We may have had a difficult growing season but it hasn’t held back the display at Waterperry Gardens. There was plenty to see on my recent visit, proving that autumn gardens can be every bit as colourful as those in summer.
The long colour border is one of the standout features at Waterperry and it didn’t disappoint. Helenium, rudbeckia, hylotelephium, and asters of every shade fill this densely planted border.
A seep hose had helped during the drought and Head Gardener Pat Havers is pleased with the result: “Some of the asters could be a little higher but there’s a lot of colour.”
Even so, she’s planning to move a couple of particularly late flower asters, including ‘Silver Spray’, as they miss the main display.
The nursery stock beds were looking particularly good with a mass of pink, mauve, purple and white.
Given Waterperry’s history as somewhere to learn – it was set up as a horticultural school in the 1930s by Beatrix Havergal and Avice Sanders – the practice of labelling everything, both in these beds and the rest of the borders is understandable. It makes a visit educational as well as enjoyable and I saw several visitors taking notes.
High on my list for the visit was seeing the dahlia beds that were started in the Walled Garden a couple of seasons ago. Unfortunately, disaster in the form of red spider mite has struck this year and they were not at their best.
The team have put on a biological control and the plants are beginning to recover: “They’re coming back but the impact is not as it should be and, being dry, they’re not as tall as they were last year.”
Despite this, I saw a couple that have now gone on my ‘must buy’ list. I fear my dahlia collection is set to grow.
I was surprised to see the box in the Formal Garden was still in place and looking pristine. So much of it has been damaged or removed in gardens I’ve visited across the Cotswolds after attacks by blight and box tree caterpillar.
New since my last visit is a complete change in planting in Miranda’s Border at one end of the waterlily canal.
“It was a mishmash of things and a lot of oranges and yellows. We realised they clashed with the waterlilies,” explains Pat.
Yew pillars on the edge of the canal have been removed to give a clearer view, and the yew behind the border has been filled in to give a backdrop to the planting.
The mixed planting starts with white tulips and continues with perennials and shrubs, while specially commissioned obelisks planted with climbers add height.
While the historic elements of Waterperry remain largely unchanged bar tinkering with planting, it does not mean the garden is standing still. A long border near the entrance was lying fallow on my visit – part of the effort to rid it of bindweed and ground elder. It’s due to be planted up this autumn as a winter/spring border with snowdrops, shrubs and trees chosen for their interesting bark.
A bigger project is revamping the Rose Garden where the planting is showing signs of age. As a way of combatting rose replant sickness, the team have decided to swap the lawns and borders to avoid putting roses back in the same place.
“Where the beds are, we’re going to make them the grass,” says Pat, “and where the grass is, make them the rose beds.”
A bonus will be moving rose beds away from the yew hedge making cutting it far easier. Again, it’s a project planned for later this year.
I think another trip to Waterperry will be needed next year to see how the changes have worked.
More information about opening times for Waterperry Gardens can be found here.
You can read about more of my garden visits here.
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Brenda Jones, a Gloucestershire lady gardener, was in the first cohort of ladies to train at Waterperry. Brenda was one of the founding members of the Western Counties Hardy Plant Society group which goes from strength to strength. She enthused many raw gardeners including me. Sadly, she passed away earlier this year.
I knew it had some illustrious alumni, such as Pamela Schwerdt and Sibylle Kreutzberger who went on to be head gardeners at Sissinghurst but I hadn’t heard of Brenda. Thank you for sharing the info! 🙂