Emma’s approach to planting

The garden gets very cold in winter, often falling to -3ºC or -4ºC, and the soil is thin so there are many plants I can’t use. I have a basket of labels (my dead plant cemetery) to remind me of ones that have failed. But the soil is free draining, which means roses, irises and bulbs do very well – especially regal lilies (we also grow martagon lilies in rough grass under beech trees and are trialling Lilium candidum in the arboretum). I have two colour-themed areas – the pink garden and the blue-and-white – and elsewhere I mostly use dark pinks and dark reds and mauves. I don’t like yellow, except in spring, and I don’t use Cyclamen coum as I have plenty of daffodils and find that pink and yellow don’t go together. It’s useful to have a few biennials to fill gaps, either because you’ve moved a plant or you’ve put in something new but it’s still small. We grow some biennials ourselves. Salvia sclarea var. turkestanica, Malva moschata f. alba and Digitalis purpurea (both white and pink) are favourites. We also buy plug plants of things such as violas from Kernock Park Plants (kernock.co.uk) and grow them on.

and Retrain As a Gardener Scheme who come two days a week. Thomas [Unterdorfer, the head gardener] is Kew-trained and takes huge trouble teaching them, so the standard is extremely high.

Thomas persuaded me to expand our composting area so that we have plenty of compost to improve our thin ‘Cotswold Brash’ every autumn. In spring we put leaf mould on, which looks good and improves the composition. What advice do you have for gardeners who are making a garden from scratch? If I were writing a book for those new to designing a garden, I would say first plant a handkerchief tree ( Davidia involucrata). They take 20 years to flower but are so beautiful. In fact the most important thing

is to do as much research as you can on your plant choices, to see if they’ll suit your conditions. It’s better to take your time – I don’t do anything until I’m absolutely sure it’s what I want. If putting up something new, such as a statue or a trough, it’s better to make a template first and try it in position as it will save you time and money. Even if it’s in the middle of the pond, get someone to climb in there with waders on, because it’s difficult to change it once you’ve installed it. USEFUL INFORMATION Address Rockcliffe House, Upper Slaughter, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL54 2JW. Open for the NGS on 7 and 28 June 2017. Web ngs.org.uk

Right Emma uses foxgloves liberally in the borders. Although she generally dislikes yellow except in spring, she makes an exception here for the selfseeding, yellow Welsh poppy ( Papaver cambricum), which she loves for being ‘sweet and light’.

The sunken garden to the side of the house is framed in early summer by a band of Iris ‘Silver Edge’. The central pool is shaded by a delicate canopy of six Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’ trees.