Photography by Clare Coulson.
Over the past few years some designers have preferred to label themselves as artists, perhaps viewing their outputs on a different plane from those by their fellow creatives.
It’s a long-running debate on what is deemed worthy of being described “art”; in the late 19th century, it was a hot topic, as the Arts & Crafts movement believed that beautiful design and decorative arts were as worthy of discussion and reverence as fine art or sculpture.
In the Peacock Garden plants reach for the skies, including allium heads that provide a sculptural punctuation point amongst frothier perennials and annuals including cornflowers.
Squeezing through the plants in high summer is all part of the fun. Here, metallic blue eryngium, Briza media, hardy geraniums and clouds of daisies create a joyful moment by the stock beds.
Two cultivars of Cotinus coggygria have been added to the garden’s famed topiary meadow in which crisp yew forms hold court amongst billowing meadow flowers.
In the Sunk Garden, Rosa mutabilis makes a statement with its copper and pink flowers that play against the deep burgundy foliage of physocarpus.
Forget calm and color-themed. Here, intense scarlet roses spill forth over borders.
The Long Border, which swoops along the southeast side of the garden and house, is a bravura orchestration of form, texture, color, and successional planting.
Let your roses ramble and shroud your house in climbers.
Transitions are no less beautiful that the show-stopping borders. Here along the steps up to the Wall Garden, a dazzling display of pots is another lesson in why foliage matters.