been reinstated by the gate. For details of opening times, see charleston.org.uk or call 01323 811626.