Garden to visit
Put Christopher Lloyd’s former home on your must-see list. Melissa Mabbitt explores its reputation for adventurous planting
Great Dixter is famous for adventurous planting. Fergus Garrett shares his insights
Every gardener should visit Great Dixter. This exuberant gem is a masterpiece of late-summer glory, created by a team who continue the vision of one man: the legendary garden writer Christopher Lloyd. ‘Christo’, as friends called him, died in 2006, leaving behind not only a garden that’s fizzing with colour but also a legacy of adventurous horticulture. There’s a palpable sense of delight here. Christo wasn’t afraid to contrast bold colours and didn’t believe they ever clashed, mixing bright, opposing hues without fear. He wasn’t afraid to experiment with unusual and exotic plants either – many of them looking their best in late summer, when the deep borders overflow with unusual forms. It’s made the garden a place of pilgrimage for daring gardeners. The property was bought by Christo’s father in 1910, who commissioned the renowned architect Edwin Lutyens to remodel the old manor house and garden in the fashionable Arts and Crafts style of the day. This approach used simple forms, traditional skills and romantic ideals to create a picturesque home. Although his parents created the garden, ironically it was Christo himself who made it famous. Intent on experimentation, Christo played with expected conventions during his tenure. He famously replaced the rose garden with a subtropical paradise of huge-leaved hardy banana Musa basjoo and tetrapanax, colourful canna lilies and dahlias, and an airy haze of Verbena bonariensis, which ties the whole scheme together. Many of the plants, such as the miscanthus, crocosmias and ferns, are perfectly hardy despite the jungle feel. This part of the garden was created when the current head gardener, Fergus Garrett, first joined Christo at Dixter in the 1990s. Their brave take on the subtropical look has become one of the most influential garden styles of the past 20 years. And though today you can find tropical gardens in even the smallest suburban spaces, the exotic paradise at Dixter still has the power to take your breath away. Within Dixter’s six acres there are plenty of other types of planting to see, all executed with ambition and panache. The approach to the house has been turned into
“Their brave take on the subtropical look has become one of the most influential garden styles of the past 20 years”
a meadow of wildflowers and, early in the year, fritillaries, wild narcissus and camassias flower. This meadow is filled with a beautiful array of common spotted and green winged orchids that have become rare elsewhere. You might just see them before the grass is cut in August, once all the seeds have ripened and fallen. Other meadows at Dixter have been allowed to flourish around quirky yew topiary and an old orchard of apples, pears, plums and hawthorn, mown through with paths. You can also explore walled-off sections of the garden: they aren’t quite ‘rooms’ because there’s still a sense of cohesion and flow between spaces, and views through to other areas and the house itself. There’s a sunken garden complete with formal pool, and a rectangular walled garden with pebble mosaics and potted succulents that hint at the exotic plantings further on. The Solar Garden is a grand experiment in bedding plants. Although annuals are deftly peppered through planting everywhere at Dixter, filling gaps and boosting colour, here they play a starring role. Tall cultivars are planted en masse to create a kaleidoscope of confetti-like petals. They’re changed several times throughout summer to maintain the colour and at this time of year late-summer and autumn starters such as chrysanthemums and asters are introduced. The lower moat is a departure to boggier conditions, where gunnera and American skunk cabbage form prehistoric-looking colonies of massive plants. There’s another damp area known as the Cat Garden, which is home to daintier, moisture-loving plants such as meadow cranesbill, marsh marigold and red comfrey. Another famous and well-photographed sight is the Long Border. It’s several metres deep and escapes into the distance, planted so thickly that no inch of soil is left bare. Plants such as neon-purple cardoons tower at the back, while large clumps of golden rudbeckia, hot-pink dahlias and lychnis are sprinkled with annual cosmos, creating a day-glo tapestry effect. Yellow verbascum spikes flame up from the middle, while more flowers tumble onto the flagstone path. The overall effect is a mind-bending wall of colour.
There are even more unmissable sights around the garden, including the medley of 18 topiary birds that sit on top of yew pyramids, and the ever-changing container display in the house porch. The gardening here is intensive but it’s carried out by gardeners who are clearly dedicated to it. Led by Fergus, they continue to build a garden that challenges your preconceptions, in true Christo style.