WALTZ OF THE FLOWERS A romantic garden with a traditional parterre

WALTZ OF THE FLOWERS

Come midsummer, the gardens at Westbrooke House dance with a troupe of lively perennials, nimbly choreographed by owner Joanne Drew

WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY NICOLA STOCKEN

A curving path passes between box-edged beds with a textural tapestry of plants including alliums, laceflowers, foxgloves, lychnis and toadflax

The parterre features a formal arrangement of differently shaped beds around an arbour

CREATE A PARTERRE FLOWER GARDEN

Ingredients for structure and framework:

Arbour, obelisks, fruit tunnels, George James Blacksmiths Cistern panel lead fountains, Redfields English Leadwork Self-binding paths, Breedon Special Aggregates Eight giant yew columns, yew and box hedging plants Pleached Malus ‘Evereste’ pear trees Roses and peonies, clematis, giant scabious, meadow rue, laceflowers, delphiniums, phloxes, mallows, lychnis, sea hollies, toadflax, alliums and yarrows

■ With symmetrical beds divided by pathways, this parterre is a productive flower and vegetable garden that reflects the character of the late-Victorian house ■ Vertical interest comes from yew columns, pleached crab apples, pear trees, redbuds and climbing roses ■ An intricate layout of pathways affords close-up views of individual plants and planting combinations ■ Smaller central diagonal pathways slow your pace and direct the eye to different views across the garden ■ The beds are planted for interest, opening with tulips and alliums, followed by peonies, roses and herbaceous perennials, then dahlias until first frosts ■ The sound of running water in the lead cisterns is an essential, calming element in this romantic garden

A brick doorway draws the eye from the kitchen garden to the parterre

This wood store is flanked by a border of astilbes, feather grasses, salvias and golden oats

There is something dreamlike about wending through the giant-sized oak frames straddling the path in the Drews’ lower garden. ‘As you approach each picture frame, it feels like a journey during which a series of views are unveiled, and your pace inevitably slows,’ says Joanne.

It is almost a decade since Joanne, a dance teacher and examiner, and her husband, Bryan, drove down the avenue of spectacular limes and giant redwoods planted when Westbrooke House was built in 1887 on the outskirts of Market Harborough. The house rests within a six-acre plot overlooking countryside – to one side a lower garden, and to the other a walled garden, a former tennis court. ‘It is the walled garden that brought us here,’ Joanne recalls.

The couple envisaged restoring the walled garden as a Victorian-style cutting garden and, guided by designer Rebecca Winship, subsequently created a contemporary lower garden inspired by a visit to the Great Broad Walk Borders at Kew. ‘I liked the planting on a diagonal, with blocks of colour in blues and oranges, purples and yellows,’ says Joanne.

Rebecca planned a contemporary design with prairie-style planting that would create beautiful views from the house. ‘Rebecca’s first design placed the summerhouse across the diagonal, but we wanted it parallel to the steps, to screen us from our neighbour,’ says Joanne. A sinuous path, made from self-binding gravel, leads through beautiful borders, embracing en route two oval-shaped lawns.

The path is punctuated by an unadorned oak pergola. A rill stretches from the raised patio towards the steps, built according to a sketch by Joanne. ‘I originally wanted a rill running throughout the lower garden, but decided against it because of the high maintenance,’ she says. Bespoke metal casings direct the flow of the inky water into a central bubbling fountain, with enclosed slates radiating out like the sun. ‘The builder spent many days tapping in the slices of slate to form the rays.’

Before the Victorian walled gardens were restored in 2014, Rebecca presented two designs. The first was a layout of rectangular or square beds, while the second introduced a central, circular arbour with curving paths and hedging pirouetting out to meet a linear arrangement of beds. ‘We preferred the marriage of straight-sided beds, enclosing curving beds and paths that frame a central arbour,’ says Joanne.

The walled vegetable garden with a Victorian-style greenhouse is adjacent to the flower garden, but the boundary is not symmetrical. ‘The design needed to draw the eye into the garden and not to the boundary and beyond,’ says Rebecca. So, by setting the pathways and greenhouse at a 45-degree angle, they connect with the diagonal paths within the flower garden, extending the views from one garden to another. ‘The style complements the flower garden. I didn’t want it to jar when you walked through,’ says Joanne.

In a shady courtyard nearby, Joanne has amassed a collection of some 200 miniature hostas. ‘I love the variety of leaf colours and shapes – all are green, but each one is so very different,’ she says. ‘I’ve sourced a lot more during lockdown, and am now well and truly hooked.’ It is another facet to an old garden into which new life has been breathed. ‘It has become incredibly important to us both,’ says Joanne, ‘and there’s rarely a day we don’t venture out.’ &

■ Westbrooke House opens in aid of the National Garden Scheme on 20 June, ngs.org.uk. For group bookings, email jwsd1980@hotmail.co.uk

GARDENS

“PARTERRE GARDENS HAVE A FUNCTION AND BEAUTY THAT IS TIMELESS AND CONTINUES TO DEVELOP

OVER THE YEARS” REBECCA WINSHIP, garden designer

GARDEN GUIDE

ORIENTATION The walled parterre, lower garden, main house and sweeping lawns face south. SOIL TYPE A clay base runs throughout, but having long been cultivated, it is well-drained loam. SPECIAL FEATURES Original Victorian walled flower and kitchen gardens, natural pond, lawns, collection of miniature hostas, woodland paths and mature trees, and a contemporary lower garden overlooked by a summerhouse from HSP Garden Buildings. GARDEN DESIGN Rebecca Winship (rebeccawinshipgardendesign.co.uk, 07876 416837), whose original design and planting have been developed by the owners, Joanne and Bryan Drew, and gardener Juliet Douglas

In the lower garden, a pergola of oak frames weaves through lush borders featuring aconites, daylilies, dahlias and salvias

Oak cloches protect vulnerable crops in the kitchen garden, which includes sweet peas, broad beans and a cage planted with raspberries

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PLANT PROFILES

Cottage garden favourites from Westbrooke House

1. Best for compact golden flowers Achillea ‘Coronation Gold’ has a second flush of flowers, if deadheaded. 2. Best for soft ground cover Geranium nodosum ‘Clos du Coudray’ bears violet, trumpet-shaped flowers. 3. Best for a long season Salvia microphylla ‘Wild Watermelon’ carries spikes of bright magenta flowers. 4. Best for pretty pinks Astrantia ‘Roma’, a herbaceous perennial with papery flowers in chalky white and pink. 5. Best for frothy white Ammi majus presents cow parsley-like umbels above finely cut foliage. 6. Best for steely blues Aconitum ‘Stainless Steel’, a sturdy cultivar with cream-lined, silvery blooms. 7. Best architectural plant Angelica archangelica is a statuesque biennial that self-seeds once settled. 8. Best for dried flower displays Eryngium bourgatii, a prickly perennial with violet flowers above deeply cut leaves. 9. Best for obelisks Clematis viticella ‘Dark Eyes’ is a great climber with sumptuous velvety purple flowers.