“Tulips look great against a formal backdrop”
Head Gardener Glyn Sherratt shares his tips on creating a spectacular spring show
Seventeenth-century Holker Hall, on the edge of the Lake District, is surrounded by historic gardens. Each generation of owners has made their mark, embracing new ideas to keep the gardens evolving.
The Elliptical Garden is a fabulous mix of formality and exuberant planting that erupts with colour each spring. And, while the scale of the gardens at Holker Hall are grand, there’s plenty of inspiration for smaller spaces. Head Gardener Glyn Sherratt tells us more.
How did the garden come about? The Elliptical Garden was originally an Edwardian rose garden created in 1910 by local landscape architect Thomas
Mawson – a prolific Arts & Crafts garden designer. He installed a balustrade, made from local St Bees red sandstone, and divided the area into four large rose beds surrounded by grass paths.
By the 1970s, however, the gardens were attracting more visitors and the paths were turning to mud. Lord and Lady Cavendish also felt the rose planting didn’t provide enough interest, so they decided to redesign the space.
What are the main elements of the Elliptical Garden today? It’s the part of the garden that visitors enter, so the idea was to create an open central space where guided tours and visitors could meet up. There are four benches to sit on, each featuring a different type of slate from the Cavendish family’s quarries. Along the edges of the path are rills made with pebbles from nearby Walney Island, where the family also has connections.
The ellipse shape itself is marked out by hardstanding paths, which divide the area into four sections. The surrounding hedges are mainly yew that started off quite low, but over the years they’ve been allowed to grow taller; it’s quite a windy spot so they provide shelter and create a microclimate. Originally they were topped with spheres but they looked a bit too formal, so for something a bit different we clipped them into what we call ‘iced gems’. ➤
What are the key plants? The topiary gives the garden its structure and formality; a row of pleached limes provides an architectural element; and an espaliered apple arch offers both spring blossom and autumn fruit.
In front of Holker Hall are four trees – Maytenus boaria from South America with pale green spring flowers and red seed capsules. Although we trim them, these are left to grow much more loosely and less formally, which makes for a nice contrast with the topiary.
At the start of the year winter aconites and snowdrops emerge, followed by daffodils and tulips, then alliums, with lilies heralding the move from spring into summer.
We change our bulb colour schemes every year, so we’ll lift the tulips and treat them as annuals. We can’t guarantee they’ll come back every year because they aren’t reliably perennial and if you leave them in the ground you can have problems with tulip fire disease.
We also use biennials such as honesty, wallflowers, forget-me-nots and sweet rocket for added spring colour. We look to use plants that offer another quality
We position scented narcissi and hyacinths near seating areas
when not in flower; such as the strong architectural foliage of Siberian irises, which makes a nice foil for the tulips. At the end of May we’ll remove the biennials and plant out tender salvias and plectranthus, as well as French lavender.
Scent is a big part of the planting every season. For spring we position scented narcissi and hyacinths near paths and seating areas, and in summer there are deutzias, phlox and old-fashioned roses.
How is the garden evolving? Lucy Cavendish (who took over about six years ago) and I have been working our way around the gardens and changing the feel of the various spaces. The Elliptical Garden is next on our list.
We’ll keep the infrastructure of paths and hedges, but we’re going to change the feel of the planting to something more wild and romantic.
We’ve been experimenting with various colour tones – using several different foxglove hybrids that provide a range of purple shades. This gives it a wilder feel because they produce those slightly different colour gradations that you’d see in nature. ✿