Garden to visit

With its historic beginnings, vibrant bulbs and hellebore collection, Mottisfont is a fabulous place to visit in winter, says Louise Curley

With its historic beginnings, vibrant bulbs and hellebores, Mottisfont is a must!

Mottisfont is nestled in the idyllic countryside of the Test Valley, near Romsey in Hampshire. The crystal clear water of the River Test, which runs through Mottisfont’s gardens, is a rare habitat – a chalk stream that supports an abundance of flora and fauna. The first inhabitants, a group of Augustinian monks, were drawn to the spot for its fresh water spring, or font. The monks built a priory and monastic gardens, but their land was confiscated after the dissolution of the monasteries and Sir William Sandys, a friend of King Henry VIII, became the new owner. In the 18th century the Mill family, who had inherited the estate, laid out the gardens. They planted trees and created pleasure grounds in the landscape style popularised by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. But the formal gardens you can see today are largely 20th-century creations. In 1934 Maud and Gilbert Russell moved to Mottisfont, modernising the derelict house and commissioning leading garden designers of the day to add further layers to the history of the place. Landscape designer and architect Geoffrey Jellicoe created the pleached lime walk, inspired by the priory cloisters that once stood there, and garden designer Norah Lindsay added a parterre of box

Geoffrey Jellicoe created the pleached lime walk, inspired by the priory cloisters

Anemones, snowdrops and muscari flow around the base of the trees and shrubs

and lavender hedging that resembles a medieval knot garden. Maud gifted the house to the National Trust in 1957. In the 1970s Graham Stuart Thomas, one of the leading horticultural figures of the 20th century, visited Mottisfont. Thomas had a passion for roses and had gathered together a significant collection of, by then, rare old shrub roses, which needed a home. The shelter of Mottisfont’s walled garden proved the perfect spot, creating one of Britain’s most famous rose gardens. At this time of year it’s the turn of the winter garden to wow visitors. In 2010 space was made for a new collection of colourful bark, berries, stems and fragrant flowers – a tonic for the gardening soul. The one-acre garden is based on a series of meandering gravel paths, representing streams that used to flow through this part of the garden. Low-growing pachysandra, vinca and a ribbon of clipped box amplify the effect while drifts of early-flowering anemones, snowdrops and muscari flow around the base of the trees and shrubs. The watery nature of the landscape provides atmospheric morning mists, which rise up over the gardens, and frost dusts colourful dogwoods with sparkling crystals. At Mottisfont the flame-coloured stems of Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ and ‘Anny’s Winter Orange’ are planted in bold drifts and blocks to create dramatic pockets of colour, while the ghostly-white, arching stems of Rubus thibetanus add a wintry contrast. From February, Helleborus hybridus in a myriad hues flower under trees with fabulous bark, from stark white birches to peeling, polished-mahogany Prunus serrula, which glows as it catches the light. Scent is crucial in a winter garden and here at Mottisfont you can enjoy fragrant sarcococcas, spicy-perfumed witch hazels such as H. intermedia ‘Orange Beauty’, yellow plumes of mahonia with their lily-ofthe-valley aroma and sweet-smelling winter-flowering honeysuckles. It’s easy to retreat indoors when it’s cold and grey outside, but tear yourself away from the fire, wrap up warm and you’ll be inspired by a walk through this winter wonderland of plants.