A great (Dixter) reason for repeat garden visits

All over the country this weekend, you can hear the crash of doors being thrown open as houses and gardens receive the public.  You may have noticed over the past few years an increasing tendency for properties to run a programme of events throughout the summer season in the hope of luring visitors back for a return visit.

OK, it's understandable, and presumably aims to capture local interest, but it does make a lot of properties seem all the same. Several times over the last couple of years while on holiday we've found ourselves folding and unfolding leaflets, looking in vain for information on why we should visit a particular landmark, beyond its generic procession of Easter Egg hunts, face-painting, woodland craft demonstrations and food fairs that makes it sound just like any other visitor attraction.  The National Trust is particularly prone to this.

Great Dixter also opens for 2013 this weekend.  This hardly needs introduction, as Christopher Lloyd's garden has drawn visitors for decades, but if ever a garden had reasons to return built in, rather than cynically manufactured, it's this one.  

At the moment the gardens are on the cusp of bursting into growth. A carpet of crocuses spreads in front of the long border. Borders are orderly and low-slung, waiting the upsurge of vegetation, while primroses, daffodils, hellebores and snowdrops sprinkle the space. (There's always the debate of whether hellebores should have their leaves cut away. Here they do because 1) they suffer from unsightly blackspot and 2) it looks good. The flowers do look particularly elegant without them.)

But come back in a few weeks' time and all will look totally different. Head gardener Fergus Garrett is truly a plant enthusiast, even going to the lengths of measuring the width of tulip leaves to pinpoint the perfect choice for his beds, and much attention is paid to finding combinations that will succeed each other easily. In the Sunk Garden, snowdrops are just going over, but hidden amongst them are euphorbias waiting to hide them from view, while the as yet unemerged Rodgersia will add contrast in colour and leaf.

Fergus has plenty of photographs which show how completely a space will change its character: a dry stone wall that is a mass of ox-eye daisies one month may flow with hypericum and bramble another. Plants grow up and through others, fresh foliage and flowers obscuring with startling distinction the plants that have had their time in the spotlight.

Elsewhere long-season cultivars such as Geranium "Russell Prichard" provide a backbone of colour over several weeks or months. amidst a sea of changing pattern. Christopher Lloyd believed that no gaps, showing bare earth, should be visible from late May on, apart from the most recent replacement plantings. Fergus continues to maintain this tapestry effect.

The result is a supremely skilful and, to a degree, educational display. I say, to a degree, because of course this garden is famous for not inserting plant labels. For Christopher Lloyd, Great Dixter was a home before it was a show garden. Now that he's died, I'm inclined to think a few labels wouldn't go amiss (after all, they don't have to be startling white plastic) but there is an army of students and volunteers who, I've found, are extremely helpful to anyone asking questions. Much of what is grown is also sold in the nursery.

Not everyone is lucky enough to live close enough to Great Dixter to make repeat visits feasible through the summer, but if you are it's worth considering visiting regularly through the open season.

If the far reaches of Sussex are just too much of a drive (and sadly the nearest train stations with bus connections to Northiam are Rye and Hastings), then on April 13th 2013 they are laying on a coach service to meet the 10.15 from Charing Cross at Robertsbridge Station, giving you three hours in the garden before returning you to catch the 16.13.

(For more takes on Great Dixter, have a look at Vegplotting, where you'll find a round-up of posts by the bloggers who enjoyed the same day out as I did.)

Comments

[VP]

If only I were nearer - I'd definitely be repeat visiting to get a grip on the principle of garden layers :)

It was a truly great day and lovely to see you again!

[Anna B]

Hi Helen! It was good meeting you at Great Dixter. I wish I lived nearer too. What a fabulous place. You know I hadn't noticed the lack of plant labels but the next day we went to Wisley where I felt the labels absolutely ruined it. So I hope Great Dixter remains label-less! You're so right about the helpful students and volunteers, we quizzed a couple of them about the lupins before we left!

[Helen]

Hi, VP, even though we're closer it takes a surprising amount of time to get there (more when we're getting lost!), so I doubt if we'll be back there for a bit. Hope to see you on another jaunt soon.

Hi, Anna, lovely to meet you too. I hope you've enjoyed the sojourn south. Funnily enough we alsowent to Wisley a couple of days ago and I absolutely agree about the labels. They just stand out like a forest at this time of year. There must be a happy medium!

[Catherine]

Hello all,

Catherine here (from Dixter) - one thing we often do is turn Maggie's plant ID tests into a jam jar plants of interest thing by the front door- complete with labels (albeit on cardboard)-there is still a feeling that labels around the garden ruin the effect of the borders- so this is a kind of homespun happy medium. We also do a plants in flower leaflet as the season gets going with honesty box by the front door. That way visitors get to choose whether they want more info or not.

Christo's arguement was that people would step into the borders to look at labels, often pinch them- as well as that they look unsightly.

I guess you'll never please everyone but we have been trying to do a bit more :)

xx

[Helen]

Hi, Catherine. It was lovely to meet you last week. Thank you for your response. I wondered if lists of plants were available - great to be able to take it away and scribble notes on it. Plant labels are always contentious and, as Anna pointed out, having seen Wisley recently, Great Dixter looked much more attractive without all the tall labels standing like sentries (label-engendered misbehaviour by the public hadn't crossed my mind!) but home-made labels sound like a good compromise - it's usually the plastic (and garishly illustrated!) ones that look so terrible.

[Naomi]

Hi Helen, I've always found the staff so helpful that I haven't noticed the lack of plant labels. If there's a plant that you've seen and you describe it to someone in the nursery, they'll miraculously know what you're talking about and more often than not, have the plant in stock too!
I didn't get the chance to visit Great Dixter last year and felt like I'd missed out, so will be making supreme efforts to visit again soon. Hopefully if the weather warms up(?), I'll get to see the Tulips doing their thing. Lovely to meet you, and love your post from the day. N x

[Caro]

Hello Helen, It was lovely to meet you and to revisit the day via your post. I was so carried along by Fergus' enthusiasm for his planting that my notes were not as comprehensive as yours! Now that I know I can easily get to Dixter and back in a day (about 2 and a half hours for me), regular visits will be something to look forward to throughout the year. I really have to go back and see the "experimentation" for myself in future months!
PS. For now, I'm for the labels although I agree they spoil the overall look. As a student of garden design, I place great importance on being able to correctly identify a plant for future reference!