The Formal Garden

To the south-east of the house lies the Formal Garden which is surrounded by one of Miss Jekyll’s favourite natural frames, yew hedging. The style here is more structured and disciplined than the Wild Garden and its season, which depends largely on herbaceous perennials, is shorter.

A pergola, festooned with climbing plants, runs from the house to over-look the Rose garden, the Bowling and Tennis Lawns. The planting on the pergola is varied and interesting. On the ten stout oak posts Miss Jekyll's plants roses, aristolochia, jasmine and virginia creeper. This planting makes the pergola a fine and important feature in the garden for an unusually long period. Rosa Jersey Beauty is evergreen and the jasmine holds some leaves at the very start of spring. Throughout the summer roses and aristolochia takes turns in producing flower and foliage, and from autumn until the frosts of winter Virginia Creeper displays glorious crimson and purple foliage.

The drops in levels to the Rose garden, Bowling and Tennis lawns are supported by dry-stone walls which Miss Jekyll planted to give the effect of vertical flower-beds; those plants fill the ares with colour from late February onwards. As summer commences the colours spread to the Rose garden. Here peonies, roses, and lilies fill the area with colour and scent in a breath-taking combination.

Towards the end of summer the two main herbaceous borders take on the spectacular display. Miss Jekyll plannned simple ‘cottage garden’ flowers, including hollyhocks, delphinium, phlox, poppies, campanula and much else, their colours running in drifts from cool whites, blues and yellows at either end to orange and fiery reds in the centres. She was careful to use plants that would fill the space of an earlier flowering plant as the season draws to a close.

Dahlias and helianthus can be bent over a dying oriental poppy, and Gypsophila paniculata also fills empty spaces with a fine white froth of flowers. These borders continue to provide a glorious display until late autumn. Other borders in this area are planted with shrubs and structural plants which give valuable winter shape to the garden. Yucca, rosemary, lavender, olearia and roses are used, and the planting of bergenia is a year round delight.