Arundel Castle

gardens: sussex Pots in the Collector Earl’s Garden are planted with Crown Imperials at the centre, surrounded by ‘Purple Prince’ and ‘Lilac Time’ tulips, edged with forget-me-nots.

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the english garden April 2015

Spring

stunner â–˛

Thousands of tulips create an ever-changing display in April at the gardens of Arundel Castle PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS | WORDS PATTIE BARRON

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LEFT, FROM TOP Tulipa ‘Apeldoorn’; ‘Paul Scherer’; ‘El Nino’; ‘Olympic Flame’. ABOVE The parterre in front of the Victorian vine house is filled with stunning displays, including tulips ‘Passionale’, ‘Mistress’, Paul Scherer’ and ‘Bastogne’.

T

he Tulip Festival that takes place at Arundel Castle, home to dukes of Norfolk for more than 1,000 years, is nothing short of sensational. It is the result of the planting of more than 15,000 tulip bulbs the previous year. Take a bow, head gardener Martin Duncan, your dedicated staff of six, and volunteers including a local troupe of West Sussex girl guides.

Every April and May, within the 40-acre grounds of this historic castle that overlooks the River Arun and the South Downs, there are tulips everywhere. They pop up in the wildflower garden, growing along the outside wall of the Victorian vinehouse; they colonise the ancient roots of the upside-down stumpery; and form low walls of colour at the base of the espaliered apple tunnel.

There are flamed, flamboyant parrots such as ‘Rococo’ creating a riot in the tropical borders. ‘White Triumphator’ is mixed with scented ivory wallflowers in the all-white gardens by the Fitzalan Chapel, and cheery red and yellow ‘Apeldoorn’ tulips light up the kitchen garden. In the cut-flower garden, an elegant spread of white ‘Wildhof’ and deepclaret ‘Negrita’ tulips, as well as other more colour-clashing displays, compete with a jampacked bed of mauve and lemon Dutch irises.

gardens: sussex

Perhaps the main event, though, is within the Collector Earl’s Garden, where nearly 2,500 tulips in rich pinks, velvety plums and majestic purples are displayed in outsized terracotta pots along the upper terraces, edging the water rills.

It is a jaw-dropping sight, but truth 15,000 tulips planted 1611. Peek inside to to tell, this comparatively new part within 40 acres of discover a shell-lined grotto, of the garden - just seven years old castle grounds with a coronet spinning would make your heart stop even if it a b o v e w a t e r jetting from was stripped bare of every last tulip a stalagmite fountain. bulb and fan palm.

Big, bold architectural plants - cannas, fatsias, The current Duke and Duchess of Norfolk bananas, silvery astelias and tree ferns - are the commissioned the dynamic husband-and-wife design team Julian and Isabel Bannerman to mainstay of the Collector Earl’s Garden that create the Collector Earl’s Garden, which loosely work so well with its scale and pomp. So head and playfully evokes a formal Jacobean garden. gardener Martin is aware that the bulb displays It is pure theatre, with exuberant features in beds, borders and containers need to fashioned from green oak to resemble rustic complement both the permanent planting and bravura landscaping. stone: a hunting temple topped with deer The gardens are open to the public from the antlers, a colonnade of fountains and water rills, a series of urns holding spiky metal agaves and end of March, earlier than the tulips, so Martin a lengthy domed pergola planted with hornbeam chose aptly named Crown Imperials in their bright primaries of orange and yellow, as well as to curve around the arches.

Look across the green lawn, its grass mown in the bi-streaked ‘Striped Beauty’, to kick-start the a spiral to create a swirling labyrinth, and spy season and supply the required presence in those huge terracotta pots, shipped from Italy. a green oak version of Oberon’s Palace, The Crown Imperials are also a nod to the a fanciful building designed by Inigo Jones for Prince Henry’s Masque on New Year’s Day in similarly architectural metal agaves nearby that

GARDEN NOTES

TOP The blossom of espaliered apples complements the white ‘Françoise’ and purple ‘Attila’ tulips beneath.

ABOVE Red and orange ‘Apeldoorn’s Elite’ and ‘Beauty of Apeldoorn’ tulips in the parterre.

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as Allium cristophii shooting up like fireworks from a sea of ‘Hidcote’ lavender within a box parterre in the cut flower garden.

In high summer, the herbaceous borders are country-garden pretty, with soft blues, whites and pinks of salvias, geraniums, lupins, delphiniums, catmint, alchemilla and thalictrum, which contrast with the hot tropical borders in the Collector Earl’s Garden. The white garden, meanwhile, is a dreamy melange of foxtail lilies, white cosmos, Iceberg roses and Cleome hassleriana ‘Helen Campbell’. July is poppy season, with at least six kinds of poppies on show, from Flanders scarlet to sultry black opium poppies; and later, the dinner-plate dahlias and fan-trained pears, cherries and Sussex varieties of apple are a huge draw.

But head gardener Martin reserves his plaudits for tulips, and this year launches a brand new area packed with large displays in time for the Tulip Festival. ‘Tulips masquerade as different flowers,’ he says. ‘Visitors always think my favourite, the soft-pink ‘Angélique’, is a peony!’

RIGHT, FROM TOP The stumpery is filled with woodland plants such as cowslips and foxgloves; the Victorian vine house is home to peaches, vines, aeoniums and pelargoniums; the Bannermans designed many of the features of the garden, including this oak temple decorated with deer antlers; carved details abound in the oak work.

Arundel Castle, Arundel, West Sussex BN18 9AB. The gardens reopen on Saturday 28 March 2015.

Tel: +44 (0)1903 882173. www.arundelcastle.org ▲

Turn over for top tulip tips

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gardens: sussex

ARUNDEL castle notebook BEE MAGNET Echiums grow to 3m here. They attract bees and butterflies, and add drama to the old, upside-down tree roots in the stumpery. Martin keeps a stash of potted echium foliage crowns in the polytunnel through winter to boost supplies in the garden at the end of tulip time.

WOOD YOU BELIEVE IT This gently curving bench, one of several in the gardens, looks like it is made of stone but, like the temples, pillars, pergola, urns and fountains in the Collector Earl’s Garden, it is carved from green oak, and was designed by Julian and Isabel Bannerman.

CROWNING GLORY Shell mosaics line the walls inside Oberon’s Palace, which overlooks the Collector Earl’s Garden. At the centre, a gilded coronet appears to dance perpetually on top of a jet of water from a fountain that emerges from stalagmites.

GARDEN CHALLENGES IMPROVING THE SOIL: ‘The soil here is quite chalky,’ says Martin, ‘but adding well-rotted organic manure every year has lowered the pH, added nutrients and encouraged earthworms, so we can grow a wider range of plants, and they are strong and healthy as a result.’

ALSO IN THE AREA If you are visiting Arundel Castle, Martin Duncan recommends: ● GARDEN Parham House & Gardens Four-acre walled garden with spring bulbs at the same time as Arundel’s Tulip Festival. Storrington, near Pulborough, West Sussex RH20 4HS. Tel: +44 (0)1903 742021. www.parhaminsussex.co.uk ● NURSERY Ferring Nurseries Family owned nursery with shrubs, perennials and alpines raised on site. Littlehampton Road, Ferring, West Sussex BN12 6PN. Tel: +44 (0)1903 241122. www.ferringnurseries.co.uk ● CRAFTS Two Circles Design Garden sculptures from coppiced willow, sweet chestnut and hazel. 30 Top Road, Slindon, Arundel, West Sussex BN18 ORP. Tel: +44 (0)1243 814161. www.twocirclesdesign.co.uk

MARTIN’S TOP TULIP-GROWING TIPS ● Letting tulips dry out in pots is a common mistake. Early in the year, you think everything’s wet all the time, but it’s not, so make sure they have enough water. ● Good drainage is essential for tulips in pots. I recommend three parts John Innes No. 2 or similar soil-based compost, mixed with one part grit, with added drainage at the bottom of the pot. ● If you want to ensure your tulip bulbs flower, you must plant them at least 10cm deep, whether in containers or in the ground - especially if you want to keep them in the ground for the following season. ● We change our container bulbs every year. This keeps the displays looking fresh for visitors, but also the bulbs decrease in size, so we reuse them in other areas of the garden where the impact is less important.

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the english garden April 2015