Garden Portrait: Mrs Greville’s Rose Garden

Mrs Greville’s rose garden at Polesden Lacey in the Surrey Hills  is set out in a simple cross pattern, with long, box-edged, wooden pergolas, adjoining seams of ‘Munstead’ and deeper ‘Hidcote’ lavenders, walls draped in clematis and a water tower festooned in an old Chinese wisteria, it is a mass of pink and white in the summer months.

This view is towards the well-head.

Ethel

‘Adélaïde d’Orléans’

Climbing roses

White Double

Lady Alice Stanley

Ramblers

Town: Great Bookham
Postcode: RH5 6BD
County: Surrey
Website: Polesden Lacey House and Gardens

Tree Series #23

Garden Portrait: Polesden Lacey

I have visited Polesden Lacey a few times, but always too late for the wonderful Mrs Greville’s Rose Garden. This National Trust owned property is in Great Bookham, Surrey and designed as the perfect setting for entertaining royalty, politicians and the top dogs of the Edwardian society. Just a little second home then. I’ve never been inside the house where Mrs Greville launched the party house with a royal gathering in 1909 with Edward VII as guest of honour. In the opulent dining room the table is set for this special occasion.

I’m just going to take you for a stroll around the grounds and the formal gardens so grab your parasol and floppy hat and we shall begin.

The House

The present house, a yellow-washed and green-shuttered villa was built in the 1820s, but redesigned for the Grevilles in the French Neo-classical style in 1906. The house stands in a marvellous setting, just below the southernmost ridge of the North Downs and the trees on the lower lawns frame sweeping views over the valley and wooded crest of Ranmore Common.

Rose Garden

Mrs Greville’s roses are a thing of wonder. She was keen to show the foreign dignitaries who visited her house a typical English rose garden. Set out in a simple cross pattern with long, box-edged, wooden pergolas, it was created on the site of the nineteenth century kitchen garden. During the summer months it is a mass of pink, white and crimson. Lavenders, clematis and even wisteria adorn the walls surrounding the garden.

It is enclosed by weathered bricks, statues and a border of lavender. Best in the summer months of June and July. My visit was in late August, but as you can see there was still plenty of colour in the gardens, even if most of the roses had ‘gone over’.

Classical Statues either side of a bench

Classical Statues

The Well Head

Wooden Pergolas

Iris and Lavender Gardens

Within the walled garden are compartments with collections of irises and lavenders. A discus thrower can be found in the lavender garden as well as other statues. A playful sundial situated where several paths converge.

Lavender-edged path

Discus Statue

Playful cupids

Sundial

More musical cupids

The Thatched Bridge

To the west a path leads past herbaceous borders to a winter garden shaded by three large Persian ironwood trees and beyond is a thatched bridge leading to the former Edwardian kitchen garden, now grassed over.

Zinnias

Winter garden – cyclamen

Thatched bridge

Herbaceous Borders

These borders line the pathway back to the house and have recently been restored. The southern half was turned into beds to grow potatoes in WWII but now are back to their former beauty.

At 137m long they are divided into four sections. Pastel colours with spires of yellow achillea, kniphofia and day-lilies. Grey-green yuccas, agapanthus add structure and there are many small shrubs such as whitebeam, smoke-bush and viburnums. Berberis, lilacs and hydrangea provide a succession of flowers.

Yuccas add structure

Ginger lily adds height

Agapanthus

Day lilies

Kniphofia

Colourful border

The Lawns

Mostly used for playing a game of croquet on or lounging on the deckchairs with loads of room for children to run around in safety. With the most wonderful views over the Surrey Hills. You can picnic on the Theatre lawn and in the orchard. More urns and statues and even a Roman bath can be found among the trees and hedges of the lower lawns.

Long Walk

The Long Walk stretches for 0.4km eastward above the valley and was begun in 1761. This walk will transport you back to those Edwardian days as you stroll along the terrace towards the colonnades which originally formed part of the regency house at Polesden Lacey. The views over the valley are worth admiring from the many benches along the way.

Size: 30 acres (12 hectares)

If you like a walk, long or short, then please visit Jo for her regular strolls in the UK and the Algarve and maybe you would like to join in too. She’s very welcoming.

Town: Great Bookham
Postcode: RH5 6BD
County: Surrey
Website: Polesden Lacey House and Gardens

 

Garden Portrait: Painshill Park

On the hottest day this year in the south of England, temperatures rose to 30° C. So I took myself off to Painshill Park in Cobham, Surrey an 18th century landscape garden which was originally created by the Honourable Charles Hamilton between 1738 and 1773. Being only a ten minute drive from my daughter’s house where I was pet-sitting for the week, a walk around the Serpentine Lake and under shady Heritage trees seemed like a good idea, especially with several mystical follies to find. The accessible route is about 1.5 miles but then there is an additional mile or so on the historical route which is steeper and more rugged, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy coming along with me. Just bring some water – it is hot!

Bridge from the car park to the entrance

The garden was designed as a series of ‘moods’ each one leading to the other creating a romantic landscape. Hamilton was a painter as well as a plantsman and was, at the time, in the forefront of the picturesque movement. The landscape was among the earliest to reflect the changing fashion from geometric formality to the naturalistic style. Not much in the way of flowers for me, but none the less a pleasant stroll around a parkland that I suspect will look glorious in a couple of months time dressed in autumn’s glory.

Pretty in Purple

Late August heather on Hindhead Common, Surrey

 

RHS Wisley Glasshouse

For St George’s Day here is another view of one of my favourite English gardens, RHS Wisley in Surrey, the Glasshouse viewed from the Wild Garden.

Indoors you’ll find colourful intricate flowers
Great orchids we have – they’ll entrance you for hours.
Plus cacti and cycads, bananas and climbers
Staghorn ferns – now they’re really old-timers!
Explore the Rootzone where there’s too much to mention.
Outside, tall alliums grab your attention.
At ‘Wild at Wisley’ let young visitors play
Then refresh yourself at the Glasshouse Café.

(from the Visitors Map – Springtime at Wisley)