Surrey Homes | SH58 | August 2019 | Restoration & New Build supplement inside

Garden
A
few years ago a group of us went
to have lunch at Gravetye Manor,
home to the Victorian gardener,
William Robinson. Robinson bought the
Elizabethan house and about 200 acres
in the mid-1880s and the estate, which
he extended, became his life’s work. We
have so much to thank him for as he
was at the forefront of the movement
rebelling against the high Victorian
style of gardening with its regimented
bedding in bright colours ‘highlighted’
with rather incongruous plantings of
exotics grown on in glasshouses. His style,
much followed, was for the more natural,
wilder approach to gardening, which
thankfully still prevails. Two of his books,
The Wild Garden and The English Flower
Garden became best sellers. His approach
to gardening developed in tandem with
Late Bloomers
Sue Whigham gives her tips for glorious autumn colour
Top: Bupleurum fruticosum Above: A blush pink mop head hydrangea
the British Arts and Crafts movement
of the early twentieth century and one
of its more famous local exponents
was Daisy Lloyd at Great Dixter.
But back to lunch that
October at Gravetye...
I felt like a Jack in the Box with the
excitement of the autumn colours in
their fabulous borders and remember
that it was a beautiful day and the beds
really were brimming with so many rich
colour combinations. All late flowerers of
course: amongst them dahlias, aconites
and salvias. I can’t remember what
we ate but those plants and planting
combinations were just lovely.
Aconites really come into their own
from July onwards. One of the first to
flower is the silver-blue A. ‘Stainless
Steel’. I love this plant with its silver blue
hooded flowers. It’s great in July with
peachy day lilies. Another one which
starts into flower in July is A. ‘Spark’s
Variety’. This was introduced by the
famous Riverslea Nursery, founded by
Maurice Prichard who gave his name to
Campanula lactiflora ‘Prichard’s Variety’
and the pink Geranium riversleaianum
‘Russell Prichard’. I’m not sure why
this particular aconite was named
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