I’ve been out to Bourton House Gardens to take a look at some major changes.
Box is proving difficult in many Cotswold gardens – including mine – thanks to blight and the box moth caterpillar. The last time I visited Bourton House Gardens, blight had struck in the knot garden and the gardening team were about to commence a programme of cutting back, feeding and spraying.
It was a battle that proved too much and the Knot Garden, so long a feature of the garden at Bourton-on-the-Hill, has been taken out.
“It was sad but it had deteriorated so much that it wasn’t looking good,” says head gardener Jacky Rae.
More upsetting for Jacky, who has been at the garden for 21 years, was the sudden attack of blight on topiary at the front of the house, leaving it beyond salvage.
“It was so devastating because it was so quick. I hadn’t expected it to happen.”
What it has meant is the chance to do something different, an opportunity the team have embraced. The Knot Garden has been replanted with grasses – sesleria, calamagrostis, molinia and carex – that are a complete contrast to the clipped formality of the box.
“I wanted something green, with a bit of movement in it,” explains Jacky.
Height will eventually come from yew and laurel, which are just beginning to make their mark. Originally, Jacky added pops of colour with Dianthus carthusianorum but the grasses have proved too vigorous. Instead, she is trying salvia.
In the front garden, clipped yew and mop-headed Portuguese laurel have been kept but are now accompanied by a wild flower mix.
It’s added a lot more colour and seasonality to what had been a static display and it’s certainly benefitted the wildlife. The gardening team have also had far less clipping to do, leaving them free to concentrate on the rest of the borders, and a decision to swap from the current annual mix to perennials next year will give them even more time.
Jacky is also trialling a fairly new variety of yew – Taxus baccata ‘Renke’s Kleiner Gruner’ – which is a dwarf form. This has been planted around the outside of the display and will eventually form a low hedge.
So far, the rest of the topiary at Bourton House has escaped the blight although the team are keeping a careful eye on it and will spray at the first sign of problems.
Elsewhere, the garden was as colourful and interesting as my last visit. It’s long been somewhere for beautifully colour co-ordinated borders with the tropical-influenced borders among my favourites.
As a complete contrast, the white garden is a cool combination of white, green and silver.
The very best thing about Bourton House is discovering new plants among old favourites. I have yet to visit without needing to ask the team the name of something unfamiliar.
Bourton House is a garden I’ve seen over many years, through changes in ownership and different head gardeners. It’s typical of the team that they’ve seen the loss of the box not as a setback but an opportunity.
For details of opening hours, visit the website.
Enjoyed this? You can read about more of my garden visits here.
Make sure you don’t miss future posts by joining my mailing list.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2023 Mandy Bradshaw