What’s New at Highnam Court

I hadn’t been out to Highnam Court for more than a year so I knew there would be plenty of changes to see.

The 40 acres near Gloucester around a beautiful listed house have been transformed by owner Roger Head over more than 25 years from a derelict site to a complex garden with many different styles.

I always joke with him that he must be running out of ideas for projects but every time I visit there’s yet another new feature.

This trip was no different. The first change to greet visitors is this long avenue of yellow standard roses leading from an oak arch. It’s been made from a tree that had to be felled with the rest of the wood being turned into one of Highnam’s trademark animal sculptures, this time a bear and cubs.

Another new sculpture, the result of a lightning strike on a cedar, is a dramatic and very large owl.

There are new parterres on the terrace, planted with euonymus rather than the more usual box. Highnam has recently been hit with blight, which Roger is tackling through spraying.

The biggest change is the result of what Roger describes as lockdown boredom. A stretch of lawn between the house and the existing rose garden now has two new beds.

Tons of soil have been shifted to level the ground and create the two 80ft square spaces. Already they’ve been edged with Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald Gaiety’ and are waiting to be filled with white standard and shrub roses, tulips, crocus and narcissi. A Betula utilis Jacquemontii at the centre of each bed completes the white theme.

With the garden normally open regularly for charity it’s a project that may well have not happened without lockdown.

The new roses take the count at Highnam Court to around 4,000 and many are still in flower even at the tail end of summer.

The long rose arbour, which was replanted last year, has pale Rosa ‘The Generous Gardener’ while the surrounding beds have varieties in hot shades of orange, red and yellow teamed with standard R. ‘Blue for You’.

Elsewhere, the roses have been moved out of the parterre beds and replaced with lavender.

“They flowered for two months and looked a mess the rest of the time,” explains Roger.

Despite the roses, there are signs of autumn throughout the garden with leaves turning and late summer flowers in full bloom.

The listed Winter Garden with its water course and Pulhamite rock has many late summer performers. This area was replanted a few years ago and the beds are maturing well.

Another recent addition is the circular beds around the viewing mound. The outer beds are particularly good in late summer with their mix of hot colours contrasting with the pastel shades of the inner borders.

This is not subtle gardening with orange next to yellow next to pink but the sheer scale makes it a dramatic sight.

So, I asked Roger as we finished our tour, surely he had finally run out of ideas?

“Every year for the past 20 I have said ‘It’s done’. Then I find just something else I can do.”

It seems Highnam Court is a garden that’s just going to keep changing.

Highnam Court, near Gloucester, opens on Sunday September 6 for the National Garden Scheme from 11am to 4.30pm. Entry is £5 for adults and payable on the gate, cash only. There will be no refreshments available but visitors are welcome to take a picnic, no barbecues. More details here.

If you can’t visit but enjoyed this look around, please consider donating to the Gloucestershire NGS appeal. All the money will go to support its charities, including many nursing organisations. You can donate here.

Enjoyed this? You can read about more of my garden visits here.

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