Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
THE SUPER-SECRET GARDEN
It takes a little effort to get through the gates at Woolbeding – but the paradise within makes it all worthwhile
There’s no mystery as to why Woolbeding in West Sussex is known as the National Trust’s ‘secret garden’. Open just two days a week between spring and autumn, visitor numbers are limited to 200 a day – so don’t think about going unless you’ve prebooked. What’s more, there’s no parking; a shuttle bus takes you there from the nearby town of Midhurst. It sounds like a lot of effort, but it’s well worth it because Woolbeding is a gem of a garden.
The 1,200-acre Woolbeding estate was given to the trust in 1957, but the work on its garden only began in 1972, when the 17th-century house and some of its grounds were leased to grocery magnate Simon Sainsbury and his partner Stewart Grimshaw. Together with the renowned designer Lanning Roper, they created a country garden which is both traditional and very modern. More recently, designers Julian and Isabel Bannerman have revamped the more informal areas of the garden.
Paul Gallivan, 41, head gardener at Woolbeding, believes what most people love about the garden is its intimate feel. ‘Because we have such a limited number of visitors my team and I – five full-time gardeners and 18 volunteers – get a chance to talk to them. We don’t have any plant labels because we’d much rather visitors asked us about the plants.’
Once you’ve walked through the Mediterranean- style Entrance Garden, planted with agapanthus and olive trees, you enter into the main garden. At the heart of it are the magnificent double borders, a riot of tulips and forget-me-nots in spring, followed by wisteria, roses, scabius and clematis in high summer, and climaxing in a display of salvias and dahlias in late summer and autumn. In the distance, you catch glimpses of All Hallows Church, on the Woolbeding estate.
The pretty Herb Garden has a sundial at its centre and English apples trained up the walls while the Fountain Garden, with its impressive statue of Neptune and dolphins, has colour-themed beds packed with plants. A large greenhouse is filled with unusual orchids and other tender pot plants, and beyond the formal areas is the romantic Pleasure Garden, with a Chinese Bridge, a grotto, a Gothic summerhouse, and a series of waterfalls and rills. There are also some strikingly modern features, like the huge steel water sculpture shaped like a champagne flute, which provides beautiful reflections of the house and garden on its polished sides.
Simon Sainsbury died in 2006, but Stewart Grimshaw uses the house as his weekend home and is closely involved in the garden’s development. ‘We share ideas and work together to improve it,’ says Paul. When I tell him I like to imagine this is how my garden would look if money were no object, he laughs and says, “You’re not first person to say that!” Part of Woolbed-
ing’s charm is that it still feels like a private garden, on a rather lavish scale.’
The garden has something to enjoy right through the seasons. ‘In summer there are the roses and hundreds of Allium atropurpureum, which look amazing. Over the winter we’re taking cuttings of thousands of dahlias, diascias and penstemons, so there will be masses of colour right through until autumn,’ says Paul. ‘It may be an adventure getting to Woolbeding, but I don’t think many people are disappointed by it.’ Woolbeding is open Thursdays and Fridays only until 28 September, 10.30am4.30pm. Prebooking essential, see nationaltrust.org.uk.