Tom Brown, head gardener at West Dean Gardens, and Åsa Gregers-Warg, head gardener at Beth Chatto Gardens pick the places to go to see the best of August's flowers. Read our feature on the best August blooms. and don't miss our piece on the gardening jobs for this month.
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Gardens to visit in August
Chosen by Tom Dean
Special Plants
Derry Watkins’ garden and nursery Special Plants is a delight for plantaholics. Although she gardens on heavy clay, Derry has a real passion for Mediterranean plants, and has created two gravel gardens to show off her extensive collection. The gardens are a real treat for enthusiasts and are open every Tuesday until October. Derry’s nursery is open daily and full of unusual perennials, grasses, and biennials.
Special Plants, Greenways Lane, Cold Ashton, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN14 8LA. Tel 01225 891686, specialplants.net The nursery is now open 10 to 5 Tuesday to Saturday, with no booking needed.
Abbotsbury Subtropical Garden
Although famed for its spring-flowering camellias, and magnolias, Abbotsbury Subtropical Garden is even more exciting in high summer. Hydrangeas and tender perennials steal the show with a diversity and vibrancy that has an appropriately subtropical flavour. The gardens also enjoy stunning views of the Jurassic Coast. Open daily until December when they close for a couple of weeks.
Buller’s Way, Abbotsbury, Weymouth, Dorset DT3 4LA. Tel 01305 871387, abbotsburytickets.co.uk Online booking is advisable but not essential.
Great Comp Garden
You know you’ve made it as a nurseryman or gardener, when your name becomes synonymous with a particular plant. This is true of William Dyson and his collection of salvias at Great Comp Garden. William is curator of the garden in Sevenoaks, and his adjoining nursery offers a huge range of salvias that can be seen in varied garden situations – responding particularly well to the hot, drier conditions of August. Visitors can also explore gardens that wrap around a 17th-century manor house and showcase many unusual perennials, including kniphofias, crocosmias, dahlias and many grasses and shrubs. Comp Lane, St Mary’s Platt, Sevenoaks, Kent TN15 8QS. Tel 01732 885094, greatcompgarden.co.uk. The nursery, garden and tea room are open from 10am to 5pm.
Chosen by Åsa Gregers-Warg
York Gate Garden
Many great gardens have inauspicious beginnings. When Beth Chatto and her fruit-farmer husband Andrew first arrived here at Elmstead Market in the early 1960s, what has become the Beth Chatto Gardens was just a piece of wasteland surrounded by Andrew’s apple orchards.
A similar story lies behind the enchanting York Gate Garden a few miles north of Leeds. Often hailed as one of the finest small gardens in the country, it was acquired by amateur gardeners Frederick and Sybil Spencer in 1951. At the time, it was nothing but a house surrounded by farmland, but with remarkable skill, Frederick and Sybil (and later their son Robin, who was responsible for much of the garden’s design) used hard landscaping, topiary and carefully placed hedges to give the garden its strong architectural elements and bone structure. Strongly influenced by Arts and Crafts gardens such as Hidcote, they divided the one acre into a series of interlinked garden rooms, and added focal points and vistas. After Sybil’s death in 1994, the garden was gifted to Perennial, a charity dedicated to supporting people who work in horticulture, which now owns and manages the garden. What makes this garden so unique is the level of aesthetic vision, plantsmanship and attention to detail, which continues to this day. York Gate Garden manages to feel timeless, yet fresh, brimming with exquisite plant combinations and inspiration.
York Gate Garden, Back Church Lane, Adel, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS16 8DW. Tel 0113 267 8240, perennial.org.uk/garden/york-gate-garden
East Ruston Old Vicarage
At the other end of the spectrum, when it comes to size, is the enormous garden created by Graham Robeson and Alan Gray at their home, East Ruston Old Vicarage Garden, not far from the northeast Norfolk coast. Boasting a staggering 32 acres – I find the seven-and-a-half acres of gardens at Beth Chatto’s more than enough for a small team of gardeners – they started from scratch with a blank canvas when they purchased their home in 1973. Known for their exuberant planting style and sometimes theatrical design, it’s clear the owners enjoy experimenting, and have fun with their different garden rooms. To mark their 50th anniversary at the Old Vicarage, Alan and Graham announced that they will also be leaving the house and garden to the charity Perennial in their wills.
East Ruston Old Vicarage, Norwich, Norfolk NR12 9HN. Tel 01692 650432, eastruston oldvicarage.co.uk
Avondale Nursery
I have a soft spot for sanguisorbas, so a visit to Avondale Nursery on the outskirts of Coventry is always a treat. Not only does the nursery hold the National Collection of Sanguisorba, but its Library Garden gives you the opportunity to see and compare the plants they grow and sell, side by side.
Avondale Nursery, Mill Hill, Baginton, Warwickshire CV8 3AG. Tel 07367 590620, avondalenursery.co.uk
