A visit to Great Dixter

Exactly a year ago, Maria and I were holidaying in Rye, in East Sussex on the Kent border.  Northiam, home to the late Christopher Lloyd's fabulous garden, was only a short trip away.  How could I resist making what would likely be my one and only pilgrimage to a garden I'd only seen in his many books and other writings.

I was not disappointed.

The iconic long border and house view

It's hard to categorise a garden based on a single image but the above view along the long border back to the house reminds me of what I experienced.  Abundance.  Density of planting to leave no bare earth.  A clever mixture of annuals, perennials and shrubs to provide a painterly palette of colour and interest.

Even in early summer there was colour everywhere.  In the High Garden...

...around the pond in The Sunk Garden...

...in the borders round the front meadow...

..and repeated in the container collection at the front door to the house.

One of the practices Christopher Lloyd was famous for was mixing the formal with the informal, no better demonstrated than in the Topiary Lawn.  Here are combined clipped yew shapes and wildflower meadow abundance.

Judging by the number of Common spotted orchids, Dactylorhiza fuchsii, in the grassy areas the wilding experiment has proved a success.

The garden round the house is a little bit of a maze, with narrow paths leading from one small area to the next.  Just a few steps and the another vista is revealed.  

Path from the Sunk Garden to the Wall Garden

The Blue Garden

Needless to say, it gets a bit crowded at times.  How I got the visitor free shots I did was a matter of patience and taking the shot the instant it presented.

How does it compare with The Garden House?  Well, the climatic conditions are rather different, Great Dixter being drier and warmer in summer than our wetter, milder edge of Dartmoor garden.  We're on an acid soil tempered by liberal applications  of annual mulch, Great Dixter's is more neutral to slightly acid and thus less suited to growing Camellias, Rhododendrons and other calcifuge plants.  Both gardens have an emphasis on biodiversity to maintain the ecological balance.  And both are plantsman's gardens, showcasing a wide diversity of plants and plantings in both formal and informal settings.  Above all, both are great gardens and I'm glad I could finally visit to enjoy the contrast.

 And then the mizzle drifted in

Mizzle is that combination of fine rain and mist so common on Dartmoor and its surroundings that it has its own noun.  It certainly makes photography at The Garden House interesting at times.  So it was on Monday when I was in for my regular weekly visit.

When I arrived it was very light fine rain but no mist yet.  I can easily work in that and it does tend to saturate the colours so I went out and started getting my shots.  Images like this...

A bench in the Cottage Garden in front of a Cornus kousa dogwood

...or this

More dogwood with Rodgersai pinnata in the Birch Wood area

Clear, clean, without the harsh shadows of a sunnier day I was happy with them for our weekly Facebook and Instagram posts.

And then the mizzle drifted in.  Light at first, a distant haze in the background of the Acer Glade.

Getting heavier as I worked my way through the Walled Garden, the mist component of the mizzle fading out the background.

Until the rain got heavier as I reached the end of the lake in the Arboretum.

Time to call it a day for the garden scene shots.

Having said that the conditions also generated some rather lovely plant portraits, the combination of soft light and the fine droplets of mizzle bringing the images to life.

An Iris sibirica variety we've lost the name of.

Moraea alticola, one of the Cape irises that's survived our frosts and snow

Stewartia sinensis, just opening to show the golden stamens

A deciduous and heavily scented Azalea (name unknown, I'm afraid)

The mark of a great garden is to be beautiful no matter the conditions.  By that criterion The Garden House is a great garden.

Paulownia kawakamii - the Sapphire Dragon tree

Paulownia kawakamii at The Garden House

The arboretum at The Garden House is still relatively new 25 years after it was created from what used to be a nursery and otherwise uncultivated area. Many of the trees are not yet fully mature but for me one has stood out over the last ten plus years that I've been photographing this wonderful garden.

For most of that time I've admired it for its rapidity of growth and the massive leaves, far bigger than the smaller and far more common Paulownia tomentosa, the foxglove tree.

Then, last year, came the first flowers.

Large, pale blue and very exotic looking, they were a bit more sparse in their first year of flowering but have made up for it this year, smothering the branches as the flowers erupt from hairy brown buds.

The display lasts for about three weeks during May, and, unlike its commoner relative is usually late enough that the risk if frost has passed by the start of the flowering season.

Originating from Taiwan and Southern China, it's endangered in the wild, and the best hope of survival is in cultivation.  But for that you'll need a fair bit of room.  Looking at the UK literature it's described as a small to medium hardy deciduous tree. Hardy yes, deciduous yes, small to medium?  Not judging by our specimen growing in the cool damp conditions of the western edge of Dartmoor.  How big it will end up we don't know but it's already massive.  So one for a very large garden, park or other public planting to provide a late spring display to rival the Jacaranda displays of Mediterranean and sub-tropical gardens.

 

 The terraced gardens at Powis Castle

Last September (2025) we spent a few days on the Welsh border near Shrewsbury.  Within easy distance, near Welshpool, is the National Trust property of Powis Castle.  Renowned for its massive terraces, this is a garden I've long wanted to visit.  I was not disappointed.

Seen from the lowest part of the garden the terraces sweep up the hillside, each level linked by steps and pathways.  For 75 year old me getting down and getting back up again (entry is at the top) was a little bit of a struggle but I managed.

As the terracing is bounded by brick walls, stonework and paved pathways each of the terraces benefits from a warmer microclimate than would be expected from mid Wales.  And this has been exploited to use more tender exotics in the broad borders on each terrace.  My type of gardening!

Individual terraces are broad, allowing lawns on some, such as this one in front of the conservatory.

With space available giant containers filled with a host of interesting tender annuals and perennials are a prominent feature.  I'd like to try some of the planting combinations in our own garden if we only had the room.

And every terrace offered a view across the valley to the hills beyond.  Breath taking, given the contrast in early Autumn colour with the garden's Japanese maples and the natural landscape beyond.

If I lived more closely this is a garden I'd visit time and again.  The only downside?  Maria couldn't come with me as the terraces are not disabled friendly.

Gardening with Passion

Passion flowers that is.  Two years ago I lost a massive Abutilon 'Waltz' on my south facing rear house wall.  Not to frost but to an Atlantic gale that whipped it out of the ground.  At it's peak it was magnificent and I still mourn the loss.

The question then became what to replace it with.  And the answer came in the shape of a visit to the now sadly defunct Hill House nursery.  They had two fairly new passion flowers in the greenhouse, both allegedly hardy, and both bred to stay open for two to three days rather that the one day with Passiflora caerulea.

I bought one of each.  White 'Snow Queen'...

...and blue 'Clear Sky'

Don't they make a lovely couple.

They did well last year while establishing but with one comparatively mild winter out of the way they've exploded to cover a good chunk of the wall in their planting corner.  Now hung with a myriad of flower buds and the first couple of flowers already out they're promising to produce a fantastic display this summer.  And, yes, the individual flowers do last up to three days.

Oh, and they're also encroaching on a space occupied by my plant of Clematis florida var. sieboldiana 'Viennetta', a passion flower look alike I have growing on an adjacent wall and also coming up for flowering.

It will be interesting to see them side by side as a group of hardy exotic climbers for milder UK gardens.

More Eye Candy from The Garden House

It's been two years since I last posted on my gardening blog.  I did think that it was time to put it to bed but the old posts keep attracting interest, I've revived my photography blog, and temptation has got the better of me.  But I will shift the emphasis from my own garden to garden visits and scenes from The Garden House, the Devon garden I volunteer at as their photographer, website maintainer and assister with marketing and promotion.  

One of the things I do is a weekly Facebook/Instagram post with vistas from the garden.  The 10 acre garden changes as the seasons develop through the year so I'll make these views a regular feature, together with shots from other gardens in the area, planting combinations and ideas I like and other musings.

But first, to kick it off again, some shots from The Garden House (April 20th or 27th). Click to embiggen.

The Arboretum lake with bog bean in front

The Rhododendron Walk

At the base of the Acer Glade

View from the Wisteria Bridge to the wedding cake trees

View across the second lawn to the Rhododendron Bank

View from the second terrace of the Walled Garden

View across the top lawn

View along the top terrace of the Walled Garden

The first of the many Wisteria in flower in the Walled Garden